Smey and April visiting the other orphanage down the street, where Maddox was adopted 

Reaksmey, Srey Touch, April, Chantha, Charia, Savuth, and Chansy in the stream by the waterfalls 

Lots of young vendors at the waterfall site 

Savath and Phearun on left; Charia and Karona on right 

Monirath, Sreyneath, Pheary, and Boseba 

The group on the beach 

Chantha, Davin, and Linna, and teacher Narith's son 

fresh shrimp on the beach 

More fun with the FLO kids

Hi Folks,
We returned yesterday from a beach trip with 51 kids and nine staff for two nights and three days. It is about a four hour drive each way from the orphanage so most of the kids had never seen the ocean before. We awoke at 6am on Sunday and the excitement around FLO (Future Light Orphanage) was intoxicating and contagious! Most of the kids could barely sleep that night and they all had their new backpacks prepared and were ready to go soon after they awoke.
All the kids and staff squeezed into three vans to make the journey. April and I followed in a relatively comfortable land cruiser along with my foster son Reaksmey and the director of a second orphanage who joined us with several of his kids. He (Mr. Pole) was quite an entertaining tour guide, showing us some of his orphanage property along the way where they are teaching the kids farming and building a beautiful farm. Good land now sells for about $500 per acre.
He had interesting stories about his days trying to survive during the Pol Pot regime having lost many of his family among the two million that died during those horrific four years.
On the lighter side, he was involved with arrangeing many adoptions including Maddox for Angelina Jolie. "Mr Bob (Billy Bob Thornton) was very funny man, he always make girl laugh and smile. All girls love Mr. Bob" He also said that Angelina was very compassionate and is very dedicated to the Cambodian people. We also visited the orphanage where they found Maddox. Hopefully the U.S. will open up adoptions with Cambodia again one day and these kids and others will be adoptable.
There are now over 12 million people in Cambodia and half are under twenty years old. Too many are orphans with no support.
Back to the beach! The name of the beach we spent our first day was...Hawaii Beach. What else? Not quite Hawaii, but lots of atmosphere! Lots of fresh seafood sold on the beach. After lots of swimming and enjoying the beach we all enjoyed huge platters of fresh shrimp and the obligatory rice.
Our hotel was about two hundred yards from the beach and each room which held four to six kids was about $10 a night. The next day was filled with beach activity and walks with a great cookout on the beach for sunset. It reminded me of what Hawaii must have been like about eighty years ago.
The kids always were busy playing group games together or swimming. All the vendors on the beach selling fresh seafood, cold beer, handicrafts and just hanging out with us provided great entertainment. The very first blossoms of a soon-to-be burgeoning tourist industry were beginning to be seen with a few Europeans, Asians and even the brave American or two.
Our last day we all headed to the mountains on our way back and spent most of the day swimming in the rivers and waterfalls followed by a big barbecue lunch for 61. It was a blast as was the whole trip. And thank goodness no one got hurt!
Three more days planned here and every day is an event! Big party on our last day. Really enjoying it and will miss all these beautiful kid as always.
Aloha for now! Rob

First few days at FLO

Today was our 3rd day at FLO, but already we feel so comfortable because of the welcoming attitude of the kids and staff. I was a bit anxious coming here, afraid that perhaps the students would resent our nationality and comparitive wealth. As anyone who has already visited will know, however, that the opposite is true: everyone in the FLO community, from students to teachers to cooks, is so kind, generous, and unassuming. They are all curious about us and where we come from, eager to practice their English skills, and wanting to know more about each of their Aloha Foster parents.
After a friendly welcome on Thursday, my dad and I settled into the guest house. Yesterday we presented the kids with their new backpacks and a few other donated items--paper, pens, shampoo, and yo-yos--as well as the individual gifts that we brought from foster parents in Hawaii. We were a little concerned about jealousy or sadness among the children who didn't receive these "special gifts," but explained that not every parent has the means or convenience of providing these extra things, and reminded them that each child is very special to their parent and often in their thoughts. When we talked to my foster brother Reak Smey about this concern, he reassured us that the kids at FLO "do not think like this; we all share everything." It does seem that every child expresses gratitude whenever he or she can, thanking us for visiting, for practicing English with them, and for any special things they enjoy because of the generosity of the foster parents.
After receiving their backpacks yesterday, the children also had the chance to go swimming in their pool, which they can only use on special occasions because they must have the water delivered (right now they collect rainwater for cooking, drinking, and bathing). Today we took everyone to the Phnom Penh waterpark. It is about 20 minutes away, and it was the first time for all of them. It rained almost constantly but still they had a great time and were giddy with excitement all day, rushing down the slides and back up again. We have some more great pictures which we'll try to post later.
Tomorrow we're taking a trip to one of Cambodia's coastal areas with 30 of the best students/hardest workers, selected by their teachers. We will post more pictures and details when we return:)

At the waterpark! 

More smiling faces 

Enjoying a special meal 

At the swimming pool 

Rob talks to the children in front of the Sunrise Library and encourages them to study hard 

Bou Linna thanks Masa and Susan for their generosity 

lined up and waiting patiently for their gifts 

The kids receiving their new backpacks and school supplies 

the students with their new backpacks 

april & rob 

Rob and April head to Asia

Hi Folks, this is my first entry into our blog site! Daughter April and I leave Augusts 7th for Thailand, Cambodia, China, Italy, France, England, then back to California and Hawaii. April will be staying in London to attend University for her Junior year "semester abroad". I will arrive back in Hawaii September 30th.
We will first spend a few days in Thailand where we will meet brother John, who is the chief editor for two news bureaus in Bangkok, then fly to Phnom Penh where we will spend nine days with Phaly and all the kids! This should be the highlight of the trip and is much anticipated by all of us!
We have some great activities planned for all of the kids and I look forward to spending time with each of them. I will try to keep the blog posted with the highlights of our visit.
From Cambodia we will go to China to visit son Henry in the city of Chengdu in Sichuan, do a bit of traveling and hanging out with him and get his views on what it is like teaching English and studying Chinese there. We then go back to Thailand for about a week, then fly to Rome, take the train to some small towns on the way to Paris, fly to London and home.
Any recomendations for any of these spots by you would be great!
More later! Aloha, Rob