There are two main cultures here in Cambodia, the Khmer Buddhism culture and the Cham Muslim culture, they are a minority group, but the second largest in the country. Our current area has no Muslims, and the town where the girls go to school has no mosque yet, and only a few Muslims living there.

I have, however, lived in Muslim villages here in Cambodia, and also in Muslim majority towns, and I must say the social decay that plagues Khmer families doesn't exist in the Muslim communities. There are several reasons for this, but most of all the lack of alcohol, gambling, and prostitution are big factors.

Although I am not a Muslim myself, I sure miss having Muslim friends and neighbors because they are much easier for me to relate to, and I think more interested in discussing life, problem-solving, etc. Although I don't call my way of life a "religion," it is known as Rastafari by some people, although I call myself a Nazarite as I have taken the vow of the Nazarite.

It is an Abrahamic way of life, many similarities with Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, so I often find it is easier for me to relate to people from these walks of life.

Far too generous bro, but this offer of kindness and support is beyond words, you're better to us than most family members, but let's that keep that an ASEAN Hive secret, and that will be easy because none of them read my blog.

We are probably less than two months away from listing the cabin on Airbnb, and this will be the gamechanger we need to become more stable. If worse comes to worse, I can always power down, and I have done a few small ones these last several months. The @asean.hive HP is above 5,000 now, and it's safe to say you are responsible for at least 50% of that.

If it was necessary, I'm the community would have no objections to powering down a bit each month for fuel costs to help the village kids. As I've already said though, I still dream of an ASEAN Hive Summit though, and I hope to retrofit our place to host all these potential future visitors.

Perhaps Prime Minister Mey-Yii will grant me Cambodian citizenship one day 😁. In our situation we feel compelled to do this, otherwise she's at our house all day and we have to constantly feel guilty that she's missing out on so many important parts of life.

It is ironic, but after traveling in many predominantly Buddhist countries, the view of karma is that if you get away with whatever you do without consequence, it must be because of a good dose of karma in your previous life. This attitude allows corrupt people to stay in power and an elite minority to plunder the country's resources simply because it goes unchallenged. The monks should have a duty to battle the social and moral decay, but instead their days are spent meditating, walking around collecting funds, and using the funds to make the monastery bigger. There are very few community programs or social work the monks do, in fact they don't have to cook because poor people gift them food each day. This is the opposite of Muslim and Sikh, Hindu faiths, where the temples often provide a community kitchen and feed the local homeless and poor each day. Sorry to bash on Buddhism, but it's not the idealistic religion painted by National Geographic and hipsters in the USA.

Haha, you're right about not lying, sometimes words have to carefully be chosen. Kids have a way of remembering positive experiences, and I've already reaped what I've sown here in Cambodia. I taught probably upwards of a 1,000 students in Siem Reap during my years spent there, too many students to remember all their faces and names. However, every time I visit the town, I can't go anywhere without one of my students greeting me and introducing me to the foreign tourists they are guiding around town.

When I see these kids as young adults speaking English and using the skills I taught them to financially support a family, I feel a great sense of satisfaction. The folks in our village will be slow to realize the error of their ways, but hopefully when they see what we do with our land, they will begin to follow suit, hopefully first by not burning heaps of plastic trash every day.

Same same but different as they say here, the western "Karen" comes to mind, and there are plenty of Cambodian "Karens," although the manifestation is very different than in the west. I sometimes remind Mey-Yii that her grandma would be in jail where I'm from for treating her the way she does.

Life is cruel teacher at times, and I can't help but imagine a day will come when this perfect "new family" disintegrates, the mom finds herself in hard times, Mey-Yii is a young successful adult, and the mom tries to come back into her life because Mey-Yii has an income, apartment, spare bed, etc., and this sweet little girl will finally see the power dynamic has changed and she has a choice of whether or not to deal with their foolishness and fuckry.

I can imagine that day, Mey-Yii telling me in perfect English that she told her mom "Don't let the door hit ya' where the good lord split ya'!" Haha, okay, that scenario is not likely to happen, but perhaps a version of it.

Tragic indeed, and I've told my wife far too many times how hard we would lay into her grandma for dropping the parenting bar. It's bizarre how direct and open Khmers can be when commenting on one's physical appearance, income, etc., but when it comes to the stuff that actually matters, the culture doesn't permit criticizing like this, which I feel allows more societal and moral decay.

