Today was a memorable day for me. It was a day that I imagined, hoped for and feared when I thought of travelling to Asia. I was invited to join the Trailblazer well drilling team for a trip to finish work on some wells. I sat in the bed of a pickup truck for 2 hours as we drove to a small village North of Siem Reap. One perk of the butt numbing and extremely dusty ride was that we passed through the Angkor compound without paying, a rare exception for westerners (Cambodians can visit the temples of Angkor for free anytime). We were a team of five, heading out to build two cement bases for the PVC pull pumps drilled last week. The base I was helping to build was for a single mother who lived with 5 girls, some her younger sisters and some her children. She was pregnant and earned under 25 cents a day. The pump was the fanciest piece of equipment on her property, which consisted of a dirt lot with some scrawny dogs and a tiny wood house on stilts with no door and nothing inside it except for a few spare clothes hanging from a beam. She cooked outside with her 3 pots and a small wood fire. Lighting at night was provided by a tin can lantern.
The work was gratifying and physical, performed in a sticky 37 degrees C. After we finished the woman served us a simple lunch of fish soup and rice. I might well have been the first Barang (foreigner) to eat in her house. The floor boards had spacious gaps between them so I could drop my fishbones though to the dog on the ground. On the way home I was talking to Scott, the director of the Trailblazer foundation, about the work and the area. He pointed out a dozen signs that warned of landmines, saying that each sign was specific to an area where a recent accident had occurred. As we drove by, kids biking home from school waved cheerfully, some even boasting an English “hello!”
Scott revealed to me how much money gets wasted in many aid projects. He says that big NGOs often have a poor understanding of what the local issues really are and since they are not in touch with local communities, a lot of their projects never happen in the places that really need help, basically they get stuck in bureaucracy. He pointed out several wells that were broken and out of use, explaining that the organization who built them was charging double what Trailblazer charges and making poor quality wells. Scott and Chris live simple lives, and employ an all Cambodian staff. They have also raised several foster children. If you have any money to spare or know anyone who does I strongly believe In the Trailblazer Foundation. Not only are they helping the people who are really in the most need, but they are economically efficient about it, turning a higher percentage of donor money into direct action than the other NGOs in Cambodia.
Well, that’s why I’m glad to have found Trailblazer. Check out their website at http://www.thetrailblazerfoundation.org. I’m both inspired by the work I’m involved with and humbled by the
This evening it rained, making the day even more memorable. It is the first real rain I’ve seen since early December, and it rained hard, accompanied by some mighty lightning and thunder. I can only imagine how welcome this premature rain is for those who cannot irrigate.
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