On my work, things you never hear at home, and chocolate cake

Dear friends and family,

 I want to take some time to tell you a little bit more about my work in Cambodia, especially for the benefit of those who only recently started following my blog. I am volunteering at the Organization to Develop Our Villages (ODOV). ODOV was started in the 90’s by MCC, but “localized” in 2004, meaning that it is completely run by Cambodians now. MCC still funds ODOV and maintains an advisor role to help with things like proposal and grant writing. However, my position at ODOV is much more hands-on. ODOV has numerous community development projects on the go. They organize vocational training for girls (teaching them how to sew), they set up community banks so people can borrow money to start businesses at a very low interest rate, they set up “village model farms” to demonstrate integrated farming and vegetable growing, and they have a demonstration farm. My official title is demonstration farm coordinator. The staff at ODOV is so busy that they have not had time to develop the demonstration farm as fast as new ideas come up. Currently, there is demonstration of climate change related technology (drip irrigation, biogas from pig manure, natural fertilizer/compost…); pig, poultry, and fish raising, and a variety of vegetables. It will be my job this year to add to that. We want to start growing vegetables for seed production- currently seed is purchased from the city, it is costly, and the quality is unreliable. Most farmers only grow rice, and do not want to put the money into growing other plants until they have been tried out. Secondly, we want to start doing some simple experiments on the farm, such as testing out different varieties of plants, different fertilizing methods, different seed-saving methods, intercropping, etc, in an effort to increase the productivity, reduce cost, and be more sustainable. It will be a good learning opportunity for the staff as well as me as I have little experience with agriculture and they have little experience with research. I will also help promote the demonstration farm by improving the presentation to visitors.
I am very excited to see how this year will go! ODOV has a great program and I am very glad to be joining them. I love the quiet village life; already seeing people I know when I go to the market; getting invited to people’s houses. I now get up before 6 AM every day, and turn the lights off around 9:30 PM. It has been great to be with my host family. Everything I ever learned about microbiology, parasitology, and environmental biology told me “DO NOT GO SWIMMING IN THE RIVER IN CAMBODIA.” So guess what I did last week? I went with my family to the river. Well, it wasn’t so much a river as a spillway between two giant lakes created by the rain. Most of the time we sat in the shallow swifter water under the bridge, but then I swam a bit in the calm water. I got a lot of people watching me, not only was I the only foreigner, but I was also the only GIRL who knew how to swim.

There are many things that you would probably never hear at home:

“Honey, this soup isn’t spicy enough. Can you get some chillies from the forest (aka yard)? “

“Ha! The cat fell off the roof into the cistern again!”

“Would you like some sugarcane?” (walks into the backyard with an axe and comes back with sugarcane)

“Help me chase the chicken out of the office!”

“Watch-out for the water-buffalo!”

Another funny anecdote: there are a lot of bare-bummed babies running around in Cambodia. Firstly, this saves enormously on the cost of diapers.  Secondly, they seem to like it. And with this heat, I don’t blame them. My Cambodian brother is 1 ½ years old, and the other day he was running around playing with the puppies. The three puppies at our house are still very young, and are just starting to come out of their hiding place and learn to run and play. It was all fun and games until one of the puppies got hungry and became confused about who was mom, and who was not, much to the surprise of my brother! He ran away with a scream, but all three puppies chased after him. Thankfully, Ma came to the rescue with a pair of shorts!

This weekend I went into Phnom Penh for the monthly MCC team meeting. It was so nice to see everyone again, and eat chocolate cake on my birthday, have pizza, see a traditional Cambodian shadow-puppet show, and pick up my mail. My sister Janet, the world’s best snail-mail correspondent, had sent me an envelope containing several letters dated throughout the summer that she had not had a chance to send until now. The first was supposed to have reached me before I left for Cambodia, but I’m almost glad it didn’t because now I am able to look back on my first two months in Cambodia and see how God is working in my life just like Janet hoped in her letter.

On the subject of letters, I just want to say that I always love to hear from home- I don’t expect reams of snail mail, but if you have a chance to drop me a line on facebook or email (Rebecca.standen@unb.ca) every now and again, it is always appreciated!

Love,
Rebecca