Modern Embassies

So,

The PathfindersProject trip is a long one…..

This trip is a year long, in 8 countries, and with more than 10 service location. So a lot of planning went into the trip…..

That being said, things change, and success favors the prepared and the flexible, so one of the precautions we took was to register our trip with the US Embassies in the countries we are going to.

One of several email notifications we have received.

This means that (since we live in the technology age) we get email updates from the Embassies whenever there is a concern, with information about the concern, including suggested safety precautions.

Now, this is a wonderful service provided by our government, and I feel it is very appropriately done.

That being said, they provide more services, such as apps for your smart phone (makes sense), a facebook page to like (seems a little silly) or even following them on twitter…

Now it’s not that I don’t think these services should exist (I’m sure lots of people gain from it, with almost no cost to upkeep) but I just think it is absurd that you can follow your embassy on twitter….

The Official Twitter page

Oh the world we live in… It is beginning to make me feel like a crotchety old man.

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Missing them….

So, today was our last full day in the village. We will be heading back to Siem Reap tomorrow afternoon. And after only a week in this village, a week without running water, electricity, Internet, and non-squat toilets, I have begun to adjust to this way of life…to adjust to sleeping on the floor under a mosquito net, with dogs barking in the night….

And I will miss it.

I will miss the stare of the villagers, who haven’t seen white people in long enough to make us a spectacle. I will miss the meals, made lovingly for us with good will, love, fresh rice, and dramatically oversized portions. I will miss having Chia translating the words of his friends, newborns and family to us, as they don’t speak any English at all.

And the monks and children that we teach English to, who have likely never heard a native English speaker before, and the huge smiles on their faces…. I will miss them the most.

I’m not sure if I will grow to miss the references to how I am the “Fat Man” (fat is a good thing here, so they mean it as a compliment) but I think I may.

I doubt I will miss the dogs barking and fighting all through the night (keeping me up) or the woven mats for sleeping, or showering with a bucket from a pot of rain water in front of the neighbors, or the squat toilet….

Oh squat toilet…… I will miss you least of all…

But then, who knows?

The mind is a fickle, silly, sentimental thing, which has a habit of remembering things too fondly….

Tonight, we had a going away party, and afterwards, the women who hang around us at home, and make us food, and watch us when we eat it gave us a gift. They represented the families who now have wells (and fresh water) thanks to our support. They gave us their blessings, and their thank you-s, and wished us good travels and a safe return, and told us to come back to this village someday. They told us they they may not remember our names, but they would remember us, our faces (my fat-ness), and they reiterated their gratitude for what we did for them.

I will miss them….

autoblogged via TheTravelVest (pathfindersproject.com/Ben) http://pathfindersproject.com/ben/2013/09/05/missing-them/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=missing-them