Friday, February 27, 2009

Greetings from Cambodia!

My travel went fine without a hitch. I couldn't have asked for an easier transition. There was a little mix-up with sending my checked luggage, but I worked it out in Seoul and everything is here. I had a long lay-over in Seoul and a now very good friend, Jamie Ward, met me in Seoul and gave me a little express tour and we saw a Korean Palace, a re-made old Korean village, and traditional Korean Barbeque. This trip would have been entirely worth it just for that meal!

And Cambodia... it's a little humid... but I expected that. I arrived last night at 11:00PM and fell right asleep. I got a tour of the compound today. My head is still swirling trying to comprehend all that they do here! Clay pots that produce clean water is only the tip of the ice-berg. There's lye soap that kills lice and scabies, solar water heaters, research into renewable fuel, goat's milk as an alternative to formula, compost using rice husks, hand crank wells that reduce pumping time to a fourth of other wells (girls can now go to school because they're not spending all day pumping water), pigs are given on loan to help people in other villages, the list goes on and on...

There are approximately 150-300 volunteers that come through here every year. A lot of them are grad students working on thesis and testing the pots that purify the water. And some are church people. The capabilities of these water purifying pots are astounding! The founder of RDI, Mickey (he has a PHD in Chemistry or Biology, not sure which), is in the states right now teaching the Center for Disease Control about the work they're doing here. There are also numerous countries that are connecting with RDI to get the technologies developed here into theirs. And if you saw the compound... believe me, you'd never know it. It looks like a poor Cambodian village.

4 comments:

  1. Corey that is awesome, I am so glad you are excited about it. I hope to keep up with your blog here I will continue to pray for your time there. Love you man.

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  2. Cory, I'm so glad to hear that you made it and I can't wait to read more!
    Thinking and praying for you!
    Liz

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  3. Cory, glad you made the trip safely. I knew you would love it there! Tell everyone hello for me. Praying for you...

    Diana

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  4. Uncle Cory- we were glad to hear you made it safely! Marin says "thank you for helping people" and Kendall says "miss you, have fun & be safe". We will keep in touch... you're in our prayers!!

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