I left Phnom Penh, Cambodia at around midnight last Friday and I am writing this at around midnight on this Friday, seven days later, in Eagle Pass, Texas, from the house of my Indian sister Mena, which lies just about 500 metres from Rio Bravo separating USA from Mexico.
These 7 days also included a very comfortable flight on Asiana Airlines from PNH to ICN and then on to LAX. Continental took me to IAH and then OMA, few days later OMA to IAH to SAT, a rent a car, a drive of 2 1/2 hours to Corpus Christi (Corpulent Christi as my good friend Ian would call it), then a five hour drive along pretty desperate scenery to Eagle Pass.
(from left to right: arriving in Phnom Penh; Heritage petrol station in Winnebago, Nebraska;the sunset on the drive to Eagle Pass, Texas; the ultramodern Inchon airport in Seoul, Korea; my newest friend RSS from Walthill, Nebraska; standing on the shores of Rio Bravo/Rio Grande looking at the mexican town of Piedras Negras, Coahuila; The good doctor from Mexico and her husband visiting my kickapoo sister. centre: the shoreline boulevard at Corpus Christi, Texas)
I wanted to thank the people who had illuminated my soul during these 7 days.
Maurits vp, www.mopotsyo.org in Phnom Penh
Dr Jim and his wife Gena, who were on the same flight to Omaha, coming back from a vacation to Key West. also included was looking for a place to eat at midnight in Omaha and the neighbouring towns.. Drinking Yes, but Eating, No said a tavern owner in the Old Market.
My Colleague at Hocank Diabetes Programme, M who is a Nurse Educator.
My Indian colleagues at the tribe.
VS, her daughter MS and her granddaughter RSS, for pleasant times after work
My esteemed colleague in Global Health Dr IBB and his wife VM.
My Kicakpoo sister M who had gone to lengths to prepare her house for my stay
The most holistic General Doctor that I know, Dra. ERG who drove over from Mexico, just across the border, for a late night chat, with her very patient husband.
One week is a short period of time, but each of these people contributed an entire universe to me.
What a melange!
A dutch lawyer in Cambodia, who had worked in Mocambique and many other places who speaks Khmer
American Indians, my patients and my friends and teachers
Christian, Jewish, Animist and Hindou
All in professions taking care of other people
A Gujerati-Ugandan-British studying to be an Occupational Therapist
Mexican
Represents a good chunk of this world.. Two Stars from the French Skies are always present.
These are my heroes! their every day life gives me strength to gon on in my chosen direction with a great speed given by them.
Thinking about each of them, as the night has chilled the air in this town which lies quite close to the northern desert of Mexico, I thought how each of them help me bring down the Structural Defects, Kleishas, as detailed by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra.. Two and half millennia ago!
IGNORANCE
you cant remain ignorant of this world with friends such as this. Dr IBB regales you with details of his travels, one moment he is Mae Sot with the Burmese Shan Doctor and the next he is telling me a Yiddische joke!
ATTACHMENT it is so good to practice dis-attachment, even from your loved ones. To see the sufferings at close quarters of GK and IBB/VM, makes you realize that attachment can make your suffering worse.
FEAR OF CHANGE You will not accomplish much if you are afraid of change. A graduate degree in International Law and this dutch humanitarian is helping hundreds of sufferers in Cambodia.
EGO There are bigger things in this life, bigger than you and there are people who sacrifice to a much greater degree. Both Dr JK and VM, how much they sacrifice for their partners .. so humbling and something to look up to ..
AVERSION using this technique, there is nothing to hate and nothing to love, the objects are there.. I immensely enjoyed my visit to Singapour, having arrived there from Paris and left for Phnom Penh.
Nothing is permanent, but I am so glad that I can be there for these friends, and I will make every attempt to travel to them, support them morally ..
Our world needs more people like this.. My Kickapoo sister who is so unselfish when it comes to helping members of her tribe, the inredible Dra ERG, who would go out of the way to be with a patient and at times would travel hundreds of miles on her own dime and time... unselfish, sacrificing and a healer..
