picken rice

We have decided to help some neighbors pick rice this year. We thought about it last year but most people do not want kids doing it because they may ruin a lot of what they pick. The people this year are a real nice Christian couple and allowed us to help them. All of out children already know how to harvest rice because they did it every year with their own family. We only spent a half hour or so having fun and helping out.
With our little group we cut a huge section of rice for the family. After they where quite pleased with how much a lot of little hand could do.
We think beside getting to help our neighbors out it helps the children remember how to harvest rice if and when they need to also reminds them that they should try hard in school so they do not have to do this for a living. Because while it was fun for only a half an hour it took that family 3 days to harvest the rest and my back was killing me after such a short time of it.
Vun one of our staff is in the center with green shorts. We will help her mom pick rice next week. The man on her right is the owner of the field. After we picked his rice he offered to teach the children how to grow mushrooms.
The children are very excited about that because mushroom crops can produce a lot of money.
A group of children have already begun to pool their allowance to buy straw and seed to start growing mushrooms.
Savoeun, Kyo, Tee, Rachana, Wut helped pick rice.
Others came out to find crabs which was kind of the reward off picking rice.
We played a human knot game with their hands and had to untie themselves with out letting go.
The cheapest thing to do when they are out of school is go to the Zoo.


It is amazing to me how many eagles they have here. I can see one around our property now and then.




There where a lot of baby alligators this time. They easily come in and out of the fence so we had to be careful.
From our pond. About 17 inches
Chow found this turtle in the street. So we decided to set up the fish tank again.
All the fish, crabs, frogs and snails we picked up from around the property.


For Christmas we are Celebrating on the 21st so Ream and I can get away to town with Sam and Joe. We will try and hook up with some other missionaries in town for some fun.

But for the children we bought them all new outfits and any accessories they needed or wanted all for around 5 or 6 dollars each. Plus we are creating a treasure hunt for them that will have extra prizes along the way.

We are doing it with a bible theme answering questions and completing challenges.

It is looking to be a lot of fun. If it work out well and the kids have fun it might be a good idea for teams to do when they come. Also to invite other children to do it maybe from church or around town.

Thank you at home for making this last year possible for us and the children here.

We know times are hard at home and appreciate any sacrifices being made to stay with this commitment.

Some good new we are seeing prices drop in every area to were they where in March. So maybe 2009 will be a better year for us cost wise.

Thank you all,
we will post again after Christmas to let you know how it went.

God bless,
Kit Carson

Soccer

Soccer day.

Opening Prayer.

Lots of kids in the back.

Lots of kids on the right.

Lots of kids below

Lots of kids to the left

Soy almost got trampled several times.



Girls to the left and right of me.



Girls below me and in back of me. Sam is the center of attention.



Where would this blog be with out a picture of a bug or two.



This is a big leaf bug!!!





Tate and Rachana pose for the picture.



Savouen Wut and Engly.



Jake feeding rabbits with Kyo Savouen cleaning the trays out.



Rainwater storage area.



28000 liters of storage





Little bit about what has been going on last month and what is coming up.

Projects that have recently been complete.

We finished our rainwater storage area and we calculate it holds around 7396 gallons. Which is about a year of drinking water for the orphanage at full capacity.

That is about the same as $7322.00 of cheap bottled water in the States at $0.99 a gallon.

We also finished redoing the buildings electrical wires. Doing it ourselves saved us around $2000.00 and now every thing works great.

We put a shade over the children’s laundry area so the children who do their cloths in the afternoon do not get sun burnt anymore.

Projects we are looking at doing.

We are planning to add tile to the walls up stairs in the boys and girls room and repaint. Water damage from the hard rains and the children touching the walls all the time has led to this decision.

We are planning to increase the water storage on the roof from 1000 gallons to 2 or 3 thousand gallons. The increase in children means more showers and flushing leads us to pump water all day long, especially in the summer.

On and off we are having different problems with our plumbing and replacing more of it will be a possibility.

We are looking into making a methane tank in the front yard to replace or propane usage. All the pig manure we produce now will ferment causing a production of methane gas that we will cook with and then use the old manure for fertilizer.

We would like to put together a bike rack out front and fill it with bicycles. We would like to have one bike for two children to use.

Covering the bike rack, cars, and motorcycles we would like to put in a carport approximately 300 sq feet or 10 meters by 10 meters.

Buying items.

We are looking for a small car to get to town cheaper than the van.

We are also look to get one or two motorcycles. (This is the common mode of travel here.)

We are looking at buying 4 more dining tables and chairs.

We are look at buying furniture for the guardian rooms 4 beds, 1 small desk, 1 wicker shelf, 1 plastic chair.

