Home after 12 year adventure

Karla, back left, Grahame, Jendah, Katy Dyer and Sam. Photo / Ruth Keber

Grahame and Katy Dyer have arrived home in New Zealand after living in Cambodia for 12 years where they adopted a baby while working and raising their young family.

The family moved to Cambodia in 2004 through Tauranga-based organisation Asian Outreach New Zealand, for which Mrs Dyer worked.

She finished her three-year contract in two years when the family came home for five months, before returning and spending a year learning Cambodia's national language, Khmer, and then securing another job with the organisation.

The family also ended up adopting a Cambodian girl who was abandoned at birth. Jendah, now 9, was still her birthweight of 3kg at 6 months-old and severely malnourished when the Dyers decided they could not turn their backs on her.

The pair battled for years for Jendah's New Zealand citizenship to be granted.

For the first eight years they lived in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, before moving to the northern province of Stung Treng.

"Living in the provinces, especially after you have lived in a city for so long - on the intersection of three rivers, the Mekong, Tonle Sekong River and Tonle Kong River - it was all jungle," she said.

"There are a lot of tribal villages up there ... minority groups.

"We were working with all of them in a small little town and everybody knows you. It's just a really nice atmosphere."

There Mr Dyer helped Asian Outreach Cambodia purchase 11ha of land, set up a model farm and teach Cambodian farmers sustainable farming methods, which benefited 250 families.

"We were teaching them ways to use the resources they have at hand to improve their living conditions. We were targeting nutrition and food security so they would have food all year round."

Mr Dyer said they made the move home for their two eldest children's education but he expects they will find their way back to Cambodia one day.

Interesting facts about Cambodia
•The Cambodian flag is the only national flag that has an image of a building - Angkor Wat.
•During the four-year rule of the Khmer Rouge, one-fifth of Cambodia's population was killed. They were mostly educated people, priests and monks.
•Half Cambodia's population is younger than 15 years old.
•Traditionally, birthdays are not celebrated in Cambodia. Older people might not even know their birthdays.