January 8, 2010

Today was the coldest day so far in Siem Reap. The high may have been mid 80s, but it was cloudy also which is very unusual this time of year. We hired a car/driver and went to see Kbal Spean. The area was inhabited by hermits, who cut divine symbols and images into the rock everywhere during the 11th century. What is most unusual now is that these elaborate sculptures and carvings are under water or small water currents run over the face of them. We went there thinking that this would be beautiful imagery perhaps if we brought monks along with us in March to begin to tell the ancient and spritual story of water in Cambodia. The light was magnificent and luckily the hike up was not too hot. We spent 2 hours shooting video and marveling in the beauty and icononography. We could hardly pull ourselves away. As we were riding back into town, we stopped at the land mine museum which is a simple museum organized by a former Khemer Rouge child soldier whose job it was to set mines. Along the way, he realized what he had done and by the time the Vietnamese came in he turned himself in and began to fight to save Cambodia. He has dedicated his life to land mine victims and himself has detonated 1000s of mines.
We do not know where our project will ultimately land. We have decided that for now we are taking it all in connecting all the dots through water. We are looking for characters, stories, and locations. It seems we are covering alot of ground in a very short time. Our journey out to Kbal Spean and back took most of the day, and by the evening we went into town for a quick dinner, knowing that tomorrow would be a very early day with Mieko and Jon Morgan. Lauren

Catching up: Impossible but will try: January 7

We have not had internet for several days. Such is the way in Cambodia, and you learn quickly to find something else to do. I will start with January 7, which is Thursday. We began the day at Angkor Wat as planned to see the Churning of the Sea, which we were able to photograph a small portion of. The reproductions were almost as good, so I felt satisfied. We had a wonderful guide with us, and we had told him that we were interested in anything having to do with water. After Angkor Wat we traveled to both the East and West Baray, which is a reservoir built in 11th century to hold water. The East Baray used to be contained by tall, earthen dikes, but it is not functioning anymore. The West Baray is still functioning and provides water all year round but to a limited community. It has a beautiful dike and has now become a destination for Cambodians to get away from the heat on the week-ends. Of course, the rebuilding of the West Baray is a great accomplishment, and it is evident when you look out on this vast body of water. National Geographic just published an article suggesting that the end of the Angkor civilization had to do with the drying up of the reservoirs. The irony today is that Cambodia has more water during the rainy season than they can manage, and none in the dry season. The answer is not simply more wells or even access, but safe water after the access becomes available. Safe water is filtered water whether it is from wells or rain. On the way back to town we stopped at an organic farm, one of three in Siem Reap that is pumping water out of the Baray. There are plantations all around and everything is green; however, this is not a very large area. Organic farming is new and quickly catching on mostly with restaurants and those with money. The evening was once again another opportunity to learn more about Trailblazers from Chris and Scott Coats. Paul has committed himself to work with them cleaning sand and working on biosand filters after I leave. Chris and Scott are remarkable not only in their committment to Cambodia but their passion and belief in empowering the people they have been assisting. Their dream is that someday they will be out of business. We all watched a few fireworks from the sidewalk, marking the celebration of the liberation of Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge by the Vietnamese. Looking back, the displacement and chaos continued until 1993 when Cambodia became independent. Once again, we felt a solid bond with our new friends and warmly toasted our friendship. I promise to catch up tomorrow. Lauren

Supposed to be our down day

Our day started with good intentions of going to Angkor Wat to record bas reliefs having to do with water. One of the most famous is called The Churning of the Sea of Milk. Unfortunately most of the wall is under construction, but we will go tomorrow at 7 am to catch the early morning light. We were invited this morning to go on Saturday very early to a remote area of Tonle Sap, one of the largest bodies of water in SE Asia, with Mieko Morgan and her husband Jon who we met for dinner tonight. Jon used to be the Director of Angkor Children's Hospital but has not dedicated his time to the "lake people." We were so thrilled to be asked that we changed our plane and hotel reservations in Phenom Phen until Sunday morning. This is an opportunity too good to turn down. We did manage our first down time this afternoon at JWOC swimming laps and laying in the sun for 2 hrs. Wow, it felt great. Paul officially signed his lease and I went to the market to visit Andrea's friend to purchase gifts. I got so turned around that coming out of the old market, I was completely lost, and wandered hopelessly for 15 minutes until Mr. Lien, our Tutut driver found me standing on the corner. We met our friends for dinner and then three amazing staff from Human Translation.org who are rebuilding an ancient reservoir that will service 9000 villagers. We once again filled our brains with so much information, images, and positive input about the future of Cambodia. I really did not expect that so much would be coming together in a week and that we would be so lucky to meet so many invaluable people. Each night before we fall into a deep sleep, Paul and I find ourselves looking speechless at each other, knowing how small we feel in this huge vision that we have stepped into, and how very fortunate we feel to be a part of it,
Lauren

