Daniela Papi's Blog

Greetings from Tokyo airport. I am on the craziest flight path ever from Cambodia to Hawaii and spending about 2 days in airports or on planes..... ha. It does give me a chance to eat good sushi and write from random internet cafes around the world though.

I am on my way to Hawaii to hope on the Peace Boat, a Japanese cruise ship which sails around the world educating passengers about global peace, environment, health, and social issues around the world. I will be guest lecturing about Cambodia, PEPY, and fundraising. I am really looking forward to the chance to meet an inspired ship full of world travelers who are finishing up their round-the-world cruise and are eager to change the world. It should be a very engaged crowd and I look forward to learning from their experiences on the ship.

I spent 3 years living in Japan teaching English, so it is always nice to come through Japan, practice my Japanese, and eat amazing food. Even just in the airport :-) I will write again from the ship if I can! Here's hoping for a typhoon-free Pacific crossing!

We did it! Our team of 16 PEPY Riders from 5 countries completed PEPY's second trek across Cambodia.

In addition to raising funds for educational projects, the team's goal was to visit schools and organizations across the country to teach environmental lessons and to learn about the current state of Cambodia. In addition, we were able to visit Cambodia's most famous sites and the hidden rural beauty of this rice-field-filled country.

We visited the temples of Angkor, learned Khmer cooking in Battambang, explored floating villages on the Tonle Sap, witnessed the horrors of the Khmer Rouge in the museums of Phnom Penh, joined a rural engagement party, floated in the blue water off Kep, slept next to the phosphorescence in Kampot's river, scared ourselves silly in Bokor Mountain's ghost town, and finally crossed over the hills to the ocean in Sihanoukville. The team was amazing, the journey problem-free, and the learning experiences countless.

We are already planning The PEPY Ride III for next year...... join us!

Read more from the PEPY team here:
http://www.pepyride.org/journal/journ.html

The PEPY Ride 2007 team was able to meet Loung Ung, author of "First they Killed my Father". Her book is a first hand account of life under the Khmer Rouge. Loung was as inspiring in person as she was on paper. Meeting Loung was a perfect finale to our trip as she was able to give us first hand information to connect the stories of Cambodia's history with the realities of its present.

Thanks to Loung for her time and for sharing her insites on Cambodian life with our crew.

We are half way through The PEPY Ride II and I'm already so sad to know that it will be ending soon. We have a great group of 16 from Canada, the US, the UK, Cambodia, and Australia. So far we have covered over 500km of dusty Cambodian roads, visited 4 schools and orphanages, 2 organizations to learn more about Cambodia, and tried our hand at a Khmer cooking class.

The past two days have been spent in the capital, Phnom Penh, where the team visited Khmer Rouge genocide sites and local NGO's to learn about the past and its effect on the present situation here. They were able to meet two of my personal heroes, Mickey from RDIC (www.rdic.org) and Scott from Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF - www.cambodianchildrensfund.org). These two men have completely changed their lives in order to work towards a safer and better life for the new generation of Cambodians.

I think one of the best things about a PEPY Tour is the chance to meet the Mickey's and Scott's of the world, the chance to meet people who really ARE changing the world, and who prove that yes, one person CAN make a difference. I love watching people's awe when they first arrive at CCF or RDIC or watching my team sit mesmerized during the plays put on at CCF by the students. They are plays they wrote themselves about their own lives; sold into child prostitution or beaten and orphaned and sent to the garbage dump to work. The team always leaves CCF so inspired, wanting to do more and proud to have been a part of such a marvelous place.

The same goes for everyone's reaction at RDIC. Mickey spouts off facts about water safety in Cambodia, shows us his homemade chemistry lab, introduces us to the tech team designing Khmer educational cartoons, describes their soap making project, water filters, mobile education teams, etc. You name it, RDIC does it. And what more, Mickey can articulate it, so that even the non-chemists like myself can understand. There is total silence in the room as Mickey talks about arsenic levels and testing techniques and stops mid-sentence to say "Am I boring you?" to which he hears a response of "NO! Keep talking! You're my hero!".

For me, this is the best part of the PEPY tour; watching the participants make the realization that these people, these individuals, are significantly changing the world, and that they too can do the same. I believe that is the best gift we give those who come on our trips and I look forward to watching their lives over the years to see how they too will continue to do the same.

Wow, been a while. I have been busy with PEPY's December volunteer trip - 36 people here in Cambodia for a week + painting and stocking a library and kindergarten for The PEPY Ride School, painting murals, taking students to the temples, and overall having an amazing time.

We are just about to head out on the three week PEPY Ride - and I can't wait to see this beautiful country again by bicycle. More to follow from the road!