Dead Ancestor Day???

Or Pchum Benh as it is called here in Cambodia is a very important holiday.  It falls on the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the Khmer calendar.  Many Cambodians pay respects to their dead ancestors.  Monks can be heard chanting at all hours of the day or night.  Food offerings are made to the ancestors' ghosts directly (throwing rice into the air) or to Buddhist monks, generating merit for the deceased.  

Everything is closed.  Get stocked up. Seriously... FOOD, DRUGS (advil, silly!) TP, and TAMPONS because you won't be able to find anything this week.  

Oh by the way, I am sitting in a lovely coffee shop here in Phnom Penh (really, I'm not being sarcastic) and I just had the pleasure of seeing a mouse run out from underneath the couch I am sitting on... Good thing Mar isn't here!!!  Or Theresa for that matter ;)

L I V E

What are you waiting for?

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
-- Grace Hansen

'You don't need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.'

So I'm back in school :) really excited to learn and incredibly thankful for the opportunity.  I just finished a large chapter in my cultural anthropology book and decided to take a little breather and catch up on some International news. 

Don’t you wish that just once in awhile you could hear something positive on the news?  Something happy?  Are these the things the public demands, wants to hear?  Or is this just reality?  Is our world full of so much more pain, hurt, and evil than smiles, joy, and love?

Somehow it always comes back to the same things. 

The SAME things that are happening on every street, in every village, town, and city in every country on this planet.  It isn’t just developing countries. It’s all around me and it’s all around you.  Don’t assume or claim that the majority of us are ‘good’ and would never hurt or exploit a child. 

According to the Chicago Alliance against Sexual Exploitation the majority of johns are college-educated, have wives or girlfriends, and earn more than $40,000 a year.  That means it’s the people that looks just like you and me.  The man you are walking past in your office.  The man sitting next to you in that church pew.  The man that never misses his kids’ soccer games.  The man that is stitching up your head in the emergency room.  Don’t assume it’s the men in the ‘bad’ parts of town, the men who are poor,  or the drug addicts.   

It’s all around us.

It IS exploitation as the average age of entry into the industry in the US is 13 years old.  From the time they are initiated, sexually exploited girls live, on average, only seven more years.  And it isn't just girls.  The average age of entry for boys and transgender youth is 11-13 according to the U.S. Dept of Justice.

'Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.'

I’m sorry I talk so much about this.  It is what fills my heart and my soul.  What I hear and see and can’t keep inside. 

Thank you to the organizations that ARE making a positive change.  Thank you to the outlets that are sharing those changes.  They are everywhere and are not to be ignored.  There are too many to list.  But we have to do our part in spreading awareness and not averting our eyes while children are being assaulted.

Looking for Hope. 

'Love will come and set us free'

WHY CAN'T I TAKE THEM ALL HOME WITH ME?!?!?