So it has been a while since I posted last. The free day we had in Rattanakiri included a four hour power outage in the entire city of Ban Lung at the exact time that I tried to get online so that did not really work out. I can not seem to find the apostrophe on this keyboard so contractions look really funny.
Ok so where was I....we drove about 10 hours from Phnom Penh to Rattanakiri having no idea what to expect. We were greeted by our hostess Bi who is a Thai missionary. We stayed at her house in our so called princess rooms (beds with canopies of mosquito nets). The main job we accomplished in Rattanakiri was to compile a report for our leader Rob and also the missionaries we were working with (Bi and an Australian man named Gordon). The report was about a garden project that Bi and Gordon have started through their church in some of the tribal villages near the border to Vietnam. The garden project originated because of a flood in the river by these villages which ruined the rice crops. Hopefully the gardens will provide a source of food and income to these very poor families, some of whom are already having to forage in the forest for food since they have run out of rice. It will be at least a month or two before they can begin their normal farming again because it is the dry season.
We stayed in a tribal village for 2 nights and 3 days and had meetings with the village elders. These communities are still practicing slash and burn agriculture and live in very simple conditions....wooden houses on stilts with one big room, the kitchen being under the house and the stove being a fire....we stayed in a familys house and Bi helped cooking our food on the fire. We had our showers in the river nearby covering our white skin with sarongs. To find out the information for our report we had meetings with women and village elders in 3 different villages and also visited the gardens. We had to work through two translators since the village people speak a tribal language and not Khmer so the leaders would speak, then it would be translated into Khmer and then English. Luckily most of the time the leaders spoke Khmer so the translations didnät take as long. It was an unforgettable experience.
Some of the team also installed a drip line at a member of Bi and Gordonäs church who has a commercial flower garden (he grows Gerbera daisies), others went on a hike in the jungle near the border to Vietnam, and others visited another village where the land surrounding the village has been bought out by rubber tree and cashew nut plantations and there is great pressure to sell their land. Many villages have been tricked or pushed into selling their land. THe rainforest there is being destroyed at a rampant rate and Iäm fairly certain illegal logging is happening all around.
Other highlights of our time in Northeaster Cambodia included a day dedicated to enjoying creation...visiting and swimming at two waterfalls and a naturally formed lake in a volcanic crater with a lovely walk through the surrounding jungle. And of course I canät forget the wonderful food including freshly baked buns and brownies (but it wouldnät be earthcare dts without good food!)
On Friday we said our goodbyes to Bi, Gordon and Rattanakiri and were overjoyed to discover that our van had a dvd player to make the 10 hour trip go faster. We are officially finished our ministry time of outreach and are now in the beach town of Sihanoukville for debrief....basically processing everything that has happened over the past 3 months. Hopefully I will be able to see some good coral here because apparently there are some islands with reefs not too far away.
We are back in New Zealand on March 14th which seems surprisingly soon.
Prayers for continued safe travel, health, and clarity about everything that has been going on would be wonderful. Also to mentally and emotionally prepare for our goodbyes to Seang our Cambodian team member who wonät be returning to New Zealand with us as well as the goodbyes for the rest of the team whcih are rapidly approaching!
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