Dear friends and loved ones,

April was a much slower month for us, which was a relief after our very busy (but amazing) March. April is when all of Cambodia celebrates the Khmer New Year. Technically it’s only a three day national holiday, but those three days always fall on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday so naturally it gets stretched into at least 10 days of festivities! It’s pretty much the equivalent of our Christmas, the children have two weeks off of school and many people travel home to celebrate with their families. As you can imagine, not a lot of work gets accomplished in the month of April. 🤪

During the two weeks of “no productivity” in Cambodia, we were actually able to accomplish quite a lot of tasks 😂. Lukas spend a chunk of his time in the laboratory testing some new methods and different water samples from a few new locations. We also had time to catch up on a lot off the administrative work that we didn’t do last month, and also preparing the needed documents from 2025 for the annual review and board meeting (Revision und Vorstandssitzung) that are happening later this week.

We mad a trip to Phnom Penh, the capital city, so that we could attend the quarterly Swiss Partnership in Cambodia meeting hosted by the Swiss Consulate. As always, it was encouraging to be with other people doing similar work for similar reasons with a similar background 😊. While we were up there, Lukas visited a new laboratory, and found a new partner where we can buy laboratory and water testing supplies. This will help reduce the amount of items that we have to import from abroad.

We didn’t install any filters in April, but we do have a couple of projects in process, with some new donors from the USA who have given towards wells, filters and rain water collection systems. I look forward to sharing them with you when they are completed.

Family and everyday life:

Benjamin also had two and a half weeks off of school. Even though he’s enrolled in an international school, they still need to observe the local holidays. On the last day before the vacation the school hosted a “family day” where the parents could come and visit the classroom, have a coffee and snacks, and play some traditional Cambodian games to kick off the Khmer New Year. It was fun for us to get a glimpse into his daily rhythm and see the progress that he’s made in the last few months.

The city that we live in is known for its Khmer New Year water fight. Every year it turns into a three day city wide splash zone. This was the first year that we joined in the water fight, previously we felt that Benjamin was too small. I was pleasantly surprised how kind and respectful everyone was. Cambodia in general is a kind and polite culture, so I don’t know why I expected the water fight to be different. Even though the city was crowed and people were walking and driving around with pickup trucks full of ice water, everyone was super considerate and mindful of each other, and no one threw water at Benjamin without first observing him to see if he wanted to be splashed or if he squirted them with his super soaker. I was so impressed by the level of awareness and kindness present in such a chaotic environment.

Our little 100cc Honda Cub motorcycle needed a complete engine rebuild, it took three days, and was fascinating to observe. What would have cost us several thousand dollars in the west was only about $100 here. I’ve included a photo of the mechanic shop, because it’s so different from what you would find in Switzerland or the USA. 😂

Well, I think that’s it for the April update.  I’m a bit late getting it out because Lukas is in Switzerland for the two meetings I mentioned earlier, and I just don’t have time to “do all the things” without him here… It sure does makes me appreciate him more when he’s gone. 😉❤️

Here’s the photo link , we didn’t take many pictures last month, probably because administration and laboratory work isn’t so photogenic 📸😂.

Have a great month!