Journal Entries

This is rural Cambodia. My family and I went here this weekend to visit kids at an orphanage that a fellow teacher started up 5 years ago. There is a actually a site right in Bangkok, Thailand, near where we live that helps children of Cambodian and Burmese constructions workers, and we visited the local centers in Cambodia itself. It was just an hour or so flight from Bangkok, and really the countryside wasn't that much different from the parts of rural Thailand that I've been to, but there is so much more poverty in Cambodia. Cambodia is a third world country, while Bangkok is considered a first world city in a second world country, and boy could I tell the difference! I had a lot to think about, especially after just having read Renee's recent thoughtful post about Walking Each Other Home.

Like many north Americans, I have had an obsession with Tiny Houses during the last 5 or so years. I thought they'd be a fabulous way to downsize. I can picture hubby and I in one after the kids are grown, maybe in Idaho. After moving to southeast Asia, I realized many people live in them not by choice. I have seen all sorts of creative "tiny homes" in Bangkok and outside of Bangkok. Living in a packing crate isn't new, apparently, but decorating them so they star in magazines back in the states is. In the tiny homes I see here, there may or may not be furniture in them, and there may or may not be running water or electricity available. In THESE tiny houses - there are actually two here - there is no electricity nor running water. But they haven't rigged it with solar, nor do they have any fancy rain catchment system. They definitely didn't order home decor from Amazon. They live here in rural Cambodia in total poverty, walking their three cattle around to feed, tending to rice paddies around them. I love how the house in the back has some accent paint color. Maybe I will copy it some day in my own tiny house! Wish I could have gotten closer, but a lady was out with her daughter and some cattle, so I felt awkward doing that.

You don't need to go too far outside of Bangkok to see the lushness of central Thailand. This was the setting for our family end-of-summer trip to an awesome water park. The outdoor adventurer in me struggles with living in a large city (14 million people!) in a developing country with mildewy concrete buildings everywhere. Any chance I have to get out, my eyes feast on the green. It's nice when the man-made places, like the waterpark, maintain the natural environment around them rather than just build eyesore after eyesore leaving a mess in its wake. Next to this waterpark is also a winery and grape juice farm - next time we'll plan to tour it!

Back in the urban jungle of Bangkok. Today's outdoors activity was a walk at Benjakatti Park. It has a separate bike track I will definitely use in the future. It isn't too close to our house though.

Cowpens, South Carolina, site of a crucial battle in the American Revolutionary War. The Battle of Cowpens was a very important victory for Americans in their fight for independence from Great Britain. It was the beginning of the end for the British in this war.

The area isa national park, and the visitor center had a very well-done film that taught all about the battle and its significance in US history. Not normally a history buff, I did enjoy this visit and the trail through the battle sites, which were pasture lands at the time.

Rhode Island was a destination for us because my hubby has family there. Here are my hubby, our teenage son and his cousin (same age) clamming at the Town Beach in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. They hauled a lot of clams that day, along with my father-in-law and brother-in-law, and they cooked 'em up. I didn't partake because I am allergic to shellfish.

(If you've followed the posts, between the last locale - Badlands, South Dakota - and here, we hit Wisconsin Dells for waterpark action and Indiana Dunes on shore of Lake Michigan, ((where we encountered poor weather and had miserable camping in the heat and mosquitos!)) also Poconos Mountains, Pennsylvania.)

Badlands National Park was incredible! We camped out at a free, primitive camping area called Sage creek. We saw bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs and the amazing layered rock formations that Badlands is famous for. The weather was beautiful, with some dry lightning storms that cleared up and allowed for a view of thousands/millions of stars in the heavens. The hikes we did were awesome - I highly recommend a trip here to South Dakota.

In the middle of a fairly urban area, Greenville, South Carolina, there is a 20 mile trail for walking, running, and cycling. We took a jaunt on one part of it with my parents to see some waterfalls and walk a suspension bridge. (the green bridge is not the suspension bridge) Here is a pic from one part of the trail just upriver from the falls.

South Carolina peach! I am a California native, and only moved from there last year to live in Thailand (see my journal entitled "Amazing Thailand"). Being out of the country for the last year made me realize how spoiled I was in California - we grow everything there! All year round in California there is something growing, and I was able to eat farm fresh and seasonally, which I really missed over the last year in Thailand.

So, when my dad and son came home one day while we were visiting my parents (who just moved to South Carolina last year from California!) with fresh picked peaches I was super excited. It's the little things that make me joyful!

Landrum, South Carolina. My parents now live in the Carolina foothills, which as a first time visitor I found to be really cool. I enjoyed our time visiting western North Carolina, especially tubing on the Greenville River up in Saluda. (They call them "mountains" up there, but to a Californian they are "hills", but they are beautiful!)

The photo is a barn near my parents' friends' property. I liked it. A few days later when we went back there again, the field was harvested into large round bails of hay!

This is probably my last pic for this journal, as we are back in Thailand now. I can't sleep due to jet lag, so loading up the last of the pics while the rest of my family blissfully sleeps (how do they do that?)