L-I-F-O (Last-In-First-Out)

Our weekly schedule seems to have lost some of its consistency. We still get up and take our morning walk, but each day seems to have become more unique as the week's flow by. Today we were invited to participate in a NGO (Non-Government Organizations) Consortium at the Tonle Bassac restaurant, along with Phanna, Elder and Sister Thurston, and Saret from the service center. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m., so we figured leaving at 7:30 would be plenty early. It would have, except for a bridge next to the restaurant was closed, which created a parking lot on a major road with traffic backed up for several kilometers. What should have been a 15 minute drive took about 75. We were glad we were riding with the Thurstons and only had one car in the backlog. Because of traffic, the meetings didn't begin start until about 9:30.

This meeting gave us the opportunity to hear about several other NGOs based in the US that are doing work in Cambodia. It was interesting getting to visit with others and hearing of their purpose. This also included a good lunch, but it made for a long morning. After the meeting we finally made it to the office at 3:00 in the afternoon. There were emails and correspondence to answer and projects to finish for tomorrow. At about 4:55 we were finished with what we were working on and didn't want to start anything new, so we packed things up to head for home. We told the others on our way out that we were working L-I-F-O (Last-In-First-Out). We may have only spent two hour at the office but it was a long day. Sitting in a seminar is often more tiring than doing our work.

Our pictures today start with sunrise and end with the sunset. Traffic was crazy mostly because people don't follow order. The motos coming toward us are all on the wrong side of the road (which means they were driving in our lane in spite of a center barrier). There are Buddhist Monks at the restaurant ready for lunch. The photo of the Consortium group would have been larger, but there were several who didn't return after lunch.