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15 août 2007

Long time no news, great summer holiday time

Dear friends and family,

long weeks of silence due to numerous failures of internet connexions, email server problems and simply lack of time have separated me from many of you... on the wire but surely not in my daily thaughts!!

Now I have again just spent 40 minutes typing a message and managed to delete it with another of my wonder movements on the computer... so lets say fate is following me around to keep remote heart and spirit connection with all of you instead of hard carved messages  :)

Siem Reap news: we are more and more envolved with Osmose, and are making first conclusions on what the results of our collaboration could become for each of the stakeholders. Far away from the directly linked population, the lake and its villagers, and far away from all Cambodians through our lack of Khmer capacity, our outsider position to this tiny NGO is not the easiest one to feel and be efficient or envolved. This is especially true when the organization you join is shifting from its primary entrepreneurial phase, living on the drive of its founders and first staff, towards a less individual approach and organized staffing. Well Osmose is right in there, and in the midst of an overwhelmingly biaised and evolving economical environment as the city of Siem Reap has become a busy tourist center with traffic jams to the temples and hot night pubs and bars in only 10 years time. Indeed a few years ago, it was known as a quiet little village, which you do not find anywhere anymore. If Osmose NGO is living through this, and is struggling to overcome its first founding stage, other NGOs around have managed in just the same time to grow and become wonders of giving and sharing and teaching. The best example in my mind is the Angkor Children Hospital, now a full mostly reliable local staff permanently coached, taught and supported by very professional doctors, nurses and administratives from around the world. So why is Osmose where it is today and did not reach further steps, and why is it so difficult for us and other westerners to get envolved in its work? Much of those thaughts are due to the distance from the lake to the city population, to the premature departure from the founders of the NGO (premature for the NGO, surely not for all the energy they put in it!), to the rapid evolution of the environment compared to the little means (capacity, competences and moneywise) of this NGO.
So we still hope to be able to give as much as we can to the preservation of this magic lake and the populations of the 3 villages Osmose is concerned with, but we have our own doubts on the ultimate capacity of this organization as it stands today, to reach its goals in terms of sustainability. Anyone prepared to dedicate time (years) and with managerial and entrepreneurial experience is welcome to join and lead it to guarantee its usefulness in the near future :)) I'm kidding, but this does seem today to be the best way to help out villagers to become owners of their future and their surroundings. We have actually found one potential Khmer person who could be coached to take the lead in two to three years time , but a good wage for this type of profile is between 600 to 800 us dollars a month, which Osmose currently does not have at all. (another appeal to good deeds there)

All right, enough of Osmose for today. We have left it 10 days ago to wonder around and take "a month break" - yes yes, even at the other end of the world, AND on sabbatical leave, taking a break is required and feels great!! We have one month for us, a luxury, and decided to go up to Lao before rains come heavy, and west to Thailand to finally reach down to the beaches where Maelle is particularly looking forward to exercice her amazing body strength (instead of her speach droll we sometimes surprise ourselves of dreaming to hear only whisper).
Lao: one hour in Lao and your stress flies away. One stroll over Ventiane's calm streets and you dream of peaceful cities at the beginning of our era. One week in Lao... and we would establish ourselves forever... or nearly so. Between the truely legendary smiles and helpfulness of Lao people, the delicious meals, and, such a pleasure after Siem Reap, the fresh air and beautiful sights of the mountains, we are alive and kicking again! And there are bicycles to rent and little traffic so Maelle can ride along, and the vegetation, the fruits and sticky rice are great... so what we thaught was going to be a two day stop has become a week, Luang Prabang and its numerous temples our little haven. A good treck in the forest nearby and a night in the village gave our muscles good rembrance of our past lifestyle sports capacities (humh, that looks like a little overdone) and an interesting comparison to Cambodia's life level. Around Luang Prabang housing is of much higher standards as in Cambodia. Children who live where schools are, which is clearly not everywhere, also get the chance to have a kindergarden, so they can learn before they are 6 or 7. This is not the case in Cambodia where there is nothing public before 6. Monks study numerous years in this city or in Ventiane, keeping lovely posters of young ladies around their dorms and their eyes readily catching the beauty of tourist young ladies... even Maelle is an interesting target :)) But globally the population seems much more fervent than in Cambodia, so we cannot wait to discover other Asian destinations to build up buddhist knowledge.
Next stop is Chang Mai where we are leaving today... so see you in a few days for more news!

We wish you all great summer days in the meantime, knowing temperatures out there are not at their best so sending you lots of warm breeze from over here!
Cheerio

Last pragmatic details:
I have changed again my email address in the hope of getting better personnal responses and less email loss... it is yseult.perilhou (at the server) gmail.com. I will retrieve the .free.fr ones for a while.
I cannot link into Electrabel's intranet and the mails I sent from the .free address to enquire a new password came back as a spammer address... so I am cut out for the moment (if there are news, I would very much like to read them!)

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