Day 18...Let the Blogging Begin

I've promised a blog for some time now.  As I considered what to write, my marketing background made an unwelcome intrusion into my mind. What's my angle?  Who is my audience?  What would inspire and motivate? How can I help them SEE Cambodia? What's the purpose of the blog?  Not really having the answers to these questions, I found mself paralyzed with analysis... and consequently didn't write at all...until now.


I'm sitting at Common Grounds Coffehouse in Siem Reap, operated by a great NGO called People for Care and Learning.  It's a non-profit that sponsors a floating school for the Vietnamese villagers along the Tonle Sap Lake.


Alger is out in the villages with Pastor Sophy and two other local pastors, visiting families and talking about house churches in Cambodia.  Village life here defies the passage of time.  We spent Tuesday morning with Julie Martinez visiting a small church that meets under a home, and the Research Farm established by PCL.  Ox carts are parked under each home, waiting for the rice harvest season.  Thatched huts sit on stilts to remain dry during the monsoon floods.  Julie was meeting with her Khmer leadership team for the farm, while we rested in the shade nearby. The sound of tinkling bells startled me out of a near nap in the 97 degree heat.  Following the bells, I saw a couple of water buffalo crossing the path through the village.  I ran closer, not wanting to miss this photo op. The horns were huge, and I wondered for a moment if getting this close was really wise.  They kept coming....and coming...and I soon realized there was a herd of water buffalo crossing in front of me heading for the lake.  One by one, they ventured into the muddy water, and began to roll around in the mud and water, obviously happy for the relief from the heat.  I envied them.....almost:)

Life is slow in the villages this time of year.  But as planting season draws near, the work of subsistence farming will require everyone to work long and tiring days.