We're Home!

We got back late Sat. night and spend the day yesterday trying to recuperate and figure out our pictures. Altho Danny and Canyon aren't feeling too well, for the most part we are healthy.

This is a picture of the kids in front of Angkor Wat. It was much bigger than I had thought it would be. We had a guide to tell us some of the basics of the place, and then we got to walk around and explore it. Cool!

We had great weather. It never rained on the trip, and altho it was hot and muggy, we had plenty of bottled water given to us to drink. We stayed in nice hotels and were kept very busy the whole time. The people of Cambodia were very nice and there was never once a problem of any kind with the people, with the exception of the very first person we met as we went through customs. Danny was the first person to go through, and the official took an extra long time processing him. We later found out from a Mom traveling with us who had grown up in Cambodia that he was expecting a bit of personal money to make things speed up. Once she told him (and the other officials) that there were 80 of us, and that we wouldn't be doing bribes, the lines sped up. :-)

Our hearts were broken over the conditions the children in Cambodia must live in. Their gratitude in our comming and sharing the music and gifts with them was amazingly powerful. There is great poverty there, but the hope is abundant. They live on hope. Our comming to them gave them a huge boost of that hope, and it was gratifying for us knowing we had made a difference in that respect.

The jump from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest (Cambodia to Hong Kong) in a mater of hours was almost shocking. Our hope is that the kids who went on this trip (and all of us!) would be able to think of ways they can have an influence in the world as they start out their own careers.

It was a great trip. I will be posting some more pictures later.