Lots going on at RDI

I constantly feel overwhelmed by all that is going on here. You can ask anyone here how it all happened and how it all came together and all they can say is... it just has!

There are students that rotate through on a regular basis from several universities. There are currently three people from a university in Canada, and one from Australia that are doing work on testing the capabilities of the water purifying clay pots. The two main filter systems that are being used in developing countries is the clay pot method and a sand filter. RDI is testing both systems. Both methods have been around for a few years but there is no research into what the filters can and can't take out of the water. For example, the initial research on both of the filters confirm that they remove water bacteria, but no one knows if they can remove heavy metals, pesticides, viruses, etc... RDI is the only company doing direct and on going research into these matters. As a result, there are several universities that are associated with and in cooperation with RDI, for example: Stanford, University of North Carolina, Buffalo State, etc... There are several more.

It's kind of exciting to know that you're on the field witnessing the cutting edge of science for developing countries for something as essential as water!

Other things that are going on here. Today, I took a tour of a studio that RDI has that records t.v. progams for kids. They put on a Cambodian version of Sesame Street using puppets that educate children on a myriad of things. For examble: they teach them how to brush their teeth, how to deal with bullies, how to have proper hygene, how to wash things properly. And they usually involve songs that are written and recorded on the premisis. Currently, there are people working on coloring books for kids. They take images from their programs and make coloring books.

Something interesting, the studio and the "bungalo" where I sleep were built from old shipping containers. It was cheaper to use them than build something from scratch. It's kind of neat, I'm sleeping inside of a retrofitted shipping container with my own bathroom and bunkbed. Also my "bungalo" or shipping container sits on top of another one... so I guess you could say I'm sleeping in a Cambodian high rise.