Taing Huang Hao was visiting his parents in Phnom Penh back in January 2020, on a short break between semesters at the university he was attending in St Paul, and like most of us he had no notion that a global disaster was looming and the world was about to change forever. St Paul is the capital city of the state of Minnesota and one of the “Twin Cities” – along with the larger city of Minneapolis – with both cities sprawled along the banks of the Mississippi River, not unlike how the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers wind past Hao’s hometown – except that its all much, much colder for most of the year.