Country Rat, not City Rat

On the drive back from Battambang, we noticed a few roadside grills. Their specialty: rat. Apparently the ones from the fields are ok to eat, but you need to avoid ones from in the city. I guess that makes sense, if you are going to get over the idea of eating rat in the first place. 

No, I didn't try it. The fact that it smelled quite good was disturbing.

The Bamboo Train

I've heard about the Bamboo train before, probably from Anthony Bourdain's show on CNN. It is just as flimsy as you might imagine. A simple bamboo mat, two small train axles, a tiny motor, and rail line that would never be legal in the US.

I took a rather thrilling video of the roughly 10 minute trip to the other train station, but it's size is a bit much for the Internet here at the hotel. Just picture yourself hurtling down the line at probably 30 to 40 mph. The click-clack sound is accompanied by the unnerving lift of the vehicle. You can see the joints coming that are less than ideal, but there's nothing to brace yourself on:

Even with all that, it was quite entertaining. Apparently they have a good history of safety. Tourists are not likely to go crazy with the very obvious threat of injury far from even a marginal hospital. They do maintain the track and you can see new sections. Plus, the bamboo structure is quite forgiving so it acts as a natural shock absorber. I highly recommend it. 

Battambang Adventure

I took a long weekend and went to Battambang, the second largest city in Cambodia. I've never been there before but it's the hometown of one of our drivers. Unfortunately I was unlucky on the drive over and got tremendous food poisoning from a place on the way where we stopped for lunch. 

Normally when I get sick from food it's my own fault. For example, I specifically remember a time several years ago saying "I really shouldn't eat that tartar sauce, but it would go so well with this fish and chips." As you might expect mayonnaise is not the best option in a third world country. This time I was extremely careful with my order and tied to be very specific and picky about my order. Even with that I got to experience the closest thing the human body can do to turning inside out.

After a morning of rest I was able to take in some of the small temples in the area. 

This is Ek Phnom. It has stood the test of time for about 1,000 years. Now local kids play around the massive stones while one or two tourists take pictures. 

Battambang is a sleepy town compared to the bustle of Siem Reap. It was nice to see a slower pace with fewer tourists. I was also encouraged by the signs of economic progress like decent schools, new homes, good roads, and people who seem to be living fairly well.

From the top of my hotel you could see the tranquil nature of the town.

Next post: the Bamboo Train.

501(c)(3) Submitted!

Thanks to the new 1023-EZ form, I finally submitted our application for federal tax exemption. This is a great milestone that will allow us to grow in new ways. I'm not sure how long the approval cycle lasts, but hopefully it will be short.

Today will involve checking on the computers and teachers at the Kessararam Primary School and the equipment at Khnar Tmei. I'm hopeful the discussions at each location will offer long-term insights just like the chat with Mr. Sok.

From Basics to Vocations

One of the significant changes I've seen over this past decade is the evolving desire for education. The people have a strong will to learn more, better themselves, and generally help lift their entire families up the economic ladder. In that sense the desire hasn't changed. I still see the excited requests for me to repeat a new word so they can jot it down or the locked attention as we discuss weighty subjects like politics. 

The change is mostly around complexity and application. People no longer just want to learn English because it might lead to a job. Now they specifically want to learn a trade which will lead to a job. Electrician is a great example. Take a look at this, and pay special attention to the tangled mass just beyond the arm of the digging equipment (click to see it better):

An Electrician in Cambodia is a dangerous profession. However, it's a well paid job with excellent long-term prospects. Those tangled masses aren't going away anytime soon.

Stop #1: Mr. Sok's house

Mr. Sok is a extremely kind and compassionate person. As a village elder in the town of Bakralein he feels a personal responsibility to better the lives of everyone around him. I installed a PC at his house many years ago and I can easily say it is the best cared for machine of all I maintain. It was still going strong when I checked on him and his family today.

