My American Workpermit came in the Post - I am ready to launch

So as you can see I am at last fully international, legally permitted to work anywhere in Europe, England and America. Perfect. The Green Card interview is scheduled for the coming Monday and we are looking forward to it. After that it will be a little longer before I get the full Green Card, but in the meantime I have both a work permit and a travel permit, which apparently is very unusual.

Normally travel permits come as part of the Green Card and it is less common for people to be allowed to travel while the Green card application process is still pending.

The photograph is of my friend Noungh in Cambodia, standing on top of the small boat that we took to spend a day together around the Floating village and Flooded Forest. We caught snails that day and Noungh's contacts cooked them for everybody. I as a vegetarian had a hard time with that and didn't eat these, but there were plenty of other tasty snacks available for us. We had a feast of Cambodian delicacies.

I post this photograph of Noungh here because she appears so celebratory and victorious as she stands atop the roof of our boat, at sunset on lake Tonle Sap. And while only knowing her for a short intensive time I think her victories are fragile and for that reason ought to be celebrated all the more.

My mind wanders to the dreams yet unrealized by myself and those whom I have met around the world. These days everybody is a traveler, or it appears that way when I open up the internet and open any of many endless blogs. What I valued on my journeys were the extended periods of stay in places where most people fly in and out of with only a few days sandwiched between. So I think of those dreams, and also wonder about their shelf life.. I am nearing 40, I am! And need to explore what the real dreams are, it is so easy to get tangled in attempting to fit into the more 'normal' realm of social norms. And there is actually no guarantee that this would yield in any way greater success..

Bear with me as I try and figure it out, as I try and map my way around too many life options as opposed to maybe to few as it might have been the case (in some cases I know it was) for some of my friends, whom I found along the way in Cambodia, Thailand and India in particular.

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For now I am getting ready to take some fresh photographs of Jason doing Yoga & Tai Chi for his portfolio and of the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco at the end of the month. 

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In fact let me be wild for a moment and share a possible plan with you: I found a 7 month long Massage Program in Hawaii / Kauai for approximately $7500; totaling 700 hours of training. I had never ever considered Kauai but now I think: why not? It sounds like the perfect healing and learning experience! The teacher and director of the program, Lee Joseph, has been teaching for 30 years and the way the courses are described they sounds positively grounding. The price is amazing, of course I don't know what being in Kauai would be like, at all... NO idea. 

Photographing and Massaging as a life practice.. Perhaps a reality?
Don't even ask how I think that I could fit Academic plans into this.. I just don't know.

This is my good friend Nakry

This is my friend whom I wish I could look out for more. I realize I am not even great in looking out for myself. But all the same: All donations that I can raise go towards his families basic support and beyond that: they have dreams of education ! Like school! Or a year long apprenticeship to become an electrician (Nakry's brother would like of this) Can we make it possible? Do you want to help out?

my paypal account is linked to my e-mail address: birgitdeubner(AT) gmx(dot)net

I forward increments of $100+ via Wstern Union to him and his family. You can read more in earlier posts on this blog. You can follow this link: overthesevenseas.blogspot.co.uk/ most posts are made in 2011, and some before actually. I haven't posted anything new, as there is not much new to say: the need is great. Small help, helps hugely.

I hope to see my friend again in 2013 when I might be going to Cambodia to teach.

*** update: a key post to read about the struggles of many Cambodian families, due to last year's flooding, may be this: overthesevenseas.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/cambodia-5.html

Over 7 Seas & Birgit Deubner Etsy Stores pledge to Donate to a family in Cambodia

This is very important to me:

I WILL DONATE 5% of profit made through Etsy to Nakry's Family in Cambodia. (To calculate I will deduct only production costs, not my time or any other costs)

I will keep a public tally of how much is raised on this blog. I also accept donations for Nakry's family.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Birgit75

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The backstory:
I want to donate money to the family of a friend I made in Cambodia. I know first hand of several very good charity and NGO organizations who are active in supporting children and people of all ages to have a better future. I will update this post with a link to my blog that I have to write more about these causes.

My friend's family lost 50-60% of their rice crop to last years terrible flooding that swept across Asia. My friend's name is Nakry, his family live in a small house on stilts, the wood of which is splitting and they fear it will snap if another flood hits them before they can replace it. Nakry's family, like countless families in Cambodia, rely on their family's rice harvest to supplement their basic food needs.

I don't know how cambodian families will get through this time. Food across Cambodia will have run out some time ago (it is June now, the next harvest is not due until around december, most farmers only have enough water supply for one crop a year, few are lucky and can try their luck twice annually)

My friend's name is Nakry, his home has an open door policy welcoming any children from the extended family, if they are hungry Nakry's family will share their already tight food. Tight food? The children of the family have stunted growth, as has Nakry, he is rather small, the children who are 13 years old, look as if they are 7. The loss of the rice crop is dramatic on a family like this. It is all part of why for example Nakry's cousin left school before she finished, to work for small change as day laborer on other people's fields. She is 16, she could have become fluent in french had she stayed in school. This is a can of worms. I hope you will visit my blog when I forward the address in the next weeks (I need to update the stories, or at least make a strong start).

What is needed? Money to flood proof the house, the family fear that the wooden stilts it stands on will snap if the house is submerged once more for 2-3 months in 2 foot / half a meter of water.

Nakry and his Family

I just wanted to anounce that I am still collecting donations for Nakry's family, to help with recovery from last year's flooding. There is a real danger of renewed flooding this year. I would like the family to have a safety net: enough to eat, and maybe the needed tools should their house collapse due to the high water levels. (The stilts of their old house have split last year in the 2 month submerge-ion in the flood waters. It would be good to have a tool kit of some kind of temporary patches to hold it up (I am thinking a sort of brace reinforcement!

Green Gecko Projects

http://greengeckoproject.org/