Day 6 (Michell & Melissa)

Boomz, Sugar Cane, Pass-it-on, Stream, Village Living, Agricultural Training Centre

The day started especially early today at 5am, because we were supposed to head out for Angkrong village. For the city-dwellers amongst us who haven’t experienced rural living, there were plenty of uncertainties, ranging from sanitation to shelter and security.
Breakfast was more gratifying than yesterday since we knew what to order after having had yesterday’s breakfast. After breakfast, it was time for most of us to hit the toilets (aka shit) before we moved out into the rural areas where proper sanitation may be a problem.

Splendid view of the fields and mountains in the distance

Sepia shots just have this tinge of emo-ness

During the bumpy ride towards Angkrong, we heard a sudden ‘boom’ (not the kind you would expect from Ms Ris Low). So we had a punctured tyre and we started taking photos around the place while waiting for our ever-helpful-and-thoughtful truck driver to replace the tyre.

See our ever-helpful-and-thoughtful truck driver in tyre-replacing action

Imagine your vehicle breaks down in this kind of ‘ulu’ place, you don’t know how to fix it and you can’t find any help…

And we’re set to hit the road again!

Upon arrival at Angkrong, we participated in the pass-it-on ceremony, during which villagers who have benefited from the cattle rearing programme of Sustainable Cambodia become donors and pass on cattle to their neighbours after the cattle have successfully bred. Villagers were given an update on the statistics of the programme and we were told that the area surrounding Angkrong were heavily mined during the Khmer Rouge era.

Waiting expectantly for the ceremony to begin
After the pass-it-on ceremony, we were treated to an early lunch of Khmer noodles and sugar cane for dessert! By sugar cane, we don’t mean drinking the juice, but actually biting into the cane and then chewing the fibre =D There’s a first time for everything, and while almost all of us were having sugar cane in this manner for the first time, the tough sugar canes certainly were a challenge to our pearly whites.

Yummy lunch!

Yes, we bite!

Then we made our way to a stream to take a dip. We stayed there for a few hours and had a second round of lunch there. I guess most of us ended up overeating on this trip =(

I got peace by the river…

and pose by the river =)










The sugar cane chewing never stopped, hahaha






While the others played with water!







We then went on to take a look at some of the Sustainable Cambodia project sites in Kravanh village.

A half-completed SC well


Nature’s indicator of groundwater, according to a Cambodian elder who served in the military. The bigger the size of the mound, the greater the amount of groundwater in the proximity.



Having a look at the SC fish breeding pond



We settled at the Agricultural Training Centre for the night. Guys had to use an open shower, which was only a water pump on a concrete platform with no walls, but the girls didn’t have it too good either. Their shower room was a small wooden hut that had no light.
Dinner was awesome, especially the peanut chili sauce that came with the grilled fish. It was so good it could be eaten on its own. The soup was delicious, we loved the sweet pumpkins.



Dinner spread!

Day 5(Jeannifer & Guanyi)

Breakfast
floating village
lunch
move out
check in hotel
dinner

After a good night rest despite the falling insects, we were awakened by the usual morning broadcast reluctantly. After a quick breakfast (no Milo, no water today) we prepared to go to the floating village. While ten of the members travelled in Father’s van, nine others were squeezed into a tuk-tuk. It was travelling at only 30kmh – practically was slower than a passing butterfly – and therefore we could not feel our legs anymore after an hour’s ride. While we were sitting on the back of the speeding van, Michell, who was sitting cross-legged uncomfortably, suddenly asked: ‘Yiing Jye, do you mind if I open my legs so you can be in between my legs?’.Honestly, another SIFE moment made by Michell (after last night’s “Hey I’ve just seen a crab walking sideways!”).


We loaded onto a motor boat (which emitted black clouds from its side and therefore contributed to lung cancer) and there we went! Along the journey, we saw provision shops, a police station, churches, a clinic, and a police station. Simply put, the floating village was self-sufficient. We finally alighted at a local church and stayed there taking pictures, taking in the breathtaking scenery of the Tonle Sap, and wishing to be able to take the adorable kids back with us until around 11am. We finally had to make our way back to CROAP, as we need to prepare to leave the premise permanently and move to another guest house since CROAP’s guest house was booked by NUS students already. So, we went back to have our lunch at the by-now much-beloved al-fresco eateries. Today’s menu included pasta made by the equally beloved and very much revered middle-aged house keeper lady. We very much wished to hire her to follow us to the rural areas for three days (and obviously knew such miracle would not happen despite the many times we’ve got to wish upon the dozens (yes, plural) shooting stars we got to see every night here in Cambodia).