Mr. Sok dreams big. He wants to convert most of his house into a kind of community center to teach computer skills, sewing, and possibly even music. He plays a couple instruments and mentioned that village kids have an interest in that too. I asked him to write up a long term plan complete with cost estimates and a timeline. Without hesitation he's ready to do it. I absolutely love working with people like Mr. Sok who are passionate and ready to make a difference. 

Today I finally got to one of the activities I've eyed up for many years now: cooking class at the Paper Tiger restaurant. Their food is quite good and I love the idea of at least properly making a Khmer meal once sounded fantastic. The experience lived up to the expectations and I met a few interesting kids from Australia and England in the process. I say kids because I was obviously the oldest person in the room. 

Oh, and I did go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner last night. It was American in every sense of the word: Taste, quality, and price. That's not a bad thing. It was great to introduce Mony and Prem to American-style barbecue. I've told them about it many times but that's a food group I can't cook. The Hard Rock does it quite well and even flies in hickory wood from Australia.  

Three cheers for new tax forms!

You probably never thought you would see that headline.

I've been struggling to complete the forms required to obtain 501(c)(3) federal tax exemption for years now. Part of my problem is just plain time and the lack of it. The other has been the cryptic legal framework that requires a law degree or paid consultants to figure out the form. 

The IRS recently released form 1023-EZ. It takes a painful 26+ form and boils it down to 3 pages online. This is not just a time-saver. I'm confident we can now get the status we need to continue to grow.

In other news... Here's a picture of the new Hard Rock Cafe. It's conveniently located across the street from a place selling gasoline out of old glass containers of Johnnie Walker whiskey and another place that will repair bicycles. Never mind the stray dogs. Did I mention it's a Hard Rock Cafe?

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Clean water and sanitation have been difficult and expensive problems. The prospect of running entirely new utility systems through established, busy neighborhoods is a daunting prospect. Imagine if the local government stopped by your house and said "We're planning on digging up the entire street for the next couple of years to install some new pipes". 

That's exactly that is happening here in Siem Reap.

My hotel is along High School Road, a significant road that goes to the east of town and loops around a bit. It's also the road we use to get to Khnar Tmei. I was amazed to see how the condition reverted to nearly the same state as my first year. Apparently the new sewer and water was installed recently but they are not done. Until that time, they have no desire to fix the roads. The result is massive potholes. I'll take some pictures today for a future post.

Aside from the exciting travels dodging craters and people, a few other things caught my eye on my first day back:

• They opened a Hard Rock Cafe. I guess this will be good to help drive tourism. 
• It's the low season for tourists, but I would call it about average. The drivers agree that the economy is "good and slowly getting better"
• The exchange rate between the USD and Cambodian Riel is still firmly pegged at 4000 KHR to 1 USD.
• The recent flood of Cambodian migrant workers who were in Thailand does not seem to have significantly changed the mix of people. I'm sure the story is different at the border. Apparently the Cambodia government is trying to get people passports at a greatly reduced rate so they can go back to Thailand when it settles down and enter legally.

Time for breakfast. Perhaps I'll eat light so I can check out that Hard Rock Cafe later. 

10 Years

Today marks the beginning of my 10th visit to Cambodia. In that time I've seen:

• Roads paved
• Electricity service stabilize and expand
• Children learn, graduate, and give back to their village
• Economic growth
• and so much more

Even with all this progress, I've also seen:

• A challenging election cycle with debatable results
• The same people in poverty, year after year
• Sickness and fear

The good far outweighs the bad. I hope I've had a small part in tilting the balance, but change is a funny thing. I probably can't continue to keep doing the same types of humanitarian work. For example, the explosion of mobile devices as a primary computing platform has arguably taken off faster in the third world because they didn't have the anchor of a beige box running Windows. Teaching basic PC skills will soon have no value.

For this reason I'll spend a substantial part of my time this year reassessing my outreach and asking the same question I did when I walked off the plane 10 years ago: "I wonder how I can best help the people of Cambodia?"

Flight number 2 takes off from SFO to Seoul in about 4 hours. I'll be in Siem Reap almost exactly 24 hours from now.