The Good, The Bad, and . . . the Spam?

Thursdays are generally our longest day of the week. We back the truck out of the house before 8:00 am and return after 5:00 pm, sometimes even after dark. I suppose I should also tell you I was up past 1:30 this morning watching the livestream of the Apple Event -- Back to the Mac.

Just outside of town, we encountered more trucks than we've ever seen stopped and blocking traffic in both directions. Coming home, the intersection was similar but less chaotic. Not sure what the problem was, but we could only think of the video we had seen last night on CNN -- Truckers in France. I'm quite sure that wasn't what was happening here. I've never seen that level of organization in our 15 years here.

Anyway, The Good:

We really didn't experience anything "real good" today. So I'll just pick a couple "nice" things.

We found some pretty good quality plywood (made in Cambodia) and the guys in the woodshop began to cut and assemble some shelving units for the children. Dar designed them. Our only real problem this afternoon -- We were told by the saleperson that the plywood's thickness was two centimeters. We cut the pieces accordingly and ended up with about a centimeter gap. That's when we discovered the plywood is actually only 18 millimeters (kind of like America's 2X4s). I guess it's a universal problem that mankind can't resolve. Anyway, with some minor adaptations along the way, our first unit is useable, for sure.

While we were meeting with the leadership team, a truck with a crew of four delivered a couple cement table sets. They are very heavy, can withstand some abuse, and are water proof! Just an hour or so after delivery, they are proving to be a welcome addition to life. When Dar yelled to this group that she was not taking their picture, she got some perplexed responses. She tried to explain her remark in the Cambodian language and got some laughs. Still not sure they understood why she wanted a picture of a 'table,' no matter how 'nice' it is. Anyway, the tables are compliments of the Bribie Team from Australia.

The Bad:

We've had trouble with some of the children's relatives. When kids at Jumpah, previously unwanted, get to an age that is valuable for domestic service, manual labor, and the sex industry, they are suddenly wanted.

One particular combination, a gramma and an aunt of a group of our siblings, have requested that we allow the kids to come home to celebrate various holidays. Ever since our very bad experience a couple years ago when a girl never returned (against her will), we always refuse these requests. We do permit genuine relatives to come visit children here, but they rarely do.

Recently, this particular gramma and aunt have stepped up their requests and expressed interest in 'taking' the children. We are alerting the village leader, neighbors, school teachers, and local police to help us insure the safety of our children and all the children in the village. In Cambodia, powerful people or people with means can make 'deals' with local officials. We are doing what we can, but we urge you to remember the kids before our heavenly father, as well. Thanks.

The Spam:

This probably isn't what you think.

We've been trying to raise pigs for years, as most of you know. Over the past two years, I think, our project activities have had access to artificial insemination. Our local staff weren't so sure about this -- "Oh no," they said. "The boar is better."

Their group view changed quickly when the first sow to be artificially inseminated had 13 piglets. Since then, we have had mixed results with no conclusive evidence that either AI or the boar is better.

So, the discussion came up again this morning. I kept referring to the "spam." After our heated debate, some of the guys went to Dar and asked her why I kept saying, "spam."

Well, I had heard them say "spam" for years. I assumed it was a technical name, either in French or Cambodian, for sperm. Turns out the guys were all trying to say "sperm" but couldn't actually do it, since they don't have that series of consonants and vowels in their language.

We all had a laugh. When I got home, this was the only experience of the day that I thought might fit the end of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."

The End of the Day

I'm a night person. So is Dar.

When I walk up the marble stairs to bed earlier than normal, it's likely due to one of three reasons:

-- a middle of the night (here) game, perhaps Packers
-- I have a headache
-- I'm frustrated with something, perhaps farming

Tonight is a slightly different reason. I want to get up to follow the live Apple earnings report on the internet, at 4:00 am in Cambodia.

I told you, I like Apple. Currently, they represent the bulk of our retirement fund. And they need to increase a bit so we (I) can purchase their next 'toy.'

Our good friend, Mary, was over a couple days ago. She commented, as usual, on the 'toys' she saw scattered around our office. "Oh well, they're all just tools," she concluded.

