Human Rights Make Me Sick!!

This is a holiday weekend--December 10th is International Human Rights Day. Awesome! you might say, before you realize the full implications of celebrating human rights in a country that the IMF actually had to cut funding from due to a lack of the above.

Who cares, right? It's a DAY OFF!! It's also my friend Steve's one-year anniversary with his Cambodian wife. This is significant in my life only because his wedding is where I contracted the bronchial virus that then knocked out my thyroid.

That's right, I've been sick for a year officially, this weekend. Can you even imagine? How crazy is that? At least I'm not bedridden anymore.

My Anniversary!!

Today is the one-year anniversary of the day I first came to Cambodia: 17 October 2010.

I'm not quite sure how to take the news.

I've been sick for three-quarters of the year; I've had two jobs; I've lost my internet; and now I have even less money than I came with. AND I'M STILL GLAD I CAME TO CAMBODIA. I could shout it from the rooftops all night!

I remember how it felt, flying in after my ordeal with Aston Jining. The relief that hit me with a gust of tropical air as I stepped off the plane at 10 pm, Dara waiting at the entrance. Coming to Okay Guesthouse, glowing golden in the evening air, and having someone to help me up the stairs with my suitcase.

Help, for God Sake! Help, support and kindness from strangers--something completely unheard of in China! I wept with relief and joy in the muggy night; I inhaled the muggy, warm air; and I curled gratefully up in my clean, white 6x8 cell.

Despite the hardships I have undergone, I don't regret my decision to dump China for this. Not for one minute. And I never will.

I don't know what the next year is going to look like--I still suffer from hypothyroid symptoms; my lease expires soon, and I've got no money. But I, Holyrockthrower, shall adventure forth into an uncertain future, unrestrained by fact or fear.

No regrets.