I will quote from the two books I am reading now:
Murakami Haruki 1Q84
When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope
Erin Morgenstern The Night Circus
People see what they wish to see, and in most cases what they are told that they see.
Thank you my dear friends, my mentors and my inspirations and my two stars in Paris .. and also my newest little friend from Walthill.. each of you fills my heart ...
These 7 days also included a very comfortable flight on Asiana Airlines from PNH to ICN and then on to LAX. Continental took me to IAH and then OMA, few days later OMA to IAH to SAT, a rent a car, a drive of 2 1/2 hours to Corpus Christi (Corpulent Christi as my good friend Ian would call it), then a five hour drive along pretty desperate scenery to Eagle Pass.
I wanted to thank the people who had illuminated my soul during these 7 days.
Maurits vp, www.mopotsyo.org in Phnom Penh
Dr Jim and his wife Gena, who were on the same flight to Omaha, coming back from a vacation to Key West. also included was looking for a place to eat at midnight in Omaha and the neighbouring towns.. Drinking Yes, but Eating, No said a tavern owner in the Old Market.
My Colleague at Hocank Diabetes Programme, M who is a Nurse Educator.
My Indian colleagues at the tribe.
VS, her daughter MS and her granddaughter RSS, for pleasant times after work
My esteemed colleague in Global Health Dr IBB and his wife VM.
My Kicakpoo sister M who had gone to lengths to prepare her house for my stay
The most holistic General Doctor that I know, Dra. ERG who drove over from Mexico, just across the border, for a late night chat, with her very patient husband.
One week is a short period of time, but each of these people contributed an entire universe to me.
What a melange!
A dutch lawyer in Cambodia, who had worked in Mocambique and many other places who speaks Khmer
American Indians, my patients and my friends and teachers
Christian, Jewish, Animist and Hindou
All in professions taking care of other people
A Gujerati-Ugandan-British studying to be an Occupational Therapist
Mexican
Represents a good chunk of this world.. Two Stars from the French Skies are always present.
These are my heroes! their every day life gives me strength to gon on in my chosen direction with a great speed given by them.
Thinking about each of them, as the night has chilled the air in this town which lies quite close to the northern desert of Mexico, I thought how each of them help me bring down the Structural Defects, Kleishas, as detailed by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra.. Two and half millennia ago!
IGNORANCE
you cant remain ignorant of this world with friends such as this. Dr IBB regales you with details of his travels, one moment he is Mae Sot with the Burmese Shan Doctor and the next he is telling me a Yiddische joke!
ATTACHMENT it is so good to practice dis-attachment, even from your loved ones. To see the sufferings at close quarters of GK and IBB/VM, makes you realize that attachment can make your suffering worse.
FEAR OF CHANGE You will not accomplish much if you are afraid of change. A graduate degree in International Law and this dutch humanitarian is helping hundreds of sufferers in Cambodia.
EGO There are bigger things in this life, bigger than you and there are people who sacrifice to a much greater degree. Both Dr JK and VM, how much they sacrifice for their partners .. so humbling and something to look up to ..
AVERSION using this technique, there is nothing to hate and nothing to love, the objects are there.. I immensely enjoyed my visit to Singapour, having arrived there from Paris and left for Phnom Penh.
Nothing is permanent, but I am so glad that I can be there for these friends, and I will make every attempt to travel to them, support them morally ..
Our world needs more people like this.. My Kickapoo sister who is so unselfish when it comes to helping members of her tribe, the inredible Dra ERG, who would go out of the way to be with a patient and at times would travel hundreds of miles on her own dime and time... unselfish, sacrificing and a healer..
I will quote from the two books I am reading now:
Murakami Haruki 1Q84
When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope
Erin Morgenstern The Night Circus
People see what they wish to see, and in most cases what they are told that they see.
Thank you my dear friends, my mentors and my inspirations and my two stars in Paris .. and also my newest little friend from Walthill.. each of you fills my heart ...
