If you pick up any travel guide to Cambodia, you will see under the “weather” section that almost all of them say you should never travel in September, due to the rainy season. But of course I wasn’t heading to Cambodia for tourism purposes, but instead to meet the local children there. So rainy season or not, I was on my way. Before I left, I received an email from Leng, the man I was going to meet there, which simply said, “Please prepare for mud.” I will admit readily that I was woefully unprepared, and I should have paid more attention in school to what “monsoonal rains” really mean.

We left for the first village at 7:30 in the morning, in the pouring down rain, and our brave tuk tuk driver was soaked to the core before we even climbed aboard. Read more.