Away for a While

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated this thing in a while. After Mickey's death a lot of people including myself went in to the city (Phnom Penh). I stayed there a few days and then took off to the city of Siem Reap for a week. Mickey was supposed to help lead a conference on arsenic testing in ground water in Siem Reap. There were a lot of people from the states who were here for the conference and they went ahead conducted the conference, so I went with them. I thought it would be a good time to give space to those who needed to grieve and almost no one stayed here. Wendi Sampson, the kids, and several others went to Thailand to get Mickey's body. They didn't get back to until Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday was a private funeral for the village of Kien Svay (where RDI is located). The village and RDI staff are like family to the Sampsons, so many people had to process this loss.

Today, Saturday, there was an open funeral at 5:30Pm. I unfortunately didn't know about this until this morning when I was leaving Siem Reap. I left just past noon and endured a 6 1/2 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. I made arrived back just after the service was over; everyone was still giving their condolences. Plus in Kmer funerals they have a dinner; I made it back just after it had been served.

I was glad to be able to make it to the funeral and I had originally intended on making a trip to Siem Reap during my stay in Cambodia, except not for this reason. Just outside of Siem Reap is the world's largest ancient temple complex. It's most commonly referred to as the Angkor Wat temple complex, but the Angkor Wat is only one of 200+ temples which span several square miles. I'll try to post photos when I get the chance.

Please continue to remember the Sampson family, RDI, the village of Kien Svay, Cambodia, and all of South East Asia. All of which Mickey had a direct and lasting impact on. I'm unsure what will change when I get back to RDI. There is some art work that I had started I need to finish, but besides that I'm unsure what I'll be doing. I'll try to keep you better updated.

thanks,
Cory