Not too long afterwards, we made our way to a new guest house which turned out to be a decent hotel (hotel!). We had to carry our belongings to the third level as there was no elevators but believe us, we did not fret a bit. Compared to the CROAP’s guest house, this new home of ours was a major improvement (HA! Jealous much?). Electricity will not be cut off at random timings, water is ever flowing, and there will be no funny creatures (which were so diverse that actually we have no idea what species they belong to)! We pretty much were in a good mood, and our mood was further escalated by the fact that we got to eat Cambodian delicacies! We guessed we were too hungry (or one table was, at least) that we practically finished the food, including the peanuts served as a free appetizer. By the way, the name of the restaurant we were eating at was New Than Sour, and the dishes we ordered included Fried Chicken Made Fly (do not ask what the name means but seriously, we shed tears eating it as it was too shockingly spicy).

So, here go pictures of the day for you to see and envy!

Floating Petrol Station

Jeannifer is well loved by the kids!

Leaving Tonle Sap

Leaving CROAP...

p.s. We left (on) a "SCARY" note.

Day 4 (Joyce + Yedi)

Today was a fun-filled day with the various activities.

In the morning, we were split into two separate groups with the first group who stayed on in CROAP to listen to the staff that came to explain more about the BSF while some of us went to a kindergarten nearby to interact with the children before the rest came to join us after listening to the staff from SC.

The 2 staff from SC came with the sample test result that showed the before and after result of using the BSF. The samples made use of water from the rain water as well as the pond water which is where the villagers get most of their water from. From the results, it was seen that the use of the BSF greatly reduced the amount of bacteria remaining in the water. This is important to explain to the villagers the importance of making use of the BSF to get clean water.

At the same time, the rest of us made our way to the kindergarten nearby and that was the highlight of the day. We met tons of energetic kids who had lots of smiles on their faces. We shared food from Singapore with them and then returned our gestures by singing 4 songs for us. Then came the exhausting portion where we played with the kids- ball games, frisbee, piggy-bagging etc. They were FULL OF ENERGY! Though we couldn’t really communicate with them except saying stuff like Choo—mo-ah (which means wat is your name), we could still play around with them and it was real fun especially upon seeing the joy on their face.

The kids were very independent and you will see kids as young as 4 years old who made their way home alone. Many of them were barefooted as they made their way home and you will really realize how tough for them to go to school. It was totally different experience which will remind ourselves and we believe many in our team why we even venture to such a place in the first place.

Day 3 (Huili & Victoria)

Today was a rather monotonous day according to Singapore’s standards, because we had little to do with time passing slowly. Nonetheless, the mudpie we “baked” yesterday was ready to be taken out of the “oven”.

The ingredients for our cement cake is as follows:
1. 32kg gravel

2. 32kg sand

3. 16kg cement

4. 15l of water

How you make this it, mix the first 3 thoroughly. Then create a volcano-like crater in the middle. Pour in half the amount of water and mix. Then, add the rest of the water gradually. Tadahhh… you are ready to bake your mudpie!!

Remove baking tin, and tadahhh, you get your Bio-sand filter cake!

After lunch, we were taught how to use the bio sand filter.
Basically the idea is a copy of earth’s natural process and how it cleans itself. The most important component of the BSF is the sand. When water is passed through it, the micro organisms on the top surface eats the bacteria and when the water that comes out is almost 80% cleaned.

1. First, put in 5cm worth of rough gravel,
2. followed by 5cm of fine gravel on the next layer.
3. Put water through to rinse
4. Pour in 35kg sand and fill with water again.
5. The water that comes out is clean to go with your pie!

Here's us bringing back our VERY OWN CREATION!!!

A lovely family picture...

Day 2 (By Denise & Wenhao)

Spending the first night at Croap was a totally different experience especially for the girls as it was the first time they could live close to nature. On the other hand, the guys bathed with toads and slept with a white palm-sized gecko. Nevertheless, the CROAP compound is beautiful and is a different sight from all the high rise buildings we see in Singapore.


The 30 minute trip from CROAP to Sustainable Cambodia(SC) on the tuk-tuks was an eye opener for some as we had to sit through the bumpy and dusty ride on Highway 5.

Today was split into two parts – theory and practical. On arrival at SC, we managed to get things rolling immediately with a lesson from Mr David Scott, an in-house volunteer. He had also attended lessons from CAWST. We got more details of the BSF and managed to clarify our doubts on the subject matter.

Immediately after the lesson, we got down to the work sieving through 210kg of sand to get the fine sand for the filter layer of the BSF.



Then, it was break for lunch! Right outside SC, at a local restaurant.

After lunch, it was down to serious business. We were split into two groups. The first group did the washing of the fine sand while the other group worked on the casting of the 5 BSFs out of the iron moulds.

After the hard work, we were invited to attend a Human Rights Day celebration in the SC compound. The co-founder of SC, Ms Susan J. Mastin, highlighted to the Cambodian students about their right to learn.

They had games and performances lined up but we had to leave early as it was getting dark.
In these 2 days, all of us can be quite sure that we took back a lot from the hard work today and we also realized the importance of safe and clean water, especially in rural areas where tapped water is not even readily available.