Nepotism and nagging have led to a wonderful opportunity for me this summer. I get to be a research intern in Phnom Penh for my wonderful father looking at the experience of “massage parlour” workers. What a privalege to be able to talk to these women, I really hope that this can be a welcome opportunity for them to voice what they want to, and that we can accurately represent this in the report we (the research team) will produce. Two months isn’t long to do a project like this, let alone “make a difference”, and I in no way am naive enough to think I really will be able to make any significant headway on the huge issue of “trafficking”, or on even the lives of the women we interview, such is the nature of such a short term stint. I am fully aware that this is more likely to lead to significant personal development for me than much else in the grand scheme of things. However, my dad is great. And I am so grateful for nepotism in this case, because I get to work with a truly inspiring person. As much as I know that I will not really make a difference, I equally know I get to be a cog in an intricate and very effective machine, that is actually making a detrimental impact on the exploitation of people in Cambodia and Asia more widely. I am not saying my dad is the be-all-and-end-all or anything… But he and an experienced network of committed individuals and groups in Cambodia, like Chab Dai, Kone Kmeng, Precious Women, and literally so so many others, ARE making a wonderful difference. My father is well positioned to know what research needs to happen, that will actually contribute something useful to this vast network of change-makers. I am so thankful to my dad for trusting me enough to let me be part of a team which can add our drop to this river of justice. This post is the first of lots unless I forget/ don’t get enough attention and give up/ lose my phone/ get bored/ lose my password to this blog. SO FOLLOW MY ADVENTURE!! Have to warn you that I really am in awe of my dad’s work at the moment, and my really wonderful moms research and phd, so I am likely to have not-so-occasional veerings off into singing their praises. I’ll try to be informative, and hilarious obviously.