Once Barty and Arnie had seen enough of temples, we all went off for a day in a village to see how most people live in Cambodia. We went in a minibus, but when we got there, we went off to the family we were going to help in carts. Ours was pulled by oxen and the other by water buffalo.
We were taken to a field where the owners needed help planting corn. The woman walked up and down the rows throwing manure in dollops every 50 cm or so, then the man added chemical fertilizer. Barty and Arnie and all the other adults had to mix up the manure, fertilizer and soil with their bare hands then push 3 holes in it and drop three seeds. By the way, do you know what manure is made from? Animal poo! Mostly water buffalo and ox poo. We were very glad we didn't have to do it!
These are the seeds they were planting:
When the whole field was done the last job was watering the rows using water from the irrigation channel and two watering cans on a pole. It was hard work!
While Barty and Arnie worked, we had a little rest on the cart.
The water buffalo had a rest too.
After a while we got bored and went to play with a little boy. He had a great toy - can you see what it's made from?
The wheels are a kind of fruit that grows on a tree. We thought it was very clever.
It took all the adults about 2 hours to do the field which seemed a long time, but it would have taken the family on their own 3 days. Eventually, they all came back to ride back to the village. Even though they all washed their hands in the irrigation channel, there was still quite a pong on our cart when Barty joined us!
Next stop was the village school. This one is a very nice school compared to some we have seen. Even so there are no computers and the walls are very bare. The only things in the room are one blackboard, the teacher's desk and chair and ones for the children. There aren't any books at all in the classrooms, only a few locked up in the library. At least this school had some nice pictures on the wall that the children drew. Other ones have nothing at all on the walls.
The teacher wasn't in the class when we got there. The children go to school in shifts, some go from 7 to 11am, then the next lot arrive at 12 until 4pm. Sometimes the teachers drink too much rice whisky at lunch time so they don't come back and teach in the afternoon. The children just play around for a while then go home early. We went in and taught them some English. The children were about 10 or 11.
These younger children wanted to see what was happening too.
Arnie taught them to sing "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean". Every time there was a 'b' they had to either stand up or sit down, the opposite of what they were already doing. It took a lot of explaining and we all did a lot of laughing, especially when Arnie went to sit down and missed the chair. The children all wanted to copy up the song - they had very neat handwriting.
After that we looked around the village. Here's the shop.
And here's a lady getting water. In the villages nobody has a tap inside, everyone uses a well; usually lots of families share the same one.
Our last stop was at the reservoir. This is where the village gets its water for watering the fields - there are channels cut in the ground for it to run through to where it is needed.
Some people were selling food at the reservoir because it is a popular place to go and swim. Can you see what is on sale at the front next to the pink things?
Fried grasshoppers and cockroaches! Barty couldn't try them because he's vegetarian, and Arnie wouldn't but we don't know what his excuse was. Would you have tried them if you were here?
That's all for now - we're going to Laos next, that's another country a little bit north of Cambodia. It's got lots more hills and trees than where we've been, and we're hoping to go for an elephant ride....Lots of love from us all (by the way, we haven't got any names! What do you want to call us?)
Lots of love from Barty and Arnie as well.
P.S. Hi Thom, Thanks for your letter, we hope you are completely better now. Next time we are home will you make fairy cakes and jelly for us too?
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