Three cheers for new tax forms!

You probably never thought you would see that headline.

I've been struggling to complete the forms required to obtain 501(c)(3) federal tax exemption for years now. Part of my problem is just plain time and the lack of it. The other has been the cryptic legal framework that requires a law degree or paid consultants to figure out the form. 

The IRS recently released form 1023-EZ. It takes a painful 26+ form and boils it down to 3 pages online. This is not just a time-saver. I'm confident we can now get the status we need to continue to grow.

In other news... Here's a picture of the new Hard Rock Cafe. It's conveniently located across the street from a place selling gasoline out of old glass containers of Johnnie Walker whiskey and another place that will repair bicycles. Never mind the stray dogs. Did I mention it's a Hard Rock Cafe?

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Clean water and sanitation have been difficult and expensive problems. The prospect of running entirely new utility systems through established, busy neighborhoods is a daunting prospect. Imagine if the local government stopped by your house and said "We're planning on digging up the entire street for the next couple of years to install some new pipes". 

That's exactly that is happening here in Siem Reap.

My hotel is along High School Road, a significant road that goes to the east of town and loops around a bit. It's also the road we use to get to Khnar Tmei. I was amazed to see how the condition reverted to nearly the same state as my first year. Apparently the new sewer and water was installed recently but they are not done. Until that time, they have no desire to fix the roads. The result is massive potholes. I'll take some pictures today for a future post.

Aside from the exciting travels dodging craters and people, a few other things caught my eye on my first day back:

• They opened a Hard Rock Cafe. I guess this will be good to help drive tourism. 
• It's the low season for tourists, but I would call it about average. The drivers agree that the economy is "good and slowly getting better"
• The exchange rate between the USD and Cambodian Riel is still firmly pegged at 4000 KHR to 1 USD.
• The recent flood of Cambodian migrant workers who were in Thailand does not seem to have significantly changed the mix of people. I'm sure the story is different at the border. Apparently the Cambodia government is trying to get people passports at a greatly reduced rate so they can go back to Thailand when it settles down and enter legally.

Time for breakfast. Perhaps I'll eat light so I can check out that Hard Rock Cafe later. 

10 Years

Today marks the beginning of my 10th visit to Cambodia. In that time I've seen:

• Roads paved
• Electricity service stabilize and expand
• Children learn, graduate, and give back to their village
• Economic growth
• and so much more

Even with all this progress, I've also seen:

• A challenging election cycle with debatable results
• The same people in poverty, year after year
• Sickness and fear

The good far outweighs the bad. I hope I've had a small part in tilting the balance, but change is a funny thing. I probably can't continue to keep doing the same types of humanitarian work. For example, the explosion of mobile devices as a primary computing platform has arguably taken off faster in the third world because they didn't have the anchor of a beige box running Windows. Teaching basic PC skills will soon have no value.

For this reason I'll spend a substantial part of my time this year reassessing my outreach and asking the same question I did when I walked off the plane 10 years ago: "I wonder how I can best help the people of Cambodia?"

Flight number 2 takes off from SFO to Seoul in about 4 hours. I'll be in Siem Reap almost exactly 24 hours from now.