I seem to have spent half of the last week on the bus. In fact, I had 5 bus trips, of 6 hours each, in the space of 10 days. Fortunately, we are not talking about the cramped buses of most of Africa, but fairly modern (but imported 'used') buses, and very straight roads in reasonable condition. Not too bad for reading, or even working, if it weren't for the other 'modern element, the TV, at the front of the bus, which goes continuously. I am sure that the films are deliberately selected as the 'worst' in US, Korea and Cambodia respectively. They are so bad that they don't even need dialogue, being either slapstick, heavy violence or sci-fi.
We have 3 women from Vancouver Island who have very kindly come to help out with the vegetable garden at Home 2 for a few weeks. Their presence shamed me into actually doing some physical labour for a couple of hours, and contributing my 'gardening' knowledge, which is pretty much 'nil'. Fortunately, they knew enough to ignore me. One fascinating dilemma did arise. The home had recently installed a whole row of upright concrete drainage pipes to collect water in the rainy season to use for washing and the garden in the dry season. There were 12 pipes, 9 ft X 30 inches in diameter, all connected at the bottoms. Of course, with the rainy season just over, they were now each full to the brim.
Unfortunately, no-one had installed any outlet taps. So the question was how to install an outlet tap at the bottom of one of the tanks, with the weight of many tons of water pressing down, without draining the whole system, and waiting until next year to start again. I am almost tempted to only put the answer on the next page. Of course, none of us came up with it, but the kids didn't hesitate - they all competed to be the one who climbed in to the top of one of the tanks and swam down 8 feet, to jam a rag in one of the interconnecting pipes, so that only one tank had to be drained - what it is to be 'smart'!
For my pharmaceutical friends, I had an interesting experience of globalization in a local pharmacy. I was wandering round examining the shelf stock, for no apparent reason, except nostalgia. The stock came mostly from China or Vietnam, but there were some Aventis branded products. Aventis is of course a French - German company, but the products were manufacture in Kansas, USA, packaged in Indonesia, imported by a Vietnamese company, and sold in a Cambodian pharmacy!
Back home in Phnom Penh, we have been exploring the range of restaurants around us, and have almost
given up eating in, because the food is so good and inexpensive- having said that, Judi does have a little rice-fatigue.We have in fact almost gone 'native' with our tastes, and I was persuaded the other night to try a particular local delicacy - 'fried tarantula spiders'. Actually very tasty and crunchy if deep fried, rather like a larger version of fried grasshoppers. If you want to try them, just make sure that someone has extracted the poison beforehand!
Meanwhile, I have been digging deep into the situation of this orphan NGO that I am working with. They have been desperately short of funds for the last couple of years, having relied prior to that too heavily on the generosity of the Founder and his connections. In the last couple of years, they have cut any non-essential items, not only any care and maintenance of their buildings and equipment, but even food for the children beyond rice and a few vegetables that they grow themselves. I am back to my situation in Ghana, desperately looking around for any potential income-generating projects, and a more systematic approach to follow-up with their many foreign visitors. It is early days yet, but that is the trouble with a 3-month posting. Those 'early days' soon turn into 'not long to go', so I am going to have to make some progress soon. Fortunately, the people that I am working with are excellent, so I am hopeful.
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And in other unrelated news, Judi's niece, Rachel, gave birth to a baby boy, Noam Emile Bujold. Born December 2nd and weighing at 8 lbs 10 oz. Rachel and Steve, and my sister, Dorion and her husband, Bernie are over the moon with excitement! My Mom, Pat, is finally a great grandma - at 91 she had to wait a long time. We are pretty thrilled, too, even this far away. Thank goodness for Skype!!