One more Apple tool will board an EVA flight from LA later this week, in the pocket or carry-on bag of friends coming from Hope Chapel, in Manhattan Beach, California. The group has come every October for  eight straight years. They work out at Jumpah for the better part of two weeks.  They bring solar panels, tooth brushes, medicines, children's toys, power tools, craft supplies and more.

Oh, and this year, they will bring the latest iPod Touch with HD video. Hey it's a tool. You should be seeing some pics / video on this blog real soon.

Back to the Hope team -- Tom, Kathy, Dolly and another Kathy have come every year. Tom works on a variety of maintenance and building projects. Kathy leads a bunch of ladies in various craft activities. Dolly and the other Kathy lead the children's activities. This year Greg and Wendy will come and offer dental services to our staff families and to some of the poorer families in the village. Of course, all of us will enjoy some time shopping in the Russian Market and scurrying about town in tuk tuks!

They (it) arrive on Friday. I can hardly wait. I'm going upstairs. Good night.

Every Picture Tells a Story Don't It

That's about all I remember from a Rod Stewart song back in the early 70s.

While the words are obviously true, we often need some help to understand just what that story is.

Here are four random photos I pulled from Dar's iPhoto files.

Each of these boys lost their mom at Place of Peace, Jumpah's center for families living with HIV-AIDS. They don't remember their dads, who all died before we met the families. One can only imagine what they may dream about while taking an after-lunch nap under the large shade tree. 

Three very special brothers. Some of you have met them. We wonder what they remember of their mom. We show them pictures of her often. Vung continues to regain strength in his leg since surgery to repair a clubfoot and other issues. Compared to their condition even one year ago, Chang and Pic, both HIV positive, are growing physically and emotionally in an atmosphere of love, acceptance and opportunity. But Pic still has bouts of depression and takes a long time to recuperate from simple colds, soar throats, and infections.

Three teenagers from three families living with HIV-AIDS are finally enjoying childhood, friendships, education and opportunities at Place of Peace. Here, posing for a quick pic while moving dirt, it is so obvious that their lives have been and are being transformed.

Not every picture tells a 'good' story. These three young sisters and their mom and dad came to Jumpah three weeks ago. Mom and dad, both HIV positive, were gaining strength, and the kids were getting adjusted to a very new life. As the sun came up a few days ago, Jumpah staff members found the house empty. The family had left after dark the night before. We don't know where they went. We don't know why they left. We know the mom had an important doctor's appointment coming up. She has serious health issues that need to be addressed. It is extremely unlikely they will now be diagnosed and treated. Similar stories of families or individuals walking away from Jumpah's help are actually quite common. Our hearts ache especially for the children, who are innocent victims of parental decisions. For the sake of these three little girls, we hope and pray that mom and dad will decide to return.

That agenda item . . . and more

That agenda item was:

How can we quickly increase the amount of methane generated in our biodigester?

In short, we can't.

We will pump the human sewage from three different pits to the digester. That input will produce some additional gas.

As to purchasing piglets or sows from outside and adding them to our pens. Well, apparently the risk of disease (yes, the dreaded 'blue ear') is still too great. There just is no credible expert or agency in Cambodia that farmers can trust to provide useful information. So we will patiently wait and watch and see what our own remaining sows will accomplish.

Surprise -- Wednesday night five piglets were born to one sow. Not a great number, obviously, but all at least seem to be healthy.

. . . and more:

The heavy rains continue, though not like the deluge that fell earlier in the week. Dar took this picture on our way back to town yesterday, one day after I read the following in the Phnom Penh Post newspaper:

"At the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which is located in Dangkor district, flooding forced officials to relocate the five Khmer Rouge leaders currently in custody, said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press.

The official said all five -- Kaing Guek Eav, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea -- had been temporarily moved from the detention facilities to another building."

The "detention facilities" and the criminal court building are at the site in the picture -- at the back of the property.

The water has drained away, a bit, over the past two days.

. . . and one more:

Just a couple more kilometers from the Khmer Rouge tribunal, the combination of water and garment workers heading home from the factories slowed traffic again. A bit before 5:00 pm, workers cram into trucks for the long ride back to their home villages.

