where cider meets condensed milk: RDIC and building

where cider meets condensed milk

Friday, May 18, 2007

RDIC and building

This is the RDIC factory where they manufacture various water filtering equipment. These ceramic filters are being coated in liquid silver something... I wasn't really paying attention. We spent a morning here, painting and assembling filters and touring around.

This is Sam Ol, a project coordinator from RDIC, demonstrating a water pump that they developed for use by families. Benefits of this type of pump: it's inexpensive, can be easily fixed by its owner, and reduces arsenic in the water. Santa (Keith) is on the left, and he was our group papa. He has done aid work in several countries, and worked as a paramedic with Medecins Sans Frontiers. Pretty much, he knew something about everything. RDIC also makes educational videos about things like hygiene, health, and literacy, and we met a nurse practitioner that is working on a program to reintroduce herbal remedies into village cultures. Western medicines are exorbitantly expensive, but the traditional methods for treating common illness were mostly lost with the displacement (and genocide) of the older population during the war. So, RDIC is working to recover this knowledge so that communities can take care of their own health problems using ingredients found in the region.

Nerds at the "coffee shop" (tables under tents, all the locals, fantastic coffee and Ovaltine) near RDIC.

And then back on the loooooove boat to the building site!

Lisa, here comes the airplane!

More hours at the building site: go Sean! Go Thea Ra! Who won? Our Cambodian friend did, but he was just trying to impress Lisa. Rowr.

Yagi yagi yagi! Right before I was enveloped in the herd, I heard a commotion from behind me. Some runaway cows were charging haphazardly toward my tiny patch of dusty road, big pointy horns glistening in the sun, old woman lazily grabbing for their halter ropes. If I were in slo-mo, I could've donned my glamour-cowgirl hat, stuck my thumbs in my pockets, and said, "Well, cows, looks like there ain't room in this here village for the two of us!" And then I could've moseyed out of danger's way. This didn't happen. The goats started braying, I panicked, screamed, and 2 cowgirl feet plus 100 little caprine hooves fled in the direction that seemed least likely to lead to imminent death. It's been awhile since I've run with goats. It was terrifying. We escaped the mad cows. I survived with a light head-butt tap from a mama goat. I ran like hell to catch up with Sean and our RDIC boys before any other animals tried to eat me. And then an old man who was watching started laughing at me.

Hey cow, aren't you looking so chill and undangerous? Whatever. I know all your tricks.

posted by Raychaa @ 2:26 PM

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