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Its very exciting when we visit the village and see them utilising the things we have given them.  In the series of three pictures above you can see the progress that has taken place over the last month.  Previously this land was all overgrown and they didn't have the simple tools needed to clear it.

The day after our wet adventure Gianfranco and I went back out to the village with a Cambodian man, Rouert,  who works for an NGO (non-government organisation).  Unfortunately, I forgot to tell him about all the water, which had actually risen overnight, and he came out in shoes, socks and business pants.  Fortunately, he took it all in his stride - he's used to visiting remote villages and its just part of the job.  

Roeurt's NGO helps blind people, providing them with free surgery if their eyesight problems can be rectified (a huge percentage can) or helping them in other ways to have a better quality of life.  There is one man in the village who is pretty well completely blind as well as a number of other people with eye problems.  Unfortunately, the blind man's problems can't be cured but Roeurt's organisation is going to help him in other ways.  Two of the other people will benefit from surgery, which will be organised down the track.

Roeurt has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to helping poor villages and he's more than happy to share it.  I'm so glad I met him as he is really keen to help our little village.  In the picture on the right we are sitting in a house discussing the problems of the village.

Here we are meeting with various villagers who had come to see Roeurt about their eyesight.  The deaf man, who we call Mr Happy as he never stops smiling, turned up with two more deaf people in tow.  He claims I told him to bring the deaf people to meet Rouert.  As I can't speak Cambodian, and he's deaf, I'm quite sure I didn't tell him anything of the sort.  I wouldn't have suggested bringing deaf people to see a man from an NGO that deals with blind people.  Anyway, we all had a bit of a chuckle.  Personally, I think he had been having a little too much rice wine on this particular day - he was even happier than normal.  

Sovane and I spent the entire day today out at the village, we left at 7.00am and returned at 6.00pm - both utterly exhausted.  As well as supervising the construction of another water pump we are trying to do a sort of a survey of each of the 14 or so poorest families.  We are gathering information on how many people live under each roof, how the family generates income, health concerns, literacy levels (very, very low amongst the adults), if the children go to school, etc.

It is customary for the people who are getting the new well made to provide lunch for the men making it.  If we are there we are also expected to join in, which Sovane does with great relish.  I'm afraid today one of my fears came true and I was presented with a bowl of ant stew.  Fortunately there was also rice and chicken so I was able to bypass the ant stew.  (Oh, how I look forward to some rice crackers and dip!)

Just to recap, with your generous financial support, some of the ways we've been able to assist so far are:

In the future we hope to try and address sustainable irrigation issues - despite the fact that we are in the wet season and have had to traipse through water, there is actually a rather severe shortage of water.  We hope to be able to buy some water pumping machines to make it easier for the single parent families to water their crops. We hope to hold adult literacy classes.  We plan to run workshops on health related issues.  We want to address cleanliness and hygiene issues - i.e. get toilets made.  We'd love to see every child attending school.  We'd also like to provide chickens, ducks, pigs, etc (perhaps through a micro-finance scheme).

INTRODUCING NYUT

Nyut is the nephew of Sovane, my driver and right hand man.  He is seven years old and he doesn't go to school as he is from a very poor family.  Nyut was born with birth defects (most likely as a result of chemicals used during the war) which have left him with only small stumps instead of fingers on one hand, deformed toes on one foot and various other abnormalities.  Nyut and his parents live in a small hut which only has two walls.   Nyut  happens to be one of the most charming kids I have ever met and I fell in love with him as soon as I met him.  Until recently Nyut's family had no well at all for water and each morning Nyut had to take a cart out with a couple of old tins and collect water from someone else's water pump.  Unfortunately, the people were very mean to him though and often told him that the water pump was broken.  As soon as Sovane told me about Nyut's situation I decided we had to build them a water pump as soon as possible.  I told Nyut's father what we were planning to do, but that in return we would like Nyut to go to school (and we would help out with the expenses).  Both Nyut and his father were very happy with this plan.  I gave Nyut some paints and paper and he drew pictures of buildings that didn't look like traditional Cambodian houses.  When I asked him what they were, he told me they were pictures of the school.  I took this as an indication that he is very excited about going to school.  School is supposed to be free here, but as the teachers only get paid around $15.00 (yes, that's fifteen dollars) a month they have to collect more money off the children in order to get by.  If they don't pay the teacher, the teacher won't teach them.  We are currently at the stage of organising to get him into the school and will take him out this week to buy a school uniform.  The water pump has also been installed and Nyut no longer has to go out to collect water.

For a seven year old, Nyut is a very good "hunter and gatherer".  He goes fishing for little fish to make soup out of and he goes off into the forests to scavenge for fruits and insects that the family can sell at the market.  Cambodians eat frogs, spiders, ants, crickets and giant beetles that look like 10cm long cockroaches, as well as other assorted creatures.  Nyut takes great delight in scaring me with his wriggling bags full of big beetles.  Actually, he thinks its hilarious if he can raise a scream out of me (which isn't too difficult as these beasts are BIG.)

Nyut has a great sense of humour.  Recently he was with me while I was doing some art work with other children and he reached out to pat a dog.  The dog, not knowing Nyut, snapped at his hand.  Quite concerned he'd been bitten I asked him if he was alright while reaching for the bitten hand, but, quick as a wink and with a big grin, Nyut raised the hand that had no fingers on it.

Well, everyone I'll sign off now, so much love to you all and I'll see some of you in the not too distant future.

Deborah

P.S. I've heard that the chicken flue is making big headlines back home, but its not really a big deal here.  I think its just like SARS - all scare mongering, just because it MIGHT affect those of us in the West.   Do you know that Cambodia never had a single case of SARS and yet because of the media attention no tourists came here that year, which obviously hurt the country.  Meanwhile hundreds and hundreds of poor Cambodian children were dying (and still are) of Denghi Fever and no-one took any notice.  I wonder how differently we in the West would react to the problem of starvation if it was a disease that we could catch and not something that only affected poor people.  Anyway, sorry, I'll get off my high horse and sign off.  (Quite frankly though, I've not noticed any of the chooks out at the village sneezing or running about with runny noses!)

Phone (in Cambodia):  092 442 669  (outside Cambodia)  855 92 442 669

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