Just before Courtney returned to the USA she got to spend some time with one of our staff Sdung at her house about an hour south of us. Courtney got so see and experience the way most Cambodian families live with some of the problems the Cambodians face.
I would like many of our visitors to have this same experience a part from getting sick. I think though hard it might have made one of the larger impacts of the trip for her.
As encouragement to the our growing youth group the church took our children to the water park again. Courtney paid for the children tickets and the church provided the ride.
This is know as a Si-cope to the Cambodians or a Japanese cherry and many other names. Turns out it is a pretty common tree in South America.
It is a wonderful tree for us. Grows into a very nice shade tree in about 2 years. It seems to fruit all year long and grows with out any help at all. The fruit taste like a mix of honey and and kiwi.
We made a real nice Jelly with it this year.
We also for the first time made a mango jelly and a chocolate mango jam. All pretty good. Our trees are about 10 years old now and we were hoping for a better harvest this year but with a lack of rain for 5 months we just watched most of the fruit wither and die.
Another thing that hurt our harvest this year was not having our pond. After 3 years the mud from erosion has accumulated to about 8 feet. So for about 3 weeks three men dig their way to the bottom, absolutely the most difficult job. You really have to thank God for the place you given in live no matter how hard things get.
But now the rains are coming and things are turning around.
We have a lot of babies. We house them so the rats and the cats do not get to them. The geese are so protective standing around the cage nearly the entire day and night.
We had many Soursop this year these trees Ream planted by seed.
One of Snow Whites dwarfs and future chain gang member.
8 feet of mango fruit leather. Even though we had a small harvest this year it is still far more than the kids can keep up with. So besides the jams we make fruit leather also. The children will start eating this once the trees are empty.
Power the lines are in the village and we expect to have actual full time power with the strength to run everything at one time. Mou our cook will not have to run to town every day 2 to 3 times a day to buy food. We will begin to raise pigs to eat and save us a lot of money.
We are looking forward to the summer coming planning out what the kids will do what they will learn. Quite a few teams are planned maybe you can jump on or tag a long.
