First impressions

Day 3 on our Cambodian trip and I feel the group is adjusting to the Cambodian status quo. The locals are inherently friendly and polite, kind and hard-working- but the level of impoverishment in which they live in does not seem to match their sorroundings. The streets are paved with rubble, loose paving slabs and half-finished construction, but despite this they remain optimistic and push forward: this is their life. For us foreign westerners so used to a cleaner, less hostile society- it is quite something. Pity is not the emotion I would convey towards these honest people but, truly, humanity- in its richest form.  Love and hope for a future shared between all members of the world. Even in this environment, there is beauty in the chaos. The rushing of cars on wrong sides of the road, laboriously bartering for a good deal at restaurants, public transport and the unwritten law of Cambodian society: life goes on. Today we're finishing the painting we started yesterday for the Life and Hope Association, a boarding house for children affected by violence within their home, under the supervision of Buddhist Monks.
Sam B