Posted by Ella

Today was absolutely amazing! Our trip began with a journey up the mekong river. We took this really funky boat that resembled a really really long helicopter, and sat on top of it. Mike gave this one cambodian guy his ipod to listen to, and he started doing a sort of dance to it, which was really cool.

Next, we entered the actual town, whose name i can't spell (streng trueng?) in the middle of the main road, which was covered with red dust, was a cpi station. We took off our shoes and hats and entered, where we were immediately greeted by a prosthesis wearing director. I think that all of us (except for maybe James), were very surprised to find that he was missing part of his leg. we are all very aware that amputees are very common in Cambodia, but despite that, we all kept glancing down at his prosthesis.

The first class that we watched at the vocational training skills school was a sewing group. most of the women in this class weren't mine victims themselves, but had affected family members and needed to help support them.

Then, we watched a mechanics class. All of the students were male, and many were mine victims. I continued to smile at one student, a very handsome man/boy (early twenties? late thirties? early teens?) and then discovered, as we left the room to take pictures, that because of a landmine accident, his legs were stunted. He jumped onto the back of one of his friends as a means of transportation.

When we were done taking pictures with everyone, my mom, Dr. Greenwald, two of our Cambodian friends, and I all went back down to the sewing class to talk to the students. We all sat down on the floor together and asked questions with Chanton translating. Once Chanton translated the general idea of the conversation, we were really able to communicate well together without a translator. We would begin by asking questions to eachother, but after answering, we all broke into fits of giggling. I told the women that in Amerida, pale skin is considered ugly, and tan skin beautiful, which is the exact opposite of Cambodia. The women started shaking with laughter at our foreign customs.

We then took a disgustingly long, bumpy bus ride to visit one of the beneficiaries of the CPI program. This landmine amputee has a mechanical repair shop in a tiny village. We are, we think, the first caucasians to ever enter this town. All of the children pointed and stared at us, until we smiled at them and they grinned back. I gave a speech (through a translator) to what seemed like the whole town. After eating at a tiny, family owned restaurant, we went to the small village market. The word seemed to have spread, as people were practicall climbing on top of eachother to take a peep at us. I bought a gorgeous turquoise sarong, and a pair of "size 10" flip flops. Unfortunately, they must have been a Khmer size ten, as my heels stick off the back.