Cambodian Women Organize To Protect Ancestral Rainforest

This is one from the vault. It's about an experience that I had in Cambodia, back in 2006. Enjoy.

During my two-hour motorbike trip to Blor Borcam of Cambodia's Rattanakiri province, I saw rolling lush rain forest, farmers planting rice, and stilted grass hut villages scattered about. The beauty was striking, but the forest was broken up like green islands, surrounded by an ocean of hacked and naked landscape. It was the most extreme deforestation that I have ever seen. How could this happen?

My long and bumpy journey ended, and my first inclination was to wipe the caked red dirt from my face so the real color of my skin could be seen. After washing in a stream, I was greeted by a trainer named Kol Propey who guided me to a group of indigenous village women who were in the midst of a community meeting. They were organizing themselves to stand up to greedy savages who have been illegally harvesting their forests all in the name of quick profit. We exchanged greetings, and the women began to share their stories.

Podcast Update: Don't Get Your Teeth Pulled in Kabul, Whatever You Do!

What is just as frightening as encounters with the Taliban? For me, it was getting my wisdom teeth pulled with a donkey staring me down from the door to the dentist's office in Kabul, Afghanistan. Listen if you dare. In honor of Obama's healthcare bill that passed in Congress yesterday, I use this episode to share my harrowing dental tale. Listen to my encounter at my Galactic Stillness podcast.

Book Review: In The Belly Of The Fail Whale

Pictured Left: Author, Composer & Twitter Citizen
Rob Gokee

High speed boat chases. Explosions. Espionage. New and exotic women every night. Clowns... This is a window into the intriguing life of Rob Gokee, international man of mystery and professional spy as portrayed in his book In The Belly Of The Fail Whale. The question that left me hanging by a string throughout this breathtaking, high pulse autobiography was "who is he a spy for? Is it Russia, USA, or the 62 square mile principality of Liechtenstein?" You just might find out. I can't share all of his secrets, so you will have to read this book... Oh, wait. This is the wrong story. Rob didn't want me to share this. It's not what he wrote about. (Rob, will you have to kill me now? Have I said too much?)

What Rob Gokee (known as @robgokeemusic on Twitter) did write about is how Twitter changed his life over the course of a year. This is a fantastic read if you want to understand how to use Twitter in a communal and life changing kind of way. Rob gets it with Twitter, and if you read this, you will get it too.

If you already understand how to make Twitter work for you and why it's different from other social networks like Facebook or My Space, that's OK. You'll love his book for the reasons I did:

1. Rob is damn funny. Hands down. His biting sarcasm and off the wall humor makes it worth the ride.

2. Rob shares in detail how Twitter helped his personal life and his business.

3. This absolutely speaks to my generation of Twitter punks and enthusiasts. We're an odd bunch, and it's awesome to see that he has captured what it's like to be a part of this global cyber community.

4. This is not just a how-to book, it's a very personal and raw spilling of guts and emotion. I applaud Rob for being so personal. Not everyone can share their private life--the ups and downs--in a book or on Twitter like he has. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll probably want to give Rob a hug for what he went through (and buy him some pants) if you ever meet him in person.

The most touching part for me was his interaction with @alliecine. I can't say more because I don't want to ruin it. You'll just have to buy the book if you want to know why I found it to be so heartwarming.

Final thoughts...

Buy In The Belly Of The Fail Whale, read it and tweet it to spread the word! I'm excited to find out what Rob does next with this book and beyond. If you want to know, follow him on Twitter at @robgokeemusic or follow his book updates on Twitter at @failwhalebook

Butterfly On The Road-The Trailer

Please watch the video below if you want to know about my upcoming book Butterfly On The Road. If you want to read it, please sign up here to receive an email notification to know when it's released.

Butterfly Love,
Erin Grover

My infinite thanks goes out to Elizabeth Weissenborn of Deinos Productions for making this video happen.


Butterfly on the road from Elizabeth Weissenborn on Vimeo.

If you would like to know more about how I got to Afghanistan with only $100 in my pocket, you can watch this: