Goodbye Tenafly, from Terri

All my dear friends, both young and old, I refrained from blogging throughout this adventure of learning about the people and the culture of the small, complex country of Cambodia because I wanted to first absorb your impressions of all the new sights, sounds, flavors and (to put it politely) �smells� you encountered along the way.

I so enjoyed meeting each of you, and feel privileged to have been part of your introduction to so many of the selfless people who are working both inside Cambodia and in the US to try to remedy some of the pain and suffering you witnessed first hand. What would our world be like without people like Martha, James, Imbert and Kristen from CPI, Sarath, Tho Thary and Chanton at CVCD, Elizabeth at World Education, Arun at Golden Child, Seng at Cambodian Master Performers Program, the work of CMAC, the MAG deminers and trainers, David Shoemaker of the Angkor Children�s Hospital, of course our friend, Arn Chorn Pond, who continues the vision of his adopted father, Peter Pond, and now, all of you?

When your teacher and club leader, Mr. Hyman, first interested you in Cambodian landmine issues did you ever imagine that you�d be visiting master performers and their students in a third world slum village, a small makeshift class room in the midst of the squalor of a squatter community, a training center in a remote village of a province so cut off by roadways that during the rainy season access is possible only by a boat ride (actually top of a boat ride) up the Mekong River? Had you expected to fall in love with an orphan baby, learn ancient dance steps, detonate a bomb, shop and bargain in a market that not only sells silk but also dried fish or meet an ambassador and his princess sister? Did you think you�d travel by tuk tuk, have to push a bus to get it to start or jump into the back of a crowded pick up truck to get to your hotel? Was a visit to a floating village complete with school or to one of the Ancient Wonders of the World along with an elephant ride on your wish list?
You have already begun to become an activist for change in your world through your blog entries. Now you have experienced first- hand and know on a first name basis people who live in a land that has been devastated by wars both by invasion and internally. You�ve trodden on soil littered with teeth, bones and scraps of clothing at the Killing Fields witnessing first hand the unimaginable horrors man is capable of inflicting upon his fellow man. You�ve seen the effects malnutrition and desperate living conditions have on children at the hospital.
Now that you have returned to your families and friends what do you find important? Will the importance of traditions the Cambodians stress relate in any way to your life in New Jersey? Does your own family have traditions that are being lost forever because we have become so homogenized? Do we really listen and pay attention to world news as well as what is happening in our own communities?
I applaud each of you for making this trip. Your school, school district and townspeople should also be thanked for having the vision and making the contributions that made your trip to Cambodia possible. I�m certain you�ve returned to Tenafly better community and world members. As I continue to work with Clear Path International, I hope to hear from you again as you seek to make a contribution to world peace.