January 5, 2010

The most exciting news of the day is that we have found an "over the moon" apt for Paul. After several viewings of guest houses, apts. etc. with hot plate burner, fluorescent lighting and ac only in bedroom, we found a luxurious new condo western style fully furnished, but not real cheap, overlooking the river. Paul is in heaven and now feels like he can stay and begin his adventure. We celebrated tonight at the FCC which is a ex pat restaurant, compound, but it all felt appropriate. Besides Paul's apt, the highlight for me came in meeting Mieko Morgan (Japanese), a nurse who has journeyed with her nurse husband Jon from RI to commit their lives to Cambodia. Mieko runs her own lab and is an NGO working in water testing and bio-sand filters. She described Cambodia as "fly paper." Once you get stuck you need more energy to leave than stay. Her knowledge about the delivery of clean water was invaluable, and she feels that access is just the beginning but that more than 10% of every well in Cambodia is contaminated with ecoli, and, therefore, must be filtered. She feels that bio sand filters are the best and most reliable way to remove bacteria. She and her husband live an hour out of Siem Reap in a village. She and Jon have adopted a Cambodian child as well. We are having dinner with the two of them tomorrow. We also stopped by the Angkor Children's Hospital to say hello once again to the director, Dr. Houseworth, who is in our film. He was pleased to see that we have returned, and we talked about me having a photo exhibition in the beautiful lobby of the hospital that is run by Friends Without Borders http://cambodiawaterproject.blogspot.com/We keep saying we need a down day, but that has not happened yet. We are so inspired by everyone we meet. Lauren...PS Thank you Sarah Peck for setting up this blog.

January 4, 2010

A 72k motor bike trip to Sras:

We began at 8 am our journey to the first village that Trailblazers.org worked with 5 years ago. It is very remote and during the rainy season impossible to reach. We herded out with 3 bike, Paul and I on the back needless to say. Each way was 1.5 hr.(total 72 k) over terrain that was not passable by car. We arrived in Sras and greeted by smiling faces and many hugs from villagers who have formed a deep bond with Chris and Scott Coats: founders of Trailblazers. This village began with wells and filters from Trailblazers and then evolved to micro loans, farming, and self sufficiency. When Chris and Scott talk about the village, tears come to their eyes and we saw the testimony to that at lunch on the floor of the chief of the village's house. We had a delicious lunch of fried frogs, cooked morning glory, chicken, and rice. There were a dozen men eating with us and drinking rice wine which Paul and I figured was too strong for us. We saw first hand the result of a village that has been empowered and transforming through their own will and initiative that began with the work of Trailblazers. After a memorable ride home, we sat around at JWOC drinking beers with Chris, Scott, Vaughn, and Rattana and talking about our day. Paul and I collapsed at 8:30 and slept 10 hours.

Back to the Village and Angkor Tom

Lauren and I headed out with the the Journey's Within team ( JWOC NGO) to a village just outside of the East gate of Angkor Tom to see the team do a follow up survey with Villagers on their sanitation practices and maintenance of the ceramic filters that filters all of their water. The filter and another 10 or so wells were provided by JWOC. It gave Lauren an opportunity to start shooting in the Village again. In the afternoon we met with the monks to learn about the role of water in Buddhism. Looked for housing for me for when Lauren leaves, so far it has been a learning experience.

January 1, 2010

This is from Lauren

It is the first day of the new year, and we are back to a normal sleep schedule. We spent the morning in Siem Reap looking for accommodations forn Paul. We looked at: guest houses, an entire house, and the second floor of a private house that looked incredible, but were not able to see inside until late today. In the afternoon, we met Chris and Scott Coats who are the founders of Trailblazers. http://www.thetrailblazerfoundation.org/about_history.html.


Chris and Scott are passionate about their commitment to Cambodia and believe in the bottoms up approach to giving. They believe that working with the government is the way to go, and this is the first time that we have met NGOs who are working directly with the leaders and future leaders of the Country. We will be going on a field trip with them on Monday at 8 am to the village of Sras, pop. 1300. This is their pilot village which sounds as if it has been transformed: schools, wells, micro loans, irrigation projects. We are very excited to spend the day with them on Monday.

We had dinner with Andrea and Brandon Ross from Journeys Within Our Community discussing the village that we are giving $5000 to. We will going out first thing tomrrow to observe and photograph the survey of this village. It appears that we have arrived during the coolest part of the year here...mid 80s. Lee Hi..goodbye in Khmer. Lauren