I find it's a common thing here that a woman marries a guy and a has a few children, but because folks often marry too young here and also don't discover themselves until much later in life, these first families/marriages end in divorce or partial separations. All too often the new love/husband refuses to be a stepdad and wants genetic children only, I guess because the thought of mixing new "mini me's" with some other guys kids is just unacceptable.

If our neighbors lived in Kentuckiana, everyone would eventually get choked out within a few weeks for acting the way they do. I'm not a huge fan of my country, but I am glad that we as citizens do hold each other to a certain standard of human decency.

It sounds like she is taking advantage of your kindness and you have to draw the line somewhere!

"Play fool to catch wise" as they say in Jamaica, an expression I like. Something has to change in the Khmer culture, a greater respect for nature, a sense of duty to provide the youths with a brighter future, and these things aren't going to happen by repeating the mistakes of the past forever.

Doing the right thing here is hardly ever easy or comes without much ridicule, but there is a reason the village children want to spend time at our house. Perhaps a few years from now the village kids will be looking out for us more than their own parents 😁. What comes around goes around, even if many Khmers don't actually believe in the karma their religion teaches them.

I agree with you, we reap what we sow, although sometimes these seeds take years and years to harvest, and this can be a frustrating test of the human spirit and patience, but not a test I want to fail in this life. I walked outside today and saw one of our neighbor girls helping to wash our dishes, and I didn't ask her to do this, I think it was just her way of saying thanks for taking her to school every day.

My sense of humor was a little dark on this day, but it is reflective of my attitude lately. The parents in this village are frustrating to say the least, but if we don't help the neighbor kids a bit, nobody will.

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That is correct a lot of the time, most Khmers think all foreigners are rich, and they never believe me when I say buying land is 10x cheaper where I'm from in Indiana in the USA. The kids are the most important though, and I know they will do what they can to help me when I need it.

I think you are right, I don't expect any blessings to befall us from nearby families, but the seeds are planted in the minds of these village youths, and they see the hours I spend each day to assure they get an education, even if not a good one by international standards.

It is hard for me to relate to the culture and religion of Cambodia, but I do love living here despite all the negative aspects. I really feel this life is a test, and that these situations are the real tests of character, not how we treat lovely house guests who come to share only good moments.

We usually have a good commute, and sometimes a few laughs.

You're right, kindness is weakness in many parts of the world, especially so in Cambodia. Still though, I try not to let this way of thinking prevent a child in my locale from getting a much-deserved education.

I'm super behind on comments, sorry for a late reply. In the time since you wrote this comment I have come up with a partial solution. The drive to and from school is roughly one and a half to two hours, and done twice a day it accounts for a lot of fuel and wasted potential productive time.

We ultimately bought the land because of the location, and if something like this were near a town, it would be full of trash, and we'd be swimming in styrofoam, used diapers, and instant noodle package wrappers. There is land set aside for a school in our village, and once the international border crossing with Thailand is completed, it will change this economy overnight.

The town where our daughters study is on the border with Thailand, and because of this the Chinese are already busy buying everything. Land prices in Thmor Da are minimum $10,000 USD per square meter regardless of property depth, much more expensive than most places in the USA, even though I can't seem to convince even one Cambodian than total monthly living expenses are cheaper in Indiana than in this town.

The border situation creates an inflated economy, and even in this town things always cost 10% to 30% more than regular just because of the Chinese presence. I thought about renting a room in the town to use an office space for more comfort when I come, and usually this would be $30 to $50 in a similar sized town anywhere else in Cambodia. Here a plain room without furniture is upwards of $350 a month, and the Chinese don't mind this price at all.

There is also a lot of illegal stuff going in Cambodian border towns, and often a large part of the local population is engaged in illegal activities. There is always a casino involved, and of course some social problems come with that. Just the other day while waiting for the kids to get out of school, a VIP from the capital stopped his car in the middle of the highway, and violently opened his door to hit a dog in the head that was standing in the middle of the road, not impeding his path in any way.

There are already a couple locals that want me to teach and English class during the time I spend here waiting for the girls, and they've offered free spaces for use, so this could be a future option once the logistics are all worked out.