Jess & Steve's FAQ

Jess & Steve’s FAQ

Why are you leaving your jobs and moving far away???

• We’ve always enjoyed traveling and hoped that someday we could live somewhere far from home.
• Our children are grown and we’re debt-free, so the time has come for new adventure.
• We seem to have developed a great need for novelty, and we’re ready  to do something new and different.

Why Cambodia?

A combination of selfish and possibly-not-so-selfish reasons, including the following:

• The warm, friendly, welcoming people.
• The cost of living is cheap and we can still have most of the amenities that make life pleasant.
• We like feeling useful. Cambodia is an ocean of need. The country is still struggling to recover from wars and genocide.  Resources are few and far between. There is a sense of being able to make a difference in a very concrete way.

What is it like there?

·         Hot – average temperatures are 80-100 degrees. Sometimes wet – there is a rainy season and a dry season.

     Poor – much of the population lives on a $1 a day or less.

     Needy – One out of eight children dies before their fifth birthday of preventable disease. Maternal mortality is the highest in Southeast Asia. Most of the population has no access to health care or clean water. Education is difficult to access and many children work to help support their families rather than attend school.

    Young – half the population is under 18 years old. There are children everywhere!

    Fascinating – culturally, spiritually, and environmentally.

    Friendly – Cambodians are the warmest, most welcoming people I’ve met anywhere, as well as the most resilient people I’ve ever met.

What will you do there?

• Rent a small house to live in, and hope that some of our friends and family come to visit!
• Jess may be working at an NGO (non-governmental organization) called New Hope Cambodia  – working in their one-room clinic and doing home visits. Steve may also work at New Hope as an outreach social worker and/or teacher. All of this is subject to change - because if there's anything you can count on in Cambodia, it's that things change.
• Either or both of us may do some English teaching – we’ve both dabbled at it on previous trips and native English speakers are highly sought after (even those who are not trained as teachers!)
• Any work we do there will be on a volunteer basis, so if you’re wondering how we can give up paychecks, we’ll be living on the rent generated by our house here in Vermont.

When will you come back?

·         We don’t know. We will certainly come back to Vermont for a visit in May 2011 – Dylan and Alanna are getting married then!  Otherwise, the plan is open-ended. We’ll stay as long as we can make it work.

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We’ve been responsible grown-ups for a long time – raising kids, paying the mortgage, saving for retirement, etc. We sometimes like to think that we’re able to do this as a result of hard work, but we know that there has been a significant amount of luck involved. We’ve been lucky enough to have good jobs, good health, and good kids. We were lucky enough to be born in a time and place that allowed such opportunity. We were lucky to find each other so long ago – and we’ve had such a good time creating this wonderful life together that we’re ready to start from scratch and do it all over again!