Recent news articles say garment factories, mostly foreign owned, employ up to 400,000 Cambodians, mostly young women (girls) who are strongly encouraged by their families to go to Phnom Penh to search for a job. International organizations say as much as 50 percent of their wages (which usually run from $45 to $70 per month) are often sent back to their families.

An agenda item - one of many

Preparing for tomorrow’s weekly meeting with the key staff (sort of like a leadership team) out at Sobhan. Dar’s agenda is always much longer than mine. I’m sure tomorrow will be no exception.

But here’s one of the ‘issues’ I have listed.

-- How can we quickly increase the amount of methane generated in our biodigester? 


Jumpah was creating more than we could use when Dar and I left for America a few months ago. And our uses were growing: cooking fuel for all three meals; bright lamps for reading and studying, plus keeping some burning through the night for outdoor security; powering a gas motor used to chop greens for pig food. Just when we were getting proud of our accomplishments, ‘blue ear’ invaded six provinces and infected nearly all of our 125 pigs. Over a two-month period, staff members fought the disease but almost half of the pigs died. 


‘Poo’ from the survivors now generates enough gas for about two meals per day. Nothing else. Twelve breeding sows survived, barely, but it will be a while before any piglets are birthed and can help add to the poo pits.

Some of our options:

-- Buy some piglets (to raise) from the commercial farm.

-- Purchase additional ‘healthy’ sows to eventually get more piglets (a higher cost, but greater investment in the future).

-- Channel sewage from human toilets to the biodigester.

We are working to do the third option, for sure. A newly-purchased pump and 150 meters of soft rubber hose will be delivered to Sobhan tomorrow. The pump will be used to move human sewage once every week or two. The theory says the extra poo will increase the volume of methane.

But the pump will also drain or fill the fishponds, depending on the particular season. It will pump excess rain water from the gardens to neighboring rice fields. Jumpah will also be able to assist poor farmers who need assistance with water issues. Up to now, Jumpah has been paying to rent the equipment each time we have a need. Prices can run as high as $2.50 per hour; A week ago, we rented one for nearly six hours. This morning we paid US$238 for a used system with all the necessary accessories. And eventually, we will try to operate it with methane.

I will come back and post some pics when the system is operating!

Meanwhile, we are still thinking about the other two options, or any others, that will help us rebuild our pig and methane activity. I hope we have time to discuss this tomorrow.

From Australia, with love

Seventeen students and four teachers from Australia have come and gone. Proof of their hard work has been etched on the rough landscape, and evidence of their new-found love for Cambodia and its people have been stamped in the hearts of adults and children. 

Already leaving ... on a jetplane

Thirteen girls shared a 4 x 5 meter room on the corner of Jumpah’s farm. Eight boys lived in a similar room on the opposite corner. They all enjoyed (well, experienced) squat toilets, mosquito nets, cockroaches and lizards, rice for breakfast (and every other meal), very hot days and nights, rain and mud, diarrhea and upset stomachs, homesickness, basic discomfort, the list could go on and on.

Oh, and they worked hard, all day, almost every day. Girls and guys mixed cement, cleared vegetation in and around the fishpond, dug and hauled dirt, painted walls, unrolled plastic and covered it with rocks, dug and hauled lots more dirty, prepared garden areas, chipped cement, hung doors, hoed and carried even more dirt.

And when they were exhausted, they played with kids, developed relationships, studied language, toured the village, played volleyball, sang, danced, lit fireworks, ate local ice cream and thought about home, all before trying to fall asleep, separated from a bare cement floor by one flimsy, woven mat.

We’ll ask a couple of the students to send us short essays about what the experience meant to them. We can post them here, later.

So what was accomplished through the combined (labor) efforts of the Australians and Cambodians?

-- one huge T-shaped channel in the middle of the farm for the incessant rains to drain into (and it will be home to fish which eventually will be sold or eaten).