We are looking at making a computer bar for the used laptop area with stools. It would be out of the way along the wall and they will not have to set up each time. We run the risk of damage with the set up each time.

We also are looking at getting a refrigerator and a separate deep freezer.

We are looking at a larger screen TV for their movie nights. Right now we have a 13 inch screen diagonal with 30 people trying to watch and it is a little disappointing in a good movie.

Events.

We again had a large group come and share our property. We had maybe 250 kids come to play in the grass.

A group from Australia put on a concert at the church and before that they played soccer with us.

We had a more professional group with jerseys playing another group from another orphanage all of these little groups where from the city and do not really have the place to come and play like we do.

It was great to have so many out here it gave us a chance to see what the property could be with 200 kids.

It was also great to have so many having fun together with out worry.

We really appreciated the Aussie team for coming out for some it was their second time being out.

To encourage better care of the animals the children are receiving a small portion of the proceeds from the sales generally from 5% to 10% depending.

Also we slimmed down on the pigs from 30 back down to 12 where we should be sitting. This should begin producing an income for us around April 2009.

Our goats are pregnant again both females this time.

We also plan to butcher a goat for Christmas this year. We will probably buy one to butcher since ours our not ready. But it is a far cheaper meal and the children really like it.

The younger children have some school scores in, the older children have to wait because they have been testing for a while.

Rachana	2
Kyo	3
Tee	1
Wut	2
Engly	21
Rosa	25
On	21
Ly	3
Weed	4
Tate	2
Tong	1
Yong	2
Jon	3
Own	2
Nune	3
Nyng	3
Nite	1
Darow	10
Hua	11

Engly and Rosa are new to us so you can watch their improvements over time.

The children went home for a week because it was the boat-racing holiday again. They all enjoyed the time away and we also enjoyed the quiet. I got lonely real fast though. They will go home again in April for their new year. Twice a year they go visit what family they have.

It also helps them appreciate what they have here. I think 4 or 5 of them got sick probably from poor diet.

Sam will be turning 5 in December.

Jake turned 15

Savoeun turned 15

Channee turned 14

Young turned 13

Jon turned 13

Te-a turned 12

Engly turned 8

Ly turned 7

On is turning 7 in December

28 children will be celebrating Christmas with us this year. Six of them it will be their first Christmas.

Some more pictures & projects

On my desktop this week is Joe just out of the shower.

Playing bubbles with the cousins.
Lim and Sedung also made sure to replace their pictures on our staff wall.
Pov is our new Nanny. She is 19 wants to work as a caretaker and is a great Christian lady. We are helping her finish school first and then will look at her working as a caretaker. That way she will have an education once she leaves here. She is very happy and so are we.

A little bit of fun in the city for some.
A group of six who had shown there excellence this last quarter go to spend some time in the city with mom and dad. They eat KFC and the next day we went to Srins church.

Working a shade for the laundry area so the children doing their cloths in the after noon will not get sunburn any more.
There has been a lot of rain the pond was over flowing so we had to put some drains in. The lightning and thunder storms have been crazy. I have never seen or heard storms like this before. It is like an hour of non-stop thunder.


We have increased the size of our pig pen area. To hold 12 mothers rather than 3. We are hoping this goes well to help offset some of the rising cost.
this project was made possible because of donations from South Shore Christian Fellowship, in Hawaii.
Thank you.
Right now we have 25 pigs; 13 are waiting to be sold. We are looking at selling in February to get a maximum profit because of a holiday that takes place then. Prices can double for us then.
Rain water storage area we will be collecting rain water mostly for drinking. It seems to taste better than the well water and should be safer.

New pictures

Pastor Pat was here in September and saw his picture we had on the wall along with the other staff pictures. Well he did not find it too flattering so we took another one to put up.
Vun is our new caretaker. We have 3 now, she is the nieces of the high school principle. Vun has been doing really well so far and we thing she'll stay for a while.

Engly and Rosa are sisters they make 26 children and 11 girls. They are 6 and 7 years old had have missed home a little more than the other children have.

This is Jake and it took a lot to get him to smile.
Jake has some problems with his foot and hand. Jake was abandoned when he was young to a Cambodian family. They being older now gave him to us. They did not push Jake too hard because of his Handicaps, which has left him a little lazy and not willing to try hard at any thing.

We have had our discussions with him and will slowly make him realize he will have to try hard in life to get anywhere and a hand that isn't perfect is not and excuse.

Vun, Engly, Rosa and Jake are all Buddhist so they will need your prayers. And we will need your prayers that we will have the wisdom and understanding of their faiths.