Oftentimes I'm convinced that I'm one of the most fortunate beings on the planet!
This weekend, I crossed the border from Thailand into Cambodia and made the onward journey to Battambang, a colonial provincial capital on the banks of the Sangkar River. I had lived and worked here in Battambang in 2005 and have long wanted to return to visit with Khmer friends and colleagues. The homecoming has been so sweet.
Cham Nan and his family were neighbors when I lived in the riverside village of Pum Chen. He and his sister Sophy would often spend evenings with me and my housemate Vanessa, an English teacher, eager to practice their classroom-learned English with native speakers. The internet has allowed us to stay in touch over many years as Sophy has matured into womanhood and as Cham Nan has completed high school and entered university.
The family has welcomed me in their home during this visit, fattening me with love and traditional Khmer food. We traveled yesterday to their ancestral village in the countryside where grandparents and aunts and uncles still live a simple lifestyle farming the land. Even during the era of the Khmer Rouge and then the Vietnamese occupation, the elders remained on the land in the forest while Cham Nan's family sought safety for the children in the refugee camps of eastern Thailand.
While here in Battambang, I've been able to have a reunion with colleagues at the local military hospital where I had worked in 2005 with the NGO, Family Health International. I remember the year 2005 and how the wards were crowded with critically ill patients with advanced HIV disease; yet now Cambodia's HIV prevalence has lessened and the hospital admits fewer severely ill patients, likely attesting to the good work done in prevention and early care and treatment. What a breath of fresh air to return to see this achievement!
