And THEN we had lunch

     So much happened in the morning that it's going to take a second blog entry to finish out the day.  I can't remember the last time so much happened in my life that I needed more than a paragraph to tell about it, much less TWO blog entries.  Here goes.

     After Thea (pronounced, by the way, TEEah) and I left the falls, he drove me to a little Bunong farm nearby.  He had somehow gotten the idea that I was interested in all things agricultural and was intent on showing me stuff that was growing .  We first went to this lovely little farm; we simply pulled into their yard and Thea started taking pictures.  No one seemed the least bit surprised or disconcerted by our stopping in, and they seemed to have no reservations about us looking around.

     At first I thought Thea was saying they grew RYE there, but then I realized that it was indeed rice.  


There is a special kind of rice that grows on high ground here.  Apparently the rainy season provides enough water for it to flourish without paddies.  Here's some, which is, as you can see, interplanted with corn.




















                                                                                                                                                                                       And when it's drying, it's reminiscent of a harvest of wild rice drying back home.    
























This woman was making, of all things, DOG food (and for those of you smart alecks out there, it's NOT Cambodia where they eat dogs.  That's KOREA!!!)










 These two women were taking some fruit and vegetables to market and were most obliging about having their pictures taken.  Some of their produce looked familiar (like the bananas) but most did not.

     From the farm, Thea and I went to a coffee plantation.  I had never seen coffee actually growing before and somehow had never imagined it looking like this.

We had lunch, including coffee grown on site, at a pretty little restaurant located right on the plantation, 

 and I was delighted to see this funky little hydroelectric plant fully operational there.

Thea then showed me real live pepper plants.  I mean REAL pepper--you know, the stuff we all sprinkle on our food every day.  This too was a surprise to me, so I wrestled my camera away from him and took this picture of Thea himself in a pepper grove.

     Then it was back to the Green House in Sen Menorom, where I again pounced on the computer in the selfish hope that Scott might be suffering from insomnia so that I could chat with him by instant message, but [sigh] no such luck.

      However, the two young American women who were scheduled to volunteer at the Project the following week WERE there, authoritatively and diligently teaching English phrases to a young Khmer gentleman.   It continually amazes me how hard so many Cambodians work to LEARN--they seem to think that learning English is key to improving their job and financial prospects.  I hope they're right!

     Becca and Megan and I chatted until Jemma showed up with the truck to take us back to the Project.  Jack was still sick and planned to go to Phnom Penh in the morning to see a doctor.

      So it was with a genuine sense of homecoming that I found myself back in my little house overlooking the Elephant Valley, watching the jungle form its own clouds.