-- about 60 7-meter long raised beds for gardening

-- boys and girls residences painted, inside and outside

-- two brand new, 5,000 liter, water storage tanks to replace the old, leaking, and brittle tanks

-- two new deep cycle batteries purchased and installed for the solar electricity system

-- much needed landscaping (filling of low areas, etc.) completed at all three Jumpah sites

-- walkways added or upgraded throughout the three sites

-- holes dug in the ground in preparation for a sewage system upgrade

-- new steel doors made and (almost) hung for nine toilet / bathing rooms at the orphanage

-- other ‘small’ tasks

Not yet mentioned, the friendships and understanding of people and a culture not even known a few weeks ago. The new perspectives, motivations and even ideas for future careers and plans. The 30,000 US dollar gift given to Jumpah that had been raised by the students over the past nine months in fundraisers, service projects, and presentations given throughout the local communities back at Bribie.

We’ll tell you about all the great things their gift will do, as it is spent. A generous portion of the gift is meant for items and upgrades that are not part of the normal operating budget of Jumpah. Wow, Christmas in Cambodia in October!

Blogging from Cambodia -- the beginning

I googled "what should I blog about." Here's what I found:
The most obvious answer is to blog about things you are passionate about and interested in.
The holy grail of blogging is a mix of what you love and what you can get paid for – and paid really well.


That all sounds sensible. Well, except for the money part! So what do I love?


I love Apple Inc and most of their products. Come to my house and I'll convince you to buy some of your own.


I love Nikon cameras, but currently have to settle with an Olympus.


I love babies, but currently have none of those, either.


Although I've never worn a cheese head or been inside Lambeau Field, I'm a die hard Packer backer.


I like very black coffee. Some Australian friends just brought us some Rainforest Alliance Certified, organic, medium-dark, arabica whole bean from El Salvador! Come on over; we can share a fresh pot.


I love Cambodia. I think. I must? Although Darlene and I have lived here for 15 years, Cambodia has proven to be a tough place to really love.

We like the beautiful greens and crisp air of the rainy season. But halfway through the rainy season, the rain has become an obnoxious nuisance.


We enjoy the flavors of tropical fruit and Asian spices. But neighbors regularly steal our fruit and those spices can produce debilitating episodes of diarrhea.


We love grabbing babies whenever we feel the urge - that's still "OK" here. But we detest the selling and trafficking and abuses aimed at these precious bundles.


We love the riverside, the festivals, rural villages, Cambodian smiles, improved roads, and Khmer curry. We hate corruption, injustice, AIDS, selfishness, pain, and hopelessness. OK, time for another paragraph.


We came to Cambodia because God gave us a passion and desire to serve and love hopeless people.

Through the years, most of our work has focused on families living with HIV-AIDS and on orphans. More recently, we have made the best of opportunities to serve the needs of poor villagers.


Today, we can drive into the village of Sobhan and discover one small green spot in an otherwise very brown world. We find kids and adults working, producing, studying, playing, worshipping and dreaming.


But helping people hasn't been as easy as we expected it to be. We’ve met tons of obstacles. Every week, we experience disappointment and discouragement. Why doesn’t God honor our commitment, our hard work, our good intentions, we wonder?  Why don’t more people see and take advantage of opportunities that we believe could change their lives?


Reality is usually different from what we "see." Usually.


Dar and I just spent three months with friends and family in America. From there, it was like clicking on Google Earth. As the aerial camera zoomed in, we suddenly saw things we never even noticed while actually on the ground.


People were changing. We noticed a couple men working around their house, helping their wives care for the property. We saw a couple bright green ‘spots,’ evidence that at least some were trying to apply the principles taught in our home gardening seminar. More uniformed children walked the three-kilometer road to school, proving that parents made education a priority. The grassy parking lot at church had expanded to include a few more bikes and motorcycles, evidence that some villagers attended.


Now back in Cambodia, we embark on a "blogging journey." we'll describe our life -- that includes our work, our fun, our weekends, our friends, everything. You'll know our frustrations and our joys, our anger and our contentment. You will meet some amazing people who are on our team. We'll tell stories of people who are on their own journeys -- some for better, some for worse.


Of course, life, as I mentioned earlier, does include Apple, coffee, Nikons and the Packers. They may make cameo appearances in the blog.


We hope you'll come back. And please join the conversation.