(all of the images in this post are brought to you by my point-and-shoot)

• I wink a lot. I’m a winker. I actually go through phases where I’ll wink a lot, and then have a long dry spell with hardly any winking. Language barriers, I’ve learned, seem to put my winking into overdrive. I smile a lot, and wink. I accidently winked at a monk. In a conservative culture where women are never supposed to physically come into contact with a monk. I’m pretty sure that made him think I was a hussy, but he was too polite to say so.

• I got a 1 hour foot massage. For $8. Can’t beat that.

• I finally got a helmet, which makes riding around the city on motos just a little bit safer. I know a lighter color would have been cooler, but I thought darker was more slimming. Yes?:

• Went back to the Russian Market so Tim could return a faulty dvd he bought there. Ate lunch at one of the food stalls. Both of our meals plus a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice came to $1.25.

• Went to Chow’s for happy hour and some internet time. I went up to the rooftop deck to watch the sun set.

Self portrait. Can you tell I haven’t slept in a long time?
• Dinner at Sharky’s, amidst some working girls.

 
• Met up for breakfast the next morning with Fritz and Seth at Herb Cafe, two guys from Portland who are here working with Athena from Transitions. Seth wants to start a non-profit back in the States to assist with marketing, fund-raising, managing volunteers, and creating media for non profits such as Transitions, Daughters Cambodia, and SISHA.

• Went over to the SISHA offices to photograph their victim packs (packages the women and children get when they are rescued during raids), then headed over to meet Ruth at Daughters Cambodia to photograph some products for their new product catalog. Daughters provides employment and aftercare to victims of sex trafficking. The girls learn how to sew, make jewelry, cakes, and silkscreen products. They also have free access to workshops, counseling, and medical and dental care, and HIV screening. While I was there some volunteers were putting on a workshop teaching the girls the importance of hygiene- how to wash your hands and why it’s important, how to clean the bathroom and kitchen, these things may seem very basic, but it is new information to many of the girls. Rebecca from White Aisle (who I talked about in an earlier post), provided sewing machines and patterns to get the girls started in making silk sashes, ring pillows, and flowers for the wedding industry, which she sells in her online store. By purchasing these or any of the other products that the girls at Daughters make, you are helping to provide a sustainable future for them, ensuring they are able to make a living outside of the sex industry.

• I hit myself in the head with my camera. Hard. Brought tears to my eyes and left a big bump. That was a first for me. Maybe I really should be wearing a helmet at all times.