The Busy Life

I'm not sure that it's entirely appropriate to thank globalization for my slow Monday morning, but I'm going to anyway. There's a volcano in Iceland, with a very Icelandic name (and I thought Khmer was difficult to pronounce), that has freed up my week. We were supposed to host a team from the UK, but their plane couldn't take off, thanks to volcanic ash, so now I'm sipping a cappuccino, catching up on emails, and reviewing photos from Laos. It's disappointing not to have the team here—I was looking forward to meeting them—but there's quite a few other things that need doing as well, so it's great to have time to focus on them.

There was a lot going on in the weeks leading up to our trip, and then vacation itself, which wasn't really a time that I used for writing any kind of reflections. Mostly, we played in the Mekong River, in various waterfalls, drank fruit shakes, and laughed. Which was a pretty good way to spend a week.

In any case, since I'm not feeling very reflective at the moment, I've decided to put it to a vote. I'll list some things I want to blog about in the next few weeks, and you (various readers) can indicate which you want to read the most. It feels pretty democratic, and ensures that I won't forget things (which I'm likely to do). Here we go:

1. Laos Travelogue: What we did, where we stayed, fun things about our trip (including a bonus Lao corruption story!)
   
2. Field Trips: People I met and stories I heard when we recently visited some villages where WR works.
   
3. Celebrating Easter in Cambodia: Why it's different and what I learned this year.
   
4. Hot Season Reflections: While I'm sweating, what I'm learning.
   
5. Staff Retreat Pics and Stories: Kampot is a cool place, and the things we learned there.
   

By the time I write five new blogs, I'm sure lots of other things will have happened that I'll want to share. So… vote now, so I'm motivated to start writing!

The picture is of sunset on the Mekong River, only a few kilometers into Laos. Just to prove we really made it into Laos, with the car, even.