Cool weather is a blessing. Usually our works brings us in July and August. The end of the hot and dry season. Late October is the end of the monsoon and the beginning of warm, temperate climate. That blessing is especially wonderful when standing outside for an hour to chat. The past few days have been full of discussion.
We checked in with Mr. Sok (top right image, seated on the right) at his house. His consistent and benevolent presence in Bos Kralanh allows us to support the entire village. We arrived a few minutes early. Apparently he was out running errands. We didn't realize it was to deliver wedding invitations for his youngest son to get married! The stunning invitation (bottom left) mentions Monday November 7 at 5pm. Stop by if you're in the area. Even more shocking was the realization that we know the bride. She was a scholarship recipient to become an English teacher.
Deanna then sparked another epiphany. This was the student that had trouble with the financing at the university. It's near impossible to work out these types of administrative headaches over email. Now we had an even easier way to figure out what happened and fix the problem. The next day we stopped by their house (top left, the recipient student is on the far left). The father ended up taking out a personal loan to cover the last year of education because of the coordination. That's a big deal. Educational commitment is highly valued here but there's only so much a family can do. Plus women's access to education still suffers some old cultural habits. Reimbursement for the family through the already funded scholarship program was the right and easy solution. They were a bit surprised we showed up a couple weeks before their wedding to pay off the debt. But truly joyful. So was a neighbor (bottom center) who asked us to tell Pat that her sewing classes are paying off!
That's not all. This week we secured 28 solar street lights and 5 lights with a phone charger to kick off the next pilot project (top row, middle). We also started researching water purification technology. The water from a well might be clean, but that doesn't mean it's drinking water. People are supposed to boil it first. That's not convenient or even practical far out of town. The products available in stores (bottom right) are not expensive but require filter changes. We can do better. Once we get the solar project rolling, water purification could be the next thing.
One more thing. The website is now updated to include projects from the last few years. We crossed our 100th well in 2019! We'll cross 150 toilets in 2023!