The Mundane

I need to give an update on the latrine project progress but will wait for Ben to give me some finer details. The boys left the village last week and our life has gone back to normal...as normal as is normal for us. Our workers at the forest had left a few days earlier to go work on their rice and so we were able to have some down time for a few days - just us.

The rains were still falling. The creek was up, and so when Ben travelled back from the village he walked in. So, no truck...just our trusty little Honda MD to get around on.

We had a couple of days of little projects.. putting conduit on the wires at the office, putting more gravel on the path. Then we started working on the floor boards at our house. As he was straightening some boards, Ben took a step back onto a board that was not placed properly. It flipped and he found himself going down. Catching himself on the floor joists (is that the right term?) He managed to slam his ribs against the wood. Without an xray he is pretty certain he broke a couple of ribs. Hopefully this is our "accident of the year."

So now Ben is now up and about... moto-ed out to the village yesterday to make a trip to Rovieng to pick up more stuff and importantly, two workers: our old guard, Ung; and Reth, another good guy. Ben still can't or rather shouldn't be doing much..lifting and stuff like that! Fun!

The girls have been dragging their dogs out on morning walks lately. Yesterday they went up the road to a sandy bit and built a virtual city in the sand complete with gardens and fairgrounds and houses and barns. Quite elaborate.

I have noticed that being outside has amazing effects on how well they play together, and just how whiney they are. Jarrah is the master or rather mistress of the whine. When I can somehow convince her to go outside she forgets her troubles and finds something else to focus her energies on. It is incredible the transformation that takes place. A good thing we have lots of outside and lots of nature here.

One other exciting item to mention: Amelie was finishing up her schoolwork late-ish about 6 just before dark and just out the window she noticed a troop of mavaques settling in for the night. She saw babies and adults. By the time Jarrah and i got there, we only saw a couple: one shuffling down a tree; and another staring at us. Quite exciting to see the wildlife becoming less afraid and moving in closer to us.

That is life at present for us.

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Connections

I've finally got a fancy phone. One that can email and do all that stuff so hopefully now we can communicate with the outside a little better. Our house has not too bad reception so when we get to move there life will be simple. Right now i am sitting at the house waiting for clothes to be washed by our washing machine. I wish I knew how to wash each days clothes, each day, as they do here but i don't, or rather i am too lazy. So now i sit with some spare minutes attempting to type a post here with this tiny keyboard.

We have visitors at the moment. Alex who came to help out in December and January came back with two friends. They, along with our other family and friends helped raise funds to do a small water and sanitation project. About four thousand plus dollars was raised altogether and the guys are helping to install latrines and rainwater tanks. They put up two and a half on Thursday and Friday. If it wasn't for the rain it would have been three.

The rain is also causing outher complications as the village is deviod of people. This year has been a really dry year. It is just the beginning of the rice growing season and people have been waiting and waiting for enough rain to plough their fields. Then they start the rice seedlings and they normally let them grow for about 20 to 30 days before transplanting. They should be finished transplanting by now but some are still ploughing and growing the seedlings.

So unfortunately we don't have all the households who want latrines lined up ready to go. The people do want them but most are just a tad busy at the moment. Having the guys there and with the attention a bunch of foreigners usually draw, is helping to promote the things in a positive way. More updates on the latrines later. And thanks to all the family and friends who donated money to this little cause. There were about three latrines put in earlier and they look great... clean and nice with all the things you need to keep them that way. So your help is much appreciated and we could not have done anything without your help.

We went for a walk yesterday. The girls, David and I went only to the temple and back. David has bung knees so wisely didn't choose to go on the "Ben hike" with the other guys who kept going, after the temple. We came back and on the way spotted a cute baby green viper on the trail. Further along there was a troop of languars heading down the valley. These guys have been hanging around lately. I saw them near the house site and heard them in the trees just before their bedtime. They have a distinct piglike grunt. A couple of weeks earlier we saw another troop of them and in amongst them was sitting a male gibbon. I didn't think he was anything but a black bit of vine but zooming in could make out what he was and he was staring right at us so casually. I believe his picture is in my previous posting where i didn't have time to write anything.

The other guys hike was just a bit longer, at 20 km through a rainstorm and over and around the mountain. Typical Ben hike and they came back sore wet and hungry! Fun!

