On to Battambang

This morning we did not get away from Siem Reap as early as we expected, because we were finishing last minute reports, they were due today, and taking care of emails.  We got to Battambang a little after noon.

This afternoon we went with one of the Branch Presidents, a High Counselor and the Self Reliance Committee Chairman for some visits. Chad had indicated that he wanted to see some farms while he was here.  The first one that we went to was growing sweet potatoes, it also had a little pond that the owner wants to raise fish in.  We next visited a rice farm, the member has six hectors, a hector is 2 1/2 acres, and his parents have fourteen hectors that he farms.  He gets two crops of rice a year.  It was interesting to learn about the rice fields and see so many of them all together.  There were a lot more rice fields than those grown by the member, they literally went on as far as we could see.  In Cambodia we are often asked if we have eaten yet, but the question is more literally translated as, "have you eaten rice yet."  Rice is a portion of most meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We also visited one of the member's small roadside store that carries a variety of small groceries, water, soda, etc.  He is also the rice farmer and he has applied the principles that he learned from attending the Self Reliance Group here to improve both businesses.  What a fruitful and entertaining afternoon.

This evening Phanna and Chad trained the local leaders as we took care of some administrative items for Chad.  Chad has a conference call tomorrow night and he needed some information on our efforts to encourage the Perpetual Education Loan participants to pay on their loans.  We were able to get that done, read our scriptures and write our blog while they were training.  We felt like we used our time very productively.