A letter from Cambodia
 

An old sailing friend of my father is currently teaching English in
Cambodia. He been giving us letters ans photo links of his adventures. I
thought some people on this newsgroup might be interested:

Hectic week. We have been dancing with the President and VP of
Independent Journalism Foundation. They're interesting people but it's
heavy going organizing breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, dinners and
the occasional sit-down in between. The heat is suffocating and the
president, who is 80 years old, is wilting like a great banana tree
that has seen no water in months.
This brief note is just to tip you off that all is well here. The usual
mayhem is abundant, of course. A man was arrested for raping 5 and
8-year-old girls. He believed that making love to virgins would cure
him of AIDs.
A young couple up in Pailin had triplets last week. But the babies died
because they were so premature. The mom was so upset she asked her
husband to grill the babies so they could be dried and then they could
store them in the hut.
The usual stuff.
We leave for Ho Chi Minh City this morning. More dancing with the
journalists there. Then we move up to Hanoi for a cotillion with the
moguls of the politburo to see if we can open a presence in Hanoi where
we might have a major impact on the journalist population of Vietnam.
The IJF president can taste this and wants us to move ahead. I keep
urging patience because these folk are very wary of western influence
on the hearts and minds of their journalism elite.
Now, I wonder if I could make inroads if I wear my politburo suit with
the screaming communist red hanky in the upper pocket!
I just got an email from Doug Cosper who preceded us into Hanoi to
teach a two-week class with Rick Hornik. He tells me they are moving
out of their hotel (and our hotel) because of the construction noise
coming from next door. So we will have to deal with that. And Michelle
Foster, the Knight fellow, is delaying her departure from here by a day
because she has fallen to food poisoning. Best laid plans..



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Cambodia pictures are at:

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jorob2004/my_photos

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/margaretjmellis

Sailing and other travel pictures are at:

http://photos.yahoo.com/robertsmellis