chomno in

when kathy and i were in cambodia in july, we met chomno in. chomno is a wonderful man who is doing an incredible work of transformative reconciliation and social empowerment in the villages surrounding poi pet with Cambodian Hope Organization, an NGO that he started. CHO was the only NGO that was entirely Cambodian-run that we came across, and it was by far the most effective. You should go and check it out. Send me an email if you're curious....

Under the burning landmined dirty heat of the Cambodian sun, Chomno informed us that he was about to make his first trip to the USA the week after we were leaving.

Us: "Wow Chomno. That's cool. Where are you going?"

Chomno: "Have you ever heard of Connecticut?"

Us: (stunned) "Well...yes. Its about 15"x15" and we live there. Want to come to our place next week?"

And that was it. The first visitor to the 180Colony was a man from a small town in western Cambodia. God is our travel agent. Can't front on that.

He was coming to CT to visit his sister, who had moved to Danbury 4 years ago when she married a Khmer-American. They were married a year before the INS would let her move here. They're such a romantic branch of our national infrastructure.
I guess it makes sense.

Anyway, Chomno hadn't seen her in 4 years, and had never met his new niece. Here's a picture of their reunion. Chomno is the guy holding the baby.

I'm so glad that they were our first guests.