Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure... enjoy :)

Check'n out a Buddhist Wat

Night time photo of a "stupa" next to RDI

Typical Cambodian housing

It's very common to see cows used for plowing, doing farming tasks, or in this case crossing the river (their heads were barely above the water in the middle of the river).

It's very dusty over here. There are very Few paved roads. It makes staying clean a problem; dust gets on everything!

I've also learned you can do almost anything with a motorcycle or scooter... haul hay, pull a cart for tourists, or let your whole

family ride with you (I've seen 5 people on a scooter several times). I've also seen a 15 passenger van with at least 15 people on it... not in it.

The bricks on the ground next to the window are used to block in the window while the pots are being fired. This is one of 5 brick kilns. They use wood as fuel.

Some of the clay pots after being pulled from the hydraulic mold

A large shot of part of the factory (there are clay pots on racks; they're drying and waiting to go in the kiln).

This is where I live. Those are shipping

containers in the left of the picture. To the right

and behind them are "stupas," or burial places.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the stupas

sit behind a wall which belongs to a Wat next

door.

This is a close up of my bungalow. I have my own bed and bathroom. It was a white container, but for some reason they put a woven covering over all of it. The rest of the bungalows have bare metal for an exterior.

I hope this gives you a quick visual of where I'm at. I'll try to post some more photos.

Thanks for keeping up with me!

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.

I'm starting to get a glimpse of how my time here is going to be.

Today, Monday, I went to a school and worked with four Cambodians and a couple of guys from Daytona Beach. We applied finishing touches of concrete to the insides of a water tank. We worked all morning, ate lunch, slept for an hour, and worked a few more hours. I think I could get used to taking a nap after lunch. It makes me wish America would follow this custom along with most of the world.

Food... would you like rice with that?

I eat rice three meals a day. Today's Menu:
Breakfast: Rice, small strips of pork, with a fried egg on top.
Lunch: Rice, with chicken, cabbage and carrot soup poured on top.
Dinner: Rice, with fish and spinach cooked with basil and some type of really, really spicy sauce.

I honestly don't mind it. It's starting to feel somewhat normal. The Cambodians don't think you've eaten until you've had rice. I will get to eat some western food on the weekends though, they go to the city on the weekends.

Thanks for reading. I'll try to continue to keep you updated.

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.

Thanks for visiting I'll try to keep you updated as I go. I leave a week from this post. I'll be gone for 2 months working with Resource Development International Cambodia (http://www.rdic.org/) doing work in water purification and other health related services, but with great purpose.

Here's my flight Ininerary incase you're curious

Leaving:
(Feb. 25) Kansas City (6:33PM CST)- Cicago O' Hare (8:07 PM CST)(United Airlines #7127)
(Feb. 26) Cicago O' Hare (1:00AM CST) - (Feb. 27) Seoul, South Korea (6:00AM KST)(Asiana Airlines #235)
(Feb. 27) Seoul, South Korea (7:15PM KST)- Phnom Penh, Cambodia (10:55PM ICT) (Asiana Airlines #739)

Returning:
(Apr. 22) Phnom Penh (11:55PM ICT) - (Apr. 23) Seoul, South Korea (7:10AM KST) (Asiana Airlines #740)
(Apr. 23) Seoul, South Korea (4:30PM KST) - (Apr. 23) Los Angeles (11:30AM PDT) (Asiana Airlines #202)
(Apr. 23) Los Angeles (2:57PM PDT) - Denver (6:15PM MDT) (United Airlines #78)
(Apr. 23) Denver (7:14PM MDT) - Kansas City (9:49PM CDT) (United Airlines #724)

Crossing the international dateline is always a little fun... I get to do a little time travel. Who needs a time machine when you have airplanes?