A glimpse into the past 5 months

Hello Goodness Collective community

I realize that its been quite a while since my last post.

From Bali I eventually made my way to East Bali. Spun some fire with Mike and Tam...it was great to spend time with them! Mikee and I had an extraordinary day exploring Bali on our sweet scooters! His was a fabulous pink,and mine was not orange. Oh well.




I left Mike, Tam, Trav and Merrlie in Pemutaran Bali and headed on to Java.
Java is an intense, heavily populated island. However, I had some great experiences there.

This is Mt. Bromo:



And a Buddhist temple at the base of Bromo, clearly an active volcano. All of this in a predominantly Muslim country.



One morning I woke up and decided I was leaving for Sumatra. I went on a mission to find a cheap flight. For unknown reasons I decided to also check tickets to Vietnam which was my next destination after Indonesia. Tickets to Vietnam were even cheaper than to Sumatra. For a budget hound like myself, that was a serious dilemma. And I was only going to Sumatra to keep moving. I decided to go have lunch and think about it. Upon arrival at the restaurant I met a girl who, after 10 minutes of conversation invited me to do a three day scooter trip with her to see an incredible Buddhist temple:



and climb the most active volcano in Indonesia (it erupts every 7 years). She was leaving in an hour. So I had lunch, packed up, rented a scooter and was ready before she was. its in my top five experiences do far on this trip.










I never actually went to Vietnam. I flew to Bangkok instead where I encountered this sign:


and then on to Cambodia.


I was stoked to arrive here! The people were so engaging. I made some fabulous friends.



and ate some tasty duck fetuses.




Of course I went to see Angkor Wat.







But mostly, I was interested in finding a place to engage, and be a part of something. I did a bit of research in Indonesia and I found nothing that aligned well with my interests.

Cambodia was different. A week into my stay I found the Self Help Community Center (www.shcccambodia.org), and the wonderful village of Kra Bie Riel.

For the most part of that first month I stayed in the village with the director's family. It was beautiful time. No electricity, so for the first time in years I was going to bed consistently at 9:00 and waking up between 6:30-7:00. The latter only occurred as a direct result of at least five resident roosters who got started around 4:30 am and went on until 7:00 am. Every day held some sort of new experience. There was always a celebration to go to, a potluck at the community center or a festival at the pagoda. And if nothing else, some nights I would go down to the market and hang with a few locals, drinking rice wine and I would try to decipher their conversations.




While in the village I plowed a rice field.




Hung out with some talented basket weavers.



Ate good food!


Slept here:



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Between then and now: I took a break from this blog post and walked down the street. I received a phone call from a Cambodian friend. He told me to meet him in 5 minutes just down the road. So I did, we sped off to a restaurant where a few government officials were hanging out. Fortunately I'd been briefed on appropriate Khmer behavior around officials. The one next to me was the prime ministers personal body guard. We had some chit chat in Khmer...and got along nicely. Before I left he promised me the full protection of the Cambodian government no matter what I got myself into.
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I love lounging in my village neighbor's extremely comfy chair.


Community Center potlucks!



Seriously, these kids can cook! Spring rolls filled with mint, beef, flowers and beansprouts, meat stuffed omelets dipped in a fabulous peanut sauce, and raw minced fish with handfuls of ants chopped into the mix:




Rice wine (equivalent of moonshine)



Played some Wagon Wheel:



Recruited volunteers (Filipio from Italy)



Had fresh coconuts (30 seconds after I started climbing one coconut tree they politely begged me to come back down. Another astonishingly capable gentleman climbed the tree in less than a minute and retrieved the goods) :



After a month of that, it was time to go do a visa run. I decided to go to Laos.

So they threw me a "Steele(they can't pronounce the v) Tao(goes to) Laos" party.



A police officer stopped by for a few shots. But only after he was forcefully dragged into the group (ultimately he seemed ok with the idea):


The party was complete with a volunteer dj:



We danced a bit (I played it cool...there were alot of older conservative folks there)


And later on they brought in a five gallon bucket to give rhythm to some Khmer classics.


And then there was Laos.


The Mekhong was soothing and glorious!





I worked in a bar for a week.







