Why Cambodia

WARNING: This post is more for our personal, family history. It might bore you to tears!

Last Spring Geoff felt like his work at the Church was coming to an end and we hatched the idea of traveling for a year as a family, since it would be our last year before Tennie leaves for college. Originally, the idea was to spend three months in four cities: Paris, Cape Town, Bangalore & Southern Mexico/Guatemala. Geoff would find some work that could be done at a distance, ideally that wouldn't take all of his time so he could be involved in the girl's schooling. It was a pretty grandiose idea, one Tennie wasn't super excited about since it would be her senior year, but why not? What if we could actually make it work?

We weren't naive to the audacity of such an idea, but thought that with Geoff's network something just right would emerge. Geoff began to explore options, and opportunities emerged. But options that suited our hopes proved harder than we thought. Some opportunities came along and seemed perfect, only to have some fatal flaw after some time went by. We started to get a little worried because we knew that if school started it would be very difficult to pull Tennie away. Adele and Ceci were ready to go at any time.

School started. Geoff resigned from church employment and nurtured several opportunities, basically working full time. It was ironic, really. Here we were trying to travel for a year to spend quality time with our girls, and six months had passed with our heads down trying to make our dream come true and NOT spending time together.

Finally Geoff was fed up and booked a trip to the Christmas markets in Europe with a week in Paris. That trip turned into Paris, Israel and Christmas markets in Bruges, Belgium. It was sort of a spontaneous, last minute decision. We didn't have months to prepare and research, we were just GOING. It turned out to be an incredible trip, but it was different from the kind of settled down travel we had imagined.

In October, a friend put us in touch with an Australian couple who own a luxury resort on a private island in Cambodia. In an effort to use tourism to create a positive impact on the local area, they created a foundation that includes education, health, marine biology, land conservation, etc. As we explored the website, we wondered if we could make this work! What if we volunteered with this foundation - school would be built in! At first we hoped to live in the resort for three months, and during our first conversation with the owners it sounded like it might be a possibility. They needed an interim Executive Director for the foundation. They asked Geoff if he wanted to do that and it seemed perfect. Instead of paying us, Geoff offered to do it for free, if they just paid our expenses. This became our plan. We were excited to be moving forward.

Then we learned that the resort would be mostly-full when we wanted to come, and since it was their high season, it didn't make sense for us to take up one of the villas.  We agreed. That was Ok, the volunteer opportunities were so good for the girls, we decided that plan B, living in the employee housing, would be fine. We would make it work!

Weeks passed. Then we found out there wasn't actually room in the employee housing, but there are huts (a 3-star hotel) nearby. Pretty rustic, but clean. Hmmm, this wasn't quite what we started out with, but again, how could we pass up the volunteer opportunities for our girls?

After returning from Paris and Israel we got back to Cambodia arrangements. We had one week at home before leaving again for McCall for two weeks, and only 10 days after that before leaving to Cambodia. We booked our tickets and tried to figure out which hut would work best. Then we learned that there isn't consistent internet access in the huts, or hot showers, and the nightlife at the hotel restaurant is loud until wee hours for all to hear. Hmmm. This was getting less and less ideal. In addition, we felt like we should let Tennie decide whether or not she would join us. She really didn't want to miss her senior year, and we felt that forcing her to go would not accomplish what we were hoping to accomplish. Then again, either would having her stay home! After praying about it, she decided to stay home. Oh boy, what should we do? Living conditions are a little more primitive than we had hoped, Tennie isn't going, and suddenly the whole idea wasn't as desirable as before. As a matter of fact, the whole idea of traveling was becoming such a labor intensive endeavor, it was quickly losing its appeal. During Christmas we got a call from the owners who said they didn't think they could afford to do the trade we had agreed upon. They also wanted someone willing to commit to a year. This was two weeks until departure! AND, their arguments totally made sense. We completely respected their needs and hopes.

We thought about it frontwards and backwards and turned over options and concerns. We prayed about what to do. In the end, we still felt compelled to go. Why was this so hard? Nothing seemed to be working in our favor. Two days before our flight, our EIGHT suitcases packed with books and supplies and vitamins and everything we thought we might need on this remote island for a few months, we learned that the program director of the foundation resigned; she was the person sort of holding down the fort on all of our volunteer possibilities. Wow!

This is where faith comes in. This was stepping into the unknown. We decided we would get on the plane, spend some time in Phnom Penh, and go to the island to see if there was anything we could do. We would check out the huts and see if we could tolerate them for awhile. We could always go back home. Our tickets were one-way. We had the flexibility to change plans.

Flying away without Tennie ripped my heart out. She is capable and strong and will be absolutely fine without us, but WE are leaving HER? It just didn't seem logical.

We spent our amazing time in Phnom Penh. We hadn't planned a thing, but the Thurstons provided such a rich experience there. If things don't work out here on the island, we might go back and do some work there.

We just arrived at the resort and it is amazing. We're spending five nights here while we explore the possibility of finding a way to get involved on the island. We drove the four long hours to the sea, boarded a resort speed boat and traveled 45 minutes to the resort. More tomorrow, but I'll tell you this much, we've arrived in Paradise.