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 atrines 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 afound the mountain.

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!

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Moved

I wrote this up in early April on my tablet but had not had the chance to get it online and so just now am posting it (June 19!)... so things are not all as they were.

Well we have almost moved completely to the forest. Bar the house and about 40 deer, we can now call Phnom Tnout our address. The girls and I spent the end of March and beginning of April in Phnom Penh finishing up some homeschooling stuff, running errands and getting our full of friends and civilisation in for a while.

Then we arrived home to Rovieng and the next day quickly did some marketing and final packing of stuff and headed out to the forest again. We met our friends, Tim and Wendy and 26 youth leaders from SALT centre on the road bogged. They were coming out to the mountain for a leadership training/retreat (and service project) and their truck was bogged in just a bit of mud. Another truck pulled them out and they parked the truck back in the village, and headed out in Ben's truck.

This group was a wonderful group to have. They brought all their own food, own camping materials, own everything and we didn't have to do anything except enjoy their company and singing. They also spent their afternoons and a good part of the final day clearing hiking trail for us. Thursday we said goodbye, and Ben took them back to their truck and he headed back to Rovieng with Amelie. Our dog Reecy had gotten herself lost and so Amelie was anxious to look for her. Ben picked up our friend Savuth, visiting from NZ, also in Rovieng and they all arrived back in the forest that night.

Today, Saturday, which is our Sabbath, our much needed Sabbath, we went for a morning hike. This time of year makes for wonderful hiking. The trees have leafed back out after the winter. The ground is clear as the grass has either been burned or has not yet grown back. It has started to rain and so it can even be cool. Today was cool-ish. Before we left, Jarrah spotted what she thought was a civit cat in the tree near the house. It was actually a giant black squirrel who allowed Ben and Amelie to get a good look at him. They are huge squirrels and quite gorgeous . We took a bad picture of him with the sun in the wrong spot. Heading out there were quite a few birds. I really do need to learn to be a better birder. What I did see however were parrots - the red breasted parakeets, woodpeckers of various kinds, lapwings who were really mad at us, a roller, jungle fowl and maybe some other guys who I can't remember. We saw lots of tracks of banteng and Ben tried to explain the difference between banteng tracks and regular cow tracks. Apparently they are bigger and less rounded than a cows, with a slightly pointed end. we also heard the gibbons hooting and hooting on the mountain. I took lots of pictures of the flowers and interesting things I saw on the trail. Much easier than the moving things.

Cooked our first forest pizza for lunch. Then in the late afternoon Ben, Savuth and Amelie went up to the hidden temple. I didn't go and naturally they saw no less than four separate troops of languars. I don`t know that I am ever going to see these guys. Tim was lucky and saw a gibbon this week and some others in the group saw the languars - so in all, a pretty good wildlife week.

On the hand, the loggers were still out and about, so not a good week for the trees. Today we saw a section of about five cut Neang Nuon trees (dalbergia, a now very rare type of rosewood) and various other trees felled around the place. The heartwood is tiny, like ten centimeters in diameter making it not too useful but the price is $1200 per cubit metre at the village which is significant I guess. Sad, sad, sad. A tnong had been chopped at but it looks like they got lazy and wanted to come back with a chainsaw. Thinking of tying monk robes around the trees to scare people into not cutting them down.

So we are calling ourselves moved. Our house is due out this week after Khmer New Years if our truck friend can haul it for us and if it doesn't rain too badly before now and then. It is still up and needs to come down! I haven`t done any washing for about 4 weeks worth of Ben's clothes so if you imagine a corner of workclothes in our house that are practically standing up by themselves, that is what our house is looking like. I have my washing machine at the house site (1.2 km away from our temporary house) where the generator and the good water source is, but it is out in the open. I shall have to take the stinky clothes out there this week and do about 10 loads. Or maybe they can walk over themselves since they already can stand up by themselves. Also need to get Amelie back on track with schoolwork. It has been a long time with a lot of free play - some structure is needed but I sure it won't be appreciated! So a busy week ahead - we'll see how we go with things.

By the way, the dog turned up at the gate about two full days later. She had been slightly injured by some wood falling on her and so ran off to hide . We are so happy she is OK.

PS.  We had Reecy out at the forest for a week and she got "taken" by hunters we assume as she followed Ben up the road when he was going to the village one day. Now we are very very sad again.  See this post

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PS