khmer cooking class- banana flower salad

man vs. nature: nature wins, ta prohm temple (cambodia)

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a strangler fig takes
hold of a
rooted in a door
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bayon temple (cambodia)

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sending compassion
equanimity, joy, love
in four directions
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banteay srei, citadel of women (cambodia) - naga (dragon) detail

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fierce and intricate
carvings tell a bloody tale
so beautifully
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banteay srei, apsaras at the citadel of women (cambodia)

wat's up? (angkor wat, cambodia)

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Angkor, that's wat
sunrise over the temple
that began the end
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(wat means "temple" in the khmer language)

aki ra, cambodia landmine museum (siem reap, cambodia)

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former child soldier
now deactivates some of
the 3 million mines
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the road to siem reap, cambodia

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motos carrying
bamboo cages filled with pigs,
kids walking to school
*
our bus, white cows, trucks,
men carting plastic jugs on foot
all share the highway
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the best $1 i ever spent on a meal

...was in phnom penh's toul tom poung (russian) market
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cut fried taro rolls
fresh wide rice noodles
in coconut milk
*
chewy
fragrant
filling
$1
nuff said
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rice paddies, en route from phnom penh to siem reap, cambodia

choeung ek killing fields near phnom penh

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this stupa contains
the skulls and bones of thousands
of Cambodians.
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1975
in a former longan field
the khmer rouge killed
*
people they feared were
a threat to their power-
teachers, doctors, monks,
*
farmers who resisted
and their entire families,
tortured and bludgeoned to death.
*
khmer rouge leaders
were just like the people they killed-
teachers and monks...
*
3 million dead
20% of the
Cambodian population
*
genocide shows how
power and fear turns brothers
and sisters like me
*
against each other
while other nations armed and
fueled the destruction.
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tuol sleng S21 prison and torture center, phnom penh

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(above: mug shots of prisoners at tuol sleng, some taken just before torture and murder)
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21,000 people imprisoned and tortured at this high-school-turned-prison, electrocuted and water boarded, mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, politicians, farmers, doctors, teachers, laborers, lawyers, people who talked back or at the wrong place at the wrong time.
*
i easily could have been there too.
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gate at royal palace, phnom penh

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mix the khmer empire
with buddhism and french rule
get killer design
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royal palace, phnom penh

guan yin, the bodhisattva of compassion

at the top of Kadoorie Gardens, a training center in Hong Kong for sustainable organic farming and enviromental stewardship in Asia.

honoring my late father

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my dad's high school friends
hike with me to a hilltop
oasis garden
*
guan yin provides rest
in sweltering hong kong heat
a lotus blooms
*
we form a circle
our loss brings us together
and builds new friendships
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finding refuge in hong kong

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a giant buddha
visible from our airplane
hidden in city

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blast off!

慢慢来 (little by little...)

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pole pole
we said in Kiswahili
mantra for social change
*
patience is vital
for sustainability
clear and sure-footed
*
small shifts in practice
can save thousands of lives
making it all worthwhile
*
(above: community health workers Xiao Fei, Zhan Fei and Zhang Aiyi, me, Director Shi of the HIV/derm department at Hangzhou Number 6 People's Hospital, Dr. Yu, head of the inpatient unit, and Dr. Yu's 9-year-old son in front)
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delusion

*
a man with a knife
squats outside the hospital
"give me medicines!"
*
he yells at doctors
and anyone who'll listen
"i have HIV!"
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problem is, his tests
are all negative but he
doesn't believe it
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