Day 14

We awoke this morning to sunshine in Sihanoukville at last.... but it didn't last. By the time we were halfway through breakfast the monsoons had begun again. I'm afraid that forever I'll think of Sihanoukville as a wet seedy spot. During our little closing celebration last night Jan, the Director of Tabitha Cambodia, said that she never had a team have to work through as much rain as our team did to build houses and that she was amazed that we all went back for a second day. To be honest I don't think that giving in ever crossed our minds, but it is good to go down in history as the wettest housebuilding ever. Oh well - at least it wasn't too hot.

The kids were not the happiest campers this morning. Since they had their own room I told them that as long as they stayed in it bedtime was up to them last night. When I went to wake them this morning I tripped over extra kids on the floor. I guess they had quite the slumber party. We again had two busses on the way back and the kids had their own bus. From what I hear it was a more melancholy ride than on the way down.

The ride back was long and we didn't get to Phnom Penh until around 1 pm. Saying goodbye at the Golden Gate Hotel proved to be easier than I expected.... because Brennan and Kaley invited all of the other kids over to our hotel! Yoen, our driver came for us in his van and we loaded up a bunch of teenagers and came back to the Phnom Penh Hotel to check in. Of course the other kids were awestruck by our fancy hotel and had lots of comments to make. I reminded them that it was Princess Kaley who really didn't want to share her room with lizards again.

Jim & Derek stayed at the hotel and 6 Khmer teenagers and I headed off to the Russian market with Yoen. For once, Yoen was willing to let me go in the market on my own! I think he was intimidated by all of these kids, too! We mostly went to the CD & DVD booths and the kids picked up some more of those $2 DVD's. They already had Bewitched. Amazing. I met a nice family from Canada who were very curious about all of these English speaking Khmer kids I was running around with. If I thought we'd drawn the beggars before, this took the cake. Big white woman roaming through market with English speaking Khmer kids surely has enough to give us, right? Funny thing is some of the beggars now recognized me and asked where my "friends" were meaning Jim and Derek. I was wearing a "Believe" rubber band bracelet throughout the trip sent to me by a friend, and one of the little beggar boys was fingering it and asking me in English what it said. "Believe" I said. "What that mean?" he asked. I used the simplest words I could think of and told him that it means to always have hope that God is taking care of you and something better will happen in the future. "Oh," he said, "I like!" I slipped off the bracelet and gave it to him and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. Really sweet. All of the other kids we were with were adopted at a later age and are much braver about food. They were buying really funky stuff to eat in the market (one young man Vitha was walking around gnawing on a duck!) and Kaley and I in particular just watched with horror!

We then headed to the riverfront and picked up the ring Kaley had designed. It is very pretty and suits here well. Hopefully it will be something that she will treasure. Then it was back to the hotel and the pool. By the time all was said and done there were 9 Khmer adoptee teenagers happily splashing away and the hotel staff standing around with their mouths hanging open. Too funny.

When the other parents swung by to pick up the kids just a little while ago I went from being "good mom" to "mean mom" because I wouldn't let B & K go back to the other hotel with them. It was time for goodbye as hard as it was. Actually, it wasn't as hard as I expected because even though the kids live so far apart there was truly a "see you later" feel to their goodbyes. They will keep in touch via email and have promised to return to build houses again. Oy vey. I'm gonna have to save my pennies!!

I was very emotional when I thanked Jan, the Tabitha Director and Melita, the Australian woman who organized this particular housebuilding project. Our first week in Cambodia, while interesting and seeing the Nannies was awesome, I think the kids felt like we could have been in any third world country. We could have been in Mexico or the Dominican Republic again for all they could tell. But being with these other adoptees, hanging out with the Khmer Tabitha staff members, and getting out into the villages to meet the people established a very real connection for them to Cambodia and its people. I have seen in the past two weeks that through and through Brennan and Kaley are as American as I am, but I think that they now have a pride in their Khmer heritage that was simply not available to them before. As we turned away from tearfully waving goodbye to their friends, Brennan said to me, "This was awesome. It was so much better than I thought it would be. It was really great mom." BIG BIG LUMP IN MOM'S THROAT!!!!

We have quieted down now and all seems forgiven for my making them stay here at the hotel tonight. They are down in the poolroom shooting pool. This has become quite an obsession for them as it is BIG in Cambodia and Asia. I'm going to try to sort through mountains of clothes and suitcases and consolidate what we will need for the next couple of days. There are rumors that we have all brought some small black bugs back from Sihanoukville with us in our suitcases.... so I'm not real thrilled at the idea of opening them. But after yesterday's frog incident.... I guess I can handle it.

Tomorrow morning we will leave the hotel at 7:30 for the airport. At about 9:30 we have a one hour flight to Siem Reap. This is the center of the ancient Khmer temples and considered one of the wonders of the world. It is also where the movie Tombraider was filmed and where Angelina Jolie adopted her son Maddox and has built a house. The driver we have scheduled to meet us was a translator during the filming. We will have most of the day tomorrow to tour and then most of the next day since our flight to Bangkok isn't until evening. I'm not really sure how many temples we will want to visit. I'm afraid I've started to have the sense that "If you've seen one temple, you've seen them all" over the past days even though that isn't very fair. I do know that in Siem Reap I want the kids to have an elephant ride up the side of one of the pyramid like temples and we're going to an Apsara dance show in the evening. Should be cool.

But before that, we will wave at the Nutrition Center, drive to the airport, say goodbye to our friend Yoen, and say goodbye to Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh - a city that I left so gladly 14 years ago and thought of as some strange and totally foreign place -- where Brennan and Kaley happened to be born. This time I leave carrying it in my heart as a place that is precious and familiar and a part of who we all are and will be. I don't think there's another place like it on the face of the earth... and I am so grateful for that.

Hugs -
Lisa & Crew