June 27, 2006
The End of the Road...
Tomorrow is our last day at the Documentation Center office, as we leave Friday morning to go to Thailand. Though it is not our last day in Cambodia (we come back from Thailand for two days before flying to the US), it marks the end of our research project. Well, the end of the Cambodian portion of our research project at least. We still have to develop and print about 1,200 photos, edit and clean all of our audio clips, put the text together for the exhibit, create a slideshow, mount and frame the photos, and secure a place at Michigan (as well as other universities) to show our work. That is enough to ensure that we'll be very busy working on this until our exhibit is opened (hopefully in mid-late October.) So far, we have contacts at Rudgers, Columbia, Yale, Northwestern, Northern Illinois, UC Berkeley, and Seattle U that are interested in showing our work.
Just thinking about all that makes me tired! Thankfully, Emma and I have a one-week vacation in Thailand to look forward to. We'll be spending a couple days in Bangkok and then going down to an island called Ko Samet in the Gulf of Thailand. I'm really excited to travel through a new country, although we won't have the comfort of semi-being able to speak the language.
A friend recently emailed me and asked me if this trip was everything I wanted. I can honestly say that it has gone way beyond my expectations. The people we've met, the places we've travelled to, the stories we've heard...they've all taught us so much. I know this trip has really changed me for the better. I can't wait to go back to Michigan and share what we've learned with the university.
Cambodia is an incredible country. The people here have given Emma and I so much, and I would really like a chance to give something to them. Youk has offered us a chance to return and take our exhibit around to the provinces, once it is translated into Khmer. That way, the information in our project will not only reach students in the US, but will also be available to the Cambodian people. I would love to do this, and I really hope that it works out some time in the next year.
Although I'm excited to go home and see my family and friends, I know how much I will miss Kampuchea.
Posted by laraf at June 27, 2006 10:47 PM