After a whirlwind two days of travel from Ireland to San Francisco (via London and New York layovers) followed by San Francisco to Phnom Penh (via Hong Kong), I have finally arrived in Cambodia. My friend Hemly Ordonez, who has been working at a number of NGOs since June, met me at the airport with Somol, one of the students from Friends Help Friends for Development who is now enrolled in university in the capital.

Friends Help Friends for Development was an initiative started and supported by the residents of Trapiang Kaek village in the Veal Pong commune that encourages rural children to attend college. The public education system, after years of marginalization at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and subsequent political instability, only reopened in 2000 and rural areas have felt the impacts the most. Today, FHFD reaches over 500 students and has sent its first cohort to college (with the second starting in three months). Knowing they have a winning model on their hands, FHFD is looking to expand to other areas in rural Cambodia. I've come here thanks to generous support from YP4 for this Blueprint for Social Justice to create a video that will serve as a vehicle to both raise awareness of their great work and funds for this expansion.

Hemly and I have been communicating with a variety of key players in FHFD. Using her contacts, she has also set up interviews with current FHFD students and donors. Today, Hemly took me around Phnom Penh to give me a feel for the city. Though we are shooting in the rural villages, it's good to be able to contrast the rural with the urban. We also stopped into another organization doing extraordinary work, Tiny Toones. Here, KK, a Cambodian-American deportee, has taught street children how to break dance. We got a chance to see them do some freestyling and they are incredible.

Our shooting schedule tomorrow consists of running around Phnom Penh capturing what's known as "B-roll" footage, the filler material of a documentary. We'll be riding around in the moped-driven "tuk-tuks" (the Cambodian equivalent of a taxi) with open sides perfect for letting the camera do its work. We're also hoping to get some sweeping vistas of the rice fields (there's a reason it's a cliche in every movie about SE Asia - the visual is truly stunning!).

A minor setback came today with my portable harddrive. I had hoped to be able to store the footage on the hard drive so as to keep space free on my laptop. However, I think in my haste of moving bags, I dropped the bag that contained the -- so I've learned -- fragile hard drive and my computer no longer recognizes it. At the same time, I'm choosing to be optimistic so I'm glad this didn't happen at the end of the trip with all my footage stored there!

OK - it's been a long day and I must head to bed. I will keep checking in from time to time hopefully with interesting stories.

Cheers!

AC