So we rolled in from the countryside and were confronted by the tourism complete with all the foreigners, beggars, tuk tuk drivers etc. I was just glad to be at a hotel with hot water and with enough time to take advantage of the laundry service! We headed out to a beautiful tapas style restaurant and ate our way through tastes, flavours and combinations that had become so strange to us all in the rest of Cambodia where we were eating a staple diet of fried egg, noodle soup, fried vege, fried noodle and fried rice :)
A couple of the group headed out to try the PP night life, however I opted for a little bit of quiet time and some time updating my blog for you all as I know I am so far behind!!!!! I am determined to have this thing complete before the next part of my journey begins :)
On the morning of the 5th we had a NGO visit that was founded by a couple of Americans one of which we met who was originally a chemist and set out to provide clean water at low cost to the developing world. Several of the larger Aid organisations such as UNICEF dig wells but do not check the quality of the water and several of their wells in Cambodia have been found to have high levels of arsenic - cleaver! Not only that they use technology that no one in the community understands, nor do they consult about where to dig a hole. So when the pump breaks the community expects the person who put it there to come a fix it - so now there are thousands of wells in Cambodia that do not function.
The NGO has developed a very low cost clay pot that filters the water and is made from all local materials except silver. The organisation has trained Khmer staff such that now they are no longer involved in the production, quality control of sales of the filters - it is brilliant! They also provide training when the filters are sold so that people know how to clean and manage their filters.
This place has an amazing array of projects from raising pigs on rice husks to reduce the level of parasites found in them and consequently their human companions - this has proven to be very effective and odor free!
They are also doing wonderful things with goats.
They have taken public health messages and turned them into Karaoke songs that tour around in the back of a van.
They have a production studio on site that is doing interesting work developing Khmer tails in such that they contain a message - although I disagree with this message due to the fine line with religion.
Our guide spoke of the concept of forgiveness and how outwardly many Cambodians seem happy but they have not forgotten about the wrongs committed during the Pol Pot regime and subsequently want revenge, find it difficult to forgive and are not processing the events of the past.
The afternoon was a well needed free afternoon - caught up with a bunch of admin duties before catching up with Claire and Dan for a wine and cheese pizza evening - that subsequently resulted in food poisoning in such that for the next twenty four hours I spent a total of two hours vertical and awake!
Went to another NGO restaurant that evening - there are so many great establishments providing training, raising awareness and fundraising for all sorts of causes - it really makes me think about what places like this we have at home and how I can support such great initiatives!
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