Doing Stuff in Siem Reap

The last few days have been so busy that I neglected to perform my blog posting duties. Riege hounded me, so I can no longer dodge my task. the last 3 or 4 days have been pretty heavily laden with a wide variety of activities. The service (and play) in the village, the visits to the temples and other miscellaneous activities,(such as a visit to a cambodian club, a tour around the siem reap children's hospital, and an intensely informational visit to a science facility that designs and builds water filters) have all been very enjoyable and interesting. But i have to say, that for me, there has been one primary highlight for this first week. I have become close to several people over the past few days, but none more so than our primary tuk-tuk driver, Tony. He is one of the happiest people that i have ever met, and despite the horrific experiences that he endured during the Khmer Rouge regime, he is always smiling. I make sure to talk to him as much as i possibly can, because i feel that i have so much that i can learn from him. he told me that before he drove a tuk-tuk, he was an english teacher. i asked him why he quit being a teacher, and he told me that his eyesight had gotten so bad that he could no longer read to his students, or even help his son with homework. this struck me as incredibly sad. after all this man had survived, his own eyes were doing him in. i thought to myself that we might be able to get him some glasses. I talked to riege, who in turn told me to talk to arn. arn said that he would see what he could do. a day later, riege walked up to me and told me that at 8:00 am the next morning, we would be going to the hospital with Tony to get him some glasses. we got to the hospital, and tony instantly recognized someone, who he had worked with when he had been in training to become a doctor. we got into the doctors office, Tony had some tests done, and since this hospital makes the glasses there, they had his prescription on hand. he was so happy that he could read the back of a water bottle again! it felt good to help someone, but i feel that the most important thing is that now, he will be able to read to his son and help him with his homework. I'll let Kira fill you in on the rest.
Andrew Powers