The Biggest Contrast

*Kids at Asia’s Hope in Prek Eng relaxing at home after school*

After an excruciatingly long day in transit – 26 hours to get just one-and-a-half time zones from India to Cambodia – we finally got back to where our Asia’s Hope journey began almost 25 years ago.

It would be difficult to overstate the contrasts between Kalimpong, a sleepy Himalayan hill station with near-freezing weather, and Phnom Penh, a bustling world capital with sunny skies and temperatures edging 90F.

Every road in Kalimpong is steep and composed of multiple hairpin curves. Phnom Penh is flat as a griddle. The tallest building in Kalimpong is probably seven stories. Skyscrapers with 30, 40, even 50 stories are sprouting like bamboo here in the Phen.

Even the smells are different: India’s mustard-oil-and-masala scents are largely unknown in Southeast Asia; the streets here are perfumed by pork fat crackling on charcoal grills. And the wats here are graced with gentle jasmine and sandlewood, not the rich, heady dhoop and myrrh of Hindu temples.

But the biggest contrast on this trip will be the pace of our interactions with the kids and staff at Asia’s Hope. In India, we have just six homes. The kids there were on school break for the entire two weeks we spent in Kalimpong. That meant that we could spend pretty much all day in the homes, interacting with the kids and connecting with each of them personally.

In Cambodia, we have 19 homes. And most of the kids are in class until late afternoon. Which means that we’re really blowing through. I make an effort to stop by every single home on every trip, greet every kid individually, enjoy a cup of tea and a game or two with every family. But that’s going to be a challenge this time around, especially in Battambang, where 13 of our homes are based.

I’m prioritizing the homes that need new or supplementary sponsorships and any of the others that don’t get annual visits from teams of international supporters. I’m taking care to get lots of pictures in each of those homes in hopes of introducing the staff and kids to new potential partners upon my return to the States.

So far, this has been a good trip to Cambodia. Kori and I were thrilled that our 26-year old son Pak could pop over from his home in Seoul, Korea to spend a few days with us. Despite having spent most of his childhood summers with us at Asia’s Hope, he hasn’t been to Cambodia in five years.

Almost all of the kids he remembers have graduated, or are soon to do so. Tonight we’re going to visit our student center where something like 40 of our university kids live, so he’ll definitely see some familiar faces before returning to his home tomorrow.

One dim spot has been Kori’s health – she caught bronchitis late in our India visit, and is only now starting to recover. So she’s really hoping to have full energy for our last week or so. Last night was her first decent night of sleep in about a week.

Oh, and one of the Riverside’s notoriously slick pickpockets stole my video camera last night. I’m not so worried about the gear itself, but I lost a significant amount of footage that I hadn’t had time to pull off the memory card. I was briefly infuriated, but quickly turned my attitude around. “Lord help me accept the things I cannot change” and whatnot.

I hope you’ll enjoy some of the pictures from our Cambodia journey, and I hope you’ll let others know about the work we’re doing here on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable kids.