For the most part, my life in Cambodia is not nearly as “exotic” as people living in cities like Chicago and Cleveland might think it is. I ride my bike around our small town, I work in an office with cement walls (though of course the lack of air-conditioning and high temperatures can make it [...]
I recently wrote a piece about PEPY Tours on World Nomad’s website. I am reposting it below as it relates to a lot of the themes of this blog: Responsible Giving, voluntourism, Cambodia, etc Fast Five Profile: PEPY Tours One of the PEPY riders on her bike for Cambodian based PEPY Tours 1. Who are [...]
I am learning to read Khmer – and it is SOO hard. Nearly every new vowel I learn, the teacher says “but that is an exception, it doesn’t turn AW consonants to O” or “That is from Sanskrit. There are no rules as to why you have to pronounce it that was, you just have [...]
I recently tried to post a comment in response to this listing on Trip Advisor which encourages visits to orphanages while traveling in Siem Reap. As my comment was not a review of the area, it was not approved, so I am posting it here. — I am writing in response to a post stating [...]
vol⋅un⋅teer [vol-uhn-teer] –noun 1. a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking. 2. a person who performs a service willingly and without pay. It would probably make a lot more sense if we stopped using the title “volunteer” for positions where people are getting paid. The result is that I have [...]
When I first read this post by Alanna Shaikh, I was too busy to write, so I passed it on internally to all those at PEPY, because I know that so many of us would disagree with her. I can’t see the comments on the page, because maybe they have been hidden, but supposedly there [...]
I put up my thoughts on voluntourism on the World Pulse site and had received some thoughts and feedback. One of the questions came from someone struggling with how to give back with her skills when her skills lay in math and physics. I interpreted her question as saying something like “If there are people [...]