Climbed some mountains and meditated.






Saw beautiful Buddha statues



Ate great food (this meal of fresh fish and sticky rice satiated myself and a friend ,$2 total)



Had a great bike ride!



There were U.S. bomb shells everywhere. They used them for decorations around their yard, they sold them for scrap metal, and placed Buddhas on them.





Tried a few bamboos grubs.



And then went back to Cambodia.

It was good to be back on my bike, riding the 40 minutes to and from the village.




An English teacher at the Self Help Community Center



Lunch at a friend's house in the village.



Some wonderful volunteers from Scotland. They're going to get a coconut tree.








And so here I am. I love the Self Help Community Center (www.shcccambodia.org). Their organic garden is extraordinary, the organization is amazing and their staff are rad. They give free education to over 600 children and live on incredibly low salaries. Their dedication is amazing. The director's goal is to help bring his community together and give them a chance to rise out of their current poverty. He also plans to have the cleanest village in the district, and he is well on his way.

My title is Volunteer Coordinator. I basically recruit/screen potential volunteers from the nearby city of Siem Reap. I also give them a bit of an orientation about the school and then upon their arrival I help coordinate what activities they will be a part of. There was a definite need for someone to fill this position. I have found that volunteers are often unaware of how disruptive they are. Unfortunately there is a mentality prevalent among travelers of going into rural villages, taking closeup shots of locals and objectifying the residents. This is sometimes hailed as "getting off the beaten track". Many volunteers do not realize that they do the same with the children studying at the SHCC. This is where I come in. It my job to keep disruptions to a minimum and entertain visitors that would otherwise take upwards of 6 hours out of the director's day.

I now live in the city in a small apartment room sporting a bed (with royal pink sheets), an indoor squat toilet and a large barrel from which I take my bucket bathes. The director, a great friend, shares the room with me (rent is $40 a month).

My days consist of waking up around 8:00, going out to a soup shop and having breakfast (I miss omelets and cheese, especially cheese!). I then hop on my bike and run a few errands before making the 40 minute ride to the village. My ride is generally amazing. There are two deep fried, battered banana stands on my route and rarely do I pass without purchasing one. The women know me well at this point and seem quite surprised on the rare occasion that I pass-up their stands. Also, there are almost always groups of students riding back to the village from morning classes, and my Khmer has improved to point where we can discuss their learning, talk about whether or not they've eaten already (as common as saying hello), and asking them where they're going. I arrive at the school and usually go over to hang out with my host family. Lunch is served soon after and depending on the scheduled volunteers for the day, I will have a nap in the hammock.
My afternoons are always busy with some new project that is happening at the school, as well as entertaining visitors and sometimes doing manual labor.

Email me if you want to know more. Seriously. They can use all the help they can get.

I love it here! I love the people, it feels like home. I can go anywhere in the village and I have friends. The food is glorious and the rice wine flows like a river. Life is rich!

A few of my highlights have been: going to the largest religious structure in the world, Angkor Wat, with 30 students and 6 amazing volunteers (packed in the back of a truck), the rowing team practice runs at the pagoda (Water Festival this weekend), speaking Khmer to anyone who will listen to me, my bike rides, having a beer with volunteers, a sunset stroll through the village to the surrounding rice paddies with the director, playing Wagon Wheel for an enraptured crowd of kids, and the list continues.


I'll be here for another month before I jet back to Bali to enjoy two weeks lounging and winding down. There after I'll make a month-long stop over in the U.S.

Up next, I'm headed to Mexico to work with IMDEC and Adapting to Scarcity (www.adaptingtoscarcity.com) to make a documentary film on the political and environmental issues around water scarcity. I'll leave January 6th.

I plan to do a fundraiser for my trip in Bend. If any of you want to help me organize it or have any suggestions please let me know!

I hope to spend quite a bit of time in Bend so hopefully I'll see some of you. I miss the Silver Moon. I miss my friends. I miss people who have known me for a few years. I look forward to being with my community again.

A shout-out to GC travelers all around the world.

Much Love to you all from Cambodia,

Steve(o)


Oh by the way, due to extreme impracticality, I finally cut my hair.