Hello from rainy Cambodia,

Just as most of our friends and family are launching into the long warm days of summer, we are beginning our rainy season. It’s still very hot, but we get days (such as today) when it’s cloudy, rainy and cools down to 27°C (80°F). Ahhhh, so nice 😁

A trip to Switzerland and House Construction: Lukas was in Switzerland for nearly the first two weeks of May. Benjamin and I were sad that we couldn’t join him this year, but Benjamin had school, and someone (me) needed to keep an eye on our house construction project. Unlike Switzerland or the USA, if you don’t show up at the building site, things can quickly go wrong. What kind of things, you are wondering? Well, let me give you a few examples. So far we’ve run into issues with the builders trying to mix dirt (instead of sand and gravel) into the foundation, building the foundation 5 squ m smaller than and the blueprint, making the windows different sizes (when the blueprint shows them the same size), leaving gaps in the insulation, and forgetting to paint steel beams with anti rust pain, to name a few. But from what we’ve heard from many people, this is the standard building process. Even our Cambodian friends tell us that we need to go to the site every day, or we’ll get cheated. It’s a really foreign concept for us, but we’re learning. We’re also learning a TON about how to build a house.😂

Lukas’ trip to Switzerland was for work, he spent most of his time in Kehrsatz where our organization has its headquarters, which is only a mailbox and a small storage room in a church basement 😂. While he was there, we could hold the annual review and also the board meeting. He also had a meeting with our amazing volunteer accountant and a few other key partners. Sometimes people are confused about our job title. Are we “Water Project” or “Warm Blankets NGO Directors?” The simple answer is “yes, both.” Some months our work looks more administrative and other months more project based. One thing is for certain, there’s always plenty to do, and we’re very grateful to everyone who partner with us to make it possible for us to live here and do the Water Project and other aid work projects supported by Warm Blankets Switzerland.

Even though it was a work trip, Lukas was able to spend a few days in the Alps. One thing that we both really miss living in Cambodia is the mountains. So, whenever we get the opportunity to be there, we always prioritize at least a few days in nature, because it so healing to us, and we joke that it’s cheaper than therapy 😉

Filter maintenance: This month Lukas did a maintenance visit to Safe Place Children’s home and replaced their filter membranes. You can see from the photo how dirty the filter was, which is a bit alarming because that children’s home is connected to city water. But the city water is still better than some of the wells that we’ve tested in the rural communities.

Working with local partners: Lukas’ research is starting to generate a bit of awareness. A few weeks ago we were contacted by an engineering firm in Phnom Penh who wanted to know more about his research and asked for his advice on how to to remove manganese from ground water in a particular village. This is an encouraging examples of how partnering up with other organizations can have a larger impacts on Cambodia. But also this month, I was supposed to do a hygiene training at a free community medical clinic, but it was canceled do to lack of funding. Lukas was also supposed to make a scouting trip for a new well and filter location. That trip was also postponed by a local partner.  These are two examples of the frustrations that can come when working in partnership with other organizations. 🤪 But the benefits still outweigh the losses.

Well, that’s about it for this month. Nothing super exciting, just “doing the things we need to do” same as everyone else, trying to keep our head above the water in a world gone crazy.❤️

If you want to see what the inside of a Buddhist Pagoda looks like, check out the video at the end in the photo link. We got to spend an entire day at our local pagoda sorting out some paperwork for our land dead. 😉
Here’s the photo link.

Have a wonderful start into the summer!

Blessings,

Jenny and Family