So that is a short update from us here in the forest. We are still living out of our boxes in a mess. We still have a forest and hoe toilet but we are getting by and really looking forward to moving into our house someday... walls and floor... walls and floor to go!

posted from Bloggeroid

February in Pictures

Here are the pictures to go with the last post.

		Feb at the Forest VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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Part Two of the Visit

It has taken a little while to get to the second instalment of this series.  But I have the photos.  Our objective for the next morning was to hike to the temple which we used to call the Hidden Temple because we could never find it.  Now we have a cleared path almost right to it.  The path leads to a laterite wall and a steep incline which Ben is not quite sure how to approach clearing.  He wants to leave it somewhat untouched however it is still a bit of a scramble up.  We managed however.

On the way up we found all sorts of interesting artefacts from many hundreds of years ago.  There were bits of turned clay – possibly parts of windows.  There were the linga rock carvings (the base).  And just lots of square laterite blocks.  We proceeded up the bank and arrived at the entrance of the cave temple.  It is really just a couple of walls leading into a cave.  The villagers told Ben that not so long ago, the cave was full of Buddha and other sculptures.  The treasure hunters took whatever was valuable and dug around looking for more.  There used to be a dragon head with water coming out of its mouth at the spring also.  That would have been very cool to see.  In any case, it is all still interesting.  We kept stumbling across the lathed clay, and then a clay brick even.  Walking down, we went by the waterfall with drizzling water now that the rainy season has stopped.  At the bottom of the fall are three sets of feet.  Two sets of lions’ feet and one person’s feet – these all of course, carved in rock.

The morning’s hike was devoid of wildlife.  Probably something to do with the “I’m tired” noise that kept following us.  We did see a variable squirrel and that was about it.  He isn’t too exciting since we have one at home that terrorizes us all.    

We had a late lunch of spaghetti which even Ben’s workers ate.  The kids played in the creek.  All families need a little creek I think.  Kids have such fun playing in a creek.

Then Ben took me out to see the dam he wants to repair to make a lake.  It is an ancient dam and just a tiny bit of repair work needs to be done to fill it again.  Then just nearby there is some land where the garden is to be – an old slash and burn field, and the horses (ponies?) should have a field right by there, where there is the right type of grass for them.  Right now, it just all looks like forest, and tall grass.  Not too much fun to wade through.

The next day, Ben and the workers started up their trail building again.  Ben got them started and then came back to take us out to see where we’ll put our house and the lodge, and the swimming pool.  This is all very fun.  I imagine it feels somewhat like the pioneers felt: “We’ll build a house here and put our garden here.  Make a barn here and a field here for the horses and cows.  Dig the well here...”  We found a good spot for the lodge backing onto the little spot of evergreen forest but looking out on the deciduous dry forest.  Our house will be on the other side of that same forest, not too far away.  It has a view of the mountain and there is a good sunny spot to put out the solar panels and make a kitchen garden. We worked out the lay of the house – which is essentially the same as our current house but adding on an extra bedroom (for us).  We also laid out a first guest house which will be in between – just a single roomed stilt house with a loft for extra beds, and maybe a swinging bridge to a little viewing platform in a nearby tree.  Inside that evergreen forest is an old laterite block quarry which the ancients must have dug for their rock for building their little temples.  There are still a number of blocks scattered all around and you can see the squares where they dug out of the ground.

And that was that little excursion.  The girls found a fun climbing tree.

The last day of our visit was for departure.  We broke camp.  Ben had his guys laying out pipe from the creek to the camp for half the morning.  We then had an early lunch and commenced the trek back.  Again, Ben biked out with most of the luggage.  Then came back and picked up the girls.  Then came back and picked me up.  We got home that night a little after dark.  Dirty and tired. 

Ah, I forgot to mention the fun part about our drive back.  If you remember, we couldn’t drive out there in the first place, because Ben’s pickup was not working.  Well, we had to tow that back all the way to Rovieng.  That was certainly eventful.  Very slowly and carefully we drove along.  Apparently the brakes were not working properly either and so if I slowed down suddenly, which I did a couple of times, well then we could have a little prang.  Somehow we avoided any accidents.  One time he had to swerve to the side to avoid me when I slowed for a pothole and the rope went under his front tyre, severing some brake cable.  Finally made it back to Rovieng without any more events.  The local mechanic was able to get the car running by bleeding the fuel lines and then Ben took the car to Kompong Thom to fix up some other bits and pieces.  So now things are running smoothly on the pickup front.