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prayers too big for words: images from toul sleng prison and the killing fields at choeung ek

prayers too big for words: images from toul sleng prison and the killing fields at choeung ek

I’ve never posted my images taken from the day, over a year ago, when I visited Toul Sleng prison and the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek in and outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It’s was – and continues to be – difficult to wrap my head around. It felt too simple to post such gruesome and heart-breaking images without proper written analysis or without the deepest reverence for those for whom the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge continue to be an echoing nightmare. But I can’t hide

July YAGM Newsletter

wisdom notes from dad

wisdom notes from dad

I've got a pretty cool dad. And I know most people think that about their own fathers - and maybe it's true - but I really lucked out being the spawn of the thoughtful, considerate man that I did. When I told most people I was considering moving to Cambodia for a year of service, learning, and growth, I got a mix of reactions, many of which questioned my motives and mental sanity. My father, however, was nothing but supportive and excited from day one. I remember sitting acro

May YAGM Newsletter

photos: khmer wedding season

photos: khmer wedding season

Despite being the hottest time of the year, the period between January and April is a joyfully welcomed season: it's wedding season! In the same way U.S. couples tend to wed during the summer months, the passing of the harvest period and general lack of rain means a lot of couples choose to marry during this time of year (and I mean a LOT - in my small village there is a wedding over half the nights each week). I have had the honor of formally attending two weddings, and 'cra

March YAGM Newsletter

Opening Up: Accompaniment, Vulnerability, and a Brutal Back Rub

Opening Up: Accompaniment, Vulnerability, and a Brutal Back Rub

I haven't been able to move for two days. My legs shake when I try to hold myself up, my head feels like it is being squeezed in a compress. I've over-consumed Advils and Airbornes, forced myself into drinking healthy amounts of water (something I so often don't do around here). I'm sick. I refuse to go see the doctor. I insist it can't be that bad. Over dinner, I insist it will go away on its own and that I just need sleep. But as I barely manage to lift a spoonful of rice

January YAGM Newsletter

All the Blogs I Meant to Blog in 2015

All the Blogs I Meant to Blog in 2015

When I left home, I made firm promises to family and friends that I would keep them well-informed of the goings-on in my life: I’d write letters and call often and post photos and, most importantly, write some blog posts that my grandparents could share with their friends. Well, here I am at the end of 2015: I’m almost two months behind on donor letters, my internet is too slow and too frustrating for regular phone calls, I’m editing photos from early November still, and, yea

photos: it's raining...again

photos: it's raining...again

The rain comes every day. Sometimes it pitter patters on the church's tin roof in the early afternoon as we wrap up class; other times it waits to explode after dark in the shadows when it becomes nothing more than a great noise, its shape filled by imagination as we toss and turn on our beds, mats, floors. It's one of my favorite times of day - the heat breaks, the world slows down, the mind takes time to rest. Sometimes we play in it - filling buckets to toss on one another

November YAGM Newsletter

Sure, I'll Shake My Butt

Sure, I'll Shake My Butt

HOW LIVING AT KRUOS VILLAGE IS SORT OF LIKE LEARNING THE CHICKEN DANCE I have been at my service site in Kruos Village for three full weeks now. It’s been nuts – a whole slew of new faces, foods, words, experiences, lessons. I never quite know where I’ll be going, or which classes I’ll be teaching, or who I’ll be meeting. Life is inconsistent as my host community as I figure out just how we’ll best fit together. But there is one thing that has been a constant in my life these

Photos: The Splendors of Angkor

Photos: The Splendors of Angkor

Long Di at Neak Pean During our second week of in-country orientation, the YAGM Cambodia group, along with our language instructor Long Di, made our way to Siem Reap to visit the temples of Angkor. I've seen an immense number of old structures in my life, but I was not prepared for how utterly moved I would be by the grand ruins left behind by Cambodia's greatest empire. The Angkorian complex goes on for ages - we explored for three days and I felt did not even scratch the su

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