Nov.8 – Day 19 – Preak Dak – The company we travel with spends some of our money on important needs in villages we visit. In this village of Preak Dak we are planting fruit trees that we have brought. These farmers are not affluent and these trees will give them more produce to sell and to eat in a few years.

We paired up and we all helped to dig the holes and plant the trees. We also met the family and toured their small patch of land. They had chickens and a pig who was happily watching a television on a table outside with the two children. He was unaware of his looming fate, I believe. Oh well, karma is a bummer sometimes.

This program is planting 3000 trees over 15-20 hectares in this village of 200 people.

Most of these people are Buddhists I believe, but the temples are shared with the other religions also. There seems to be no issue with that here.

The areas roads are lined with scare crows at their edges. They are not to scare birds from the fields, but to chase away evil spirits that may do harm. Many of these “people” are wearing motor cycle helmets. Odd, since many real people don’t wear them on their motorcycles. Do these scare crows know something the villagers don’t. Do they go out at night on motorcycles? I wonder.

The butterfly sanctuary is doing well. The farmers have been trained to bring pupas into the sanctuary for payment. They earn a little extra money and help to increase the butterfly population, which in turns helps the farmers.

The enclosure is a large wired affair with many trees and plants growing inside. The butterflies are free to roam and lay their eggs. The men who work there tend to the pupas that the farmers bring in. They are laid out carefully and watched until they hatch. Everyone wins in this deal.

The trees being planted will also help with carbon offsets in the area. The air quality isn’t great, but these countries have many problems and little money. Air quality is low on the list of issues they are worried about at this time.

Remember, not everyone has the resources we have or a government that cares about air quality and the like. We live in a world that is not the real world for the most part. We must not forget that. Somehow these people survive and thrive in spite of the air quality.