I've mentioned and reviewed Kari Grady Grossman's book "Bones That Float, A Story of Adopting Cambodia", and recently had the opportunity to interview the author in the course of an international blog book tour.

As this was coming about, a story broke from Cambodia that grabbed my eye ... it will be in the Friday Cambodian news wrap I publish on my personal blog, Paradise Preoccupied ... about the environmental watchdog group, Global Witness, report on illegal logging being banned in the country. (It's the report that's banned, understand, not the logging.)

Turns out, this story is directly connected to "Bones That Float" in profound ways. The author and proceeds from the book support the Grady Grossman School in the village of Chrauk Tiek in the Cardamom Mountains ... one of the areas that suffers from illegal logging that is devastating the ecology and social fabric of this rural community.

Here's a very personal view on the story from Kari on this:

You know the Global Witness report that was all over the news last week regarding the deforestation and corruption connection? Our school is right in the middle of it. But last night the school director told me that the "high-ranking people are scared for the people of Chrauk Tiek because they have a voice to the world."

She's shaking things up, which has to be the first uncomfortable, perhaps even frightening, step toward positive change ... even more reason to support her work, which is easily done by buying, reading and discussing her book.

Now, to the interview ...

SHB:
As someone spending time in Cambodia, what is your impression or experience regarding children being abandoned in the country today?

KGG:

My experience is mostly in a very rural village where children are not abandoned so much as they are orphaned by various disasters and end up living with other relatives. This puts a tremendous burden on the family that takes in the child, and to be honest, because of the stress of the situation, I don’t think the child experiences much love.

You can’t really blame the families for resenting having another mouth to feed, but at the same time the relatives are often deeply concerned about the alternative options, such as orphanage care or adoption. I work in the rural area with schools because I believe that the poverty there is what causes the migration of families, orphans and street children to the urban areas.

SHB:
It's often stated that since the US suspension, the 'supply' of babies has dried up, and the Holt report suggested that the children in orphanages are now much older. Does your experience agree with these assessments?

KGG:

There are both older children and babies in every orphanage I have seen, on every trip, every year.

The interview continues in the next post.