KeyLight Learning

Incredible Iris Cambodia ‘We fight to end child sex slavery. We rescue children, raise awareness, and educate those most at risk of being trafficked’. This is what Iris Cambodia does night in and night out everyday. and not long ago we were blessed to host this awesome team of young men and women. They spent their days here with us team building, strategizing, playing, laughing, praying and just enjoying a little time together outside the ‘big city’ of Phnom Penh. It was an honor to see the strength, joy, and hope they carry; knowing that their work is in the valley of the shadows. The loving impact they are having on children, youth, and families across Cambodia is clear. We love and greatly respect this team; and hope to have them all back again soon.

A New Hard Hat for the School... You call, they come, it gets done! Rotana and his team of merry metal workers arrived and within one day our school’s old straw hat (roof) was off. Within four days they had the new metal framework for the roof in place. Metal means no more worries about those little wood eating worms; unless they go bionic in some way. With framework in, it took the crew only three more days to install our pressed fiber board tiles, including a half dozen clear tiles for natural lighting, which also brings a nice reduction to our electric bill. Win! Win! Win! A huge THANK YOU to everyone for your support in getting this beautiful, long lasting hard hat in place. We and the students love it!

'Naome Nightingale' - Naome is a woman with many hats from fedoras to sporty baseball caps. But, more recently she dawned her medical cap, a lab coat and very needed sports shoes. Together with our friends at Chenla University, and a local NGO, she did First Aide training for the Cambodian police force covering everything from bumps, bruises, and burns to broken bones, and snake bites. A week later, she was doing blood work for a large-scale medical clinic held here at a local Kep high school. The team saw over a thousand people doing everything from basic health checks to minor surgery. So proud of the whole team, and love this woman in every hat she wears.

Naome had the fun and honor of sharing about our Khmer Hands and Arts Cafe on Bayon TV just a couple days ago. She did great.

Cambodia’s Future! Recently, Chenla University held a very fun, inspiring, and free, Learning and Life Skills seminar for their students. Naome and I were honored to be invited to share our experiences together with other speakers. Students learned about goal setting, being active, ‘making things happen’ vs. ‘letting things happen’, working with integrity, volunteering in their community. It was exciting to not only see their eagerness to learn, but also their desire to engaged in the positive growth of their country. We are happy to be a small part of Chenla; to see how they lead by example, how they humbly serve their students, and how they are impacting both the minds and the hearts of all work in, attend, or simply visit the university.

When your guest house has few guests and your school few students. What do you do? Everything else! We have such an awesome team. They’ve understood all the budgeting we’ve needed to do and jumped into every other job that could be done. They are sanding, painting, repairing and building; gardening and growing fresh veggies. They are fishing, and clamming (if that’s a word). It’s such a learning experience to see how they manage life’s challenges.

Diversifying businesses. Cambodia has always been a place with unique business combinations. I can buy bacon at our local hardware store, and Naome can get her hair cut while having our car washed right next to her. Some options or conveniences make perfect sense while others I’m still not so sure about. This new guest house and plumbing supply is just a few miles from us. As tourism and schools are at a relative stand still and we have such a multi-talented team living with us. Naome and I are exploring options: maybe ‘Custom furniture and fresh clams (with bacon)’. Bacon always seems to be a draw.

Zoomed out! What we’ve been doing to dodge, duck, or ditch too much screen time for the kids. So there’s cooking, climbing, craft-making, cake-eating, clay-shaping, and constructioning followed by face-making, fishing, swimming, hiking, jumping, kingdom building, painting, push-uping, and street food snacking. Your suggestions are greatly welcome.

Tears to Tables. About a week ago, we sadly needed to cut down some tall trees we had planted seven years ago when we first moved to Kep. The trees had grown tall and were getting tangled with our electrical lines. We called in an artist with a chainsaw and he quickly turned our Flame trees into smooth flat planks. Then it was on to Mr. Rom our amazing wood craftsman who transformed our trees into two tables; and we have wood for many more creations still to come.

Love this group! The Women Peace Makers is a family of amazing young women (and now men) who support, encourage, and work to empower women across Cambodia. They reach out to women facing physical, emotional, or economic challenges. Each one of these awesome young leaders is humbly walking out the truth, we all need to live by, which is that the best way to overcome our own struggles is to step out and help others. So proud of them, and so honored to host them here at Khmer Hands.

CBET Community Based Eco Tourism Bringing together people, talents, education, and a love for the environment Anlong Pring is a beautiful village along the Vietnam border. Last week, Naome and I visited our friends here and had time to learn and share. We placed orders with Seaun in the grass weaving community and had lunch with Bona who oversees a Sirus Crane sanctuary. With the village chef we visited a large aquaponics farm, which combines the raising of rice, coconut p...alms, fish, and lobster. The farm was developed to provide education and income for the village. Finally, we explored some untouched limestone caves with two intrepid village kids. The community is protecting these sites and carefully preparing them for visitors. At each stop we shared educational opportunities offered by our friends at Chenla University, who have an established program with Japan providing classroom and job-skills training to less advantaged youth in Cambodia. It was a great day to learn from and share with our friends in this amazing village. See more

Trainees become Trainers We are so proud of Reil, our now champion barista. Naome and I brought him out to Shalom Valley, a beautiful retreat campground near Kep, to train their staff in all the nuances of preparing the best cup of coffee. Reil has mastered the mechanics of the machine inside and out as well as the subtleties of each style of coffee bottom to frothy foam. We are happy to be a part of helping Shalom Valley establish their coffee corner and see Reil shine.

‘The bird a nest, The spider a web, Man friendship’ Not long ago, I read this poem by William Blake. How amazing! How true! Nests and webs are beautiful, complex, works of art created by instinct with great effort. Both provide a place to live and rest. For us, our homes and the things we have found to pad our nests provide comfort; but our life, our rest, our joy is in the relationships we have built and nurture. Hold on to them! Photo complements of a friend in Colorado. Thank you!