Written by Jon Aug 8
Chum reap sua,
Chum reap sua,
Our stay at the Teo last night was great. We each got small room but it's clean so we can't complain. Dave came to pick us up at 8 and we went to Mr. Chew's noodle place for breakfast. Hand made egg noodle with beef and a wanton. We remembered it well from our trip last year, the food and iced coffe was just as good. Dave, our host missionary in Battambang said he's been going to Mr. Chew's since '94. But now that the prices are going up ($.75 for iced coffee and $1.25 for a bowl of noodles) he's not there as often. Mr. Chew is a first or second generation Cambodian-born Chinese and speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese. Emily had a good chat with him and, supplemented by information from Dave, we found out that he was baptized and calls himself a Christian but it's just something he puts on his religious shelf along with other beliefs. Having a succesful noodle shop that is open seven days a week is not condusive to Churchgoing either. We'll be back there for breakfast tomorrow morning.
After breakfast we went to visit a family to pray for the grandfather who is sick. The doctors say that he probably won't recover from this but the family asked Dave not to give any indication of that to him so that he won't loose hope and give up. Dave and Doris spoke to the family in Khmai and since one of them is a teacher they talked about the widespread corruption in the education system. Test proctors often accept bribes to allow students to use notes or cheat sheets during tests. These proctors then have to pay bribes to their supervisors to be allowed to continue to proctor tests. The family was saying that recently it has gotten twice as bad as it was in the past. One encouraging aspect of the visit was finding out that this family are the inlaws of the family I was staying with and will stay with again in Phnom Penh. Dave explained in Khmai that I was staying with their inlaws and they all seemed very happy to discover this connection.
After lunch at Dave and Doris' place we relaxed for a couple hours before heading out to the fields. Joined by an American and Khmai agriculturalist from Phnom Penh and some members from a local Church we set out to demonstate a new method of planting rice. A small plot of land about 10 by 20 meters was set aside for the demonstration. Half was to be planted in the traditional Khmai method and half in the new method. Really it's a simple change. Instead of the average 30 centimeter spacing between transplanted seedlings the new method calls for a spacing of 50 centimeters. This reduces the number of seedlings used and the labor it takes to put them all in the ground while yielding a greater harvest since the rice has more space to allow new sprouts to come up. The side that planted 50 ceintimeters apart finished twice as fast as the side that planted at 30 centimeters but only time will tell if the yield is increased. The Khmai as a people are generaly resistant to change in methodology whether it has to do with infant nutrition, building a house, or planting rice. But just because it has always been done that way doesn't mean that its good. The average yield for a Cambodian rice field is 1.8 tons of rice per hectare (A measurement indicating a square with 100 meter sides.). That sounds like a lot until you find out that the potential yield for a rice field in this part of the world is upwards of 10 tons per hectare. God willing the demonstration today will be a small step towards improving Cambodia's agriculture and, therefore, the lives of the farmers in this country. And of course we also pray that when we take care of the physical needs of people it will open doors to take care of spiritual needs. Grow rice, grow!
Chum reap leeah!
Jonathan
P.S. Oh, if you wanna see some pics click here.
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