My friend Gay is off to Cambodia. We dropped her at the airport last night and she arrived in Singapore this morning where she’ll do a bit of shopping, lunch with another friend, then fly off for Phnom Penh this evening. It’s only seven hours from Seychelles to Singapore, just down the block in Indian Ocean terms, and many Seychellois make the trip often. It’s a shopping destination and people frequently take the exhausting option of going and coming back on the same day just to pick up necessary items not available on this much smaller island. Although Gay did leave with a shopping list, the reason for her trip is more adventurous than a practice in negotiating mega-malls.

A few months ago I forwarded her an email I’d received from Tabitha USA, a terrific organization, about house building trips in 2006 and she signed up for this one in March.

Tabitha USA raises money through a variety of programs and spends it all in Cambodia. They sell handmade items that are the result of an empowerment effort for women where they learn a trade and are paid for their work. Alternative gifts from Tabitha are a favorite with me, and the kids in my family – my granddaughter, nieces and nephews – have been pleased to find certificates thanking them for donations made in their names for baby pigs, fishing nets, educational expenses and village water wells under the Christmas tree. It’s even possible to gift a donation of an entire house.

A couple of times a year, the Tabitha folks put together teams of volunteers who go to Cambodia and build the houses. This is certainly in future vacation plans for our family, as we can’t think of a better holiday when the kids are big enough to participate, and with Gay now doing the test mission and reporting back at the end of it, we’ll have a much better idea just how long we should wait before we join a construction crew.

Before she heads out to the provinces, hammer in hand, she’s going to AOA, the orphanage that cared for our kids before they came home. I sent her off with loads of recent photos for both Sam’s and Cj’s nannies and news of how they’re doing. She’ll also have with her meat and fruit and whatever else she decides to buy for the kids still living at AOA.

Two families here in Seychelles have received referrals for AOA kids and are jumping up and down at the thought of more photos to gaze upon as they wait to travel. Gay is under orders to give cuddles and kisses, to shoot loads of pix and to try to get the tykes to smile for the shutter.

Poor Gay. She doesn’t even like kids, or so she says every time she takes Sam on an adventure walk or totes Cj through town.