If it ain't broke, don't fix it

It's been an interesting 6 months for me on my moto. In February I took a tumble on a dirt road that left me pretty banged up. After a few months of tranquility I started having small accidents quite frequently. There was always some immediate cause- a dog ran out in front of me, someone cut me off, etc. I would hit my brakes and my bike would hit the ground. I wondered if other people were having accidents this frequently or if I was just having a run of bad luck (I knew my driving skills could not be to blame).

On Saturday, I had another incident. Immediate cause- someone veered in my direction on a bumpy road. Result- I hit the brakes, then hit the ground. This time my foot felt a great deal of pain immediately. I managed to drive home with an ice pack on my foot. X-rays revealed a fracture on my foot. It was the same foot that I had injured at youth camp in June. The foot just never seemed to fully heal, so when I had the accident the result was probably worse than it would have been if my foot had been healthy.

This accident caused me to consider why my bike kept sliding out from under me. I finally realized that my rear brakes were not functioning. Every time that I had to brake rapidly, my front tires would stop, but my back tires would keep spinning and the imbalance of force would make it practically impossible to stay upright. I then saw the connectedness between the condition of my moto and the condition of my foot (fracture to the forefoot). I was aware that something wasn't right in my foot or in my moto before the accident (though I hadn't considering that my brakes weren't properly working). But with the busy pace of life it just seemed to be a low priority to rest my foot or go find a mechanic to look at my moto. I figured I

would just manage, as I had been managing. The accident caused me to give attention to that which was broken. Now I have a walking boot and on Monday a mechanic fixed my brakes.

Sometimes we see this same pattern in other areas of our lives. We ignore this or that vice until it grows into a problem that we can't ignore. The consequences can be great. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But if it is broke, well...you know.

(Right-foot injured at camp in June)

Rain Jacket

Last night I was riding home with Jude from the Lucky Mall when it started to rain. We took shelter under the the awning of a Khmer restaurant. I had forgotten my rain jacket at home (Jude had his). I asked if I could buy a rain jacket there. I was told that they didn't have any for sale.

Surprisingly, the security guard offered to give me his. It was used, and was missing half of a sleeve, but otherwise was in perfectly good condition. I was humbled by this act of generosity by someone who had never met me before. He refused to receive compensation for it, but finally agreed to accept 500 riel from me as a deposit for his next jacket. That's about 12.5 cents, or 1/3 of the price of new jacket.

This is a situation where focusing on the financial details is akin to missing the forest for the trees. This was a very kind gesture. He could have gotten rained on when his shift was finished and he returned home. That kind of unselfishness, I thought, deserved a blog post.

Momentum

I was driving my moto yesterday when a white dog ran out in front of me. I hit my brakes and my moto, predictably, went tumbling over. I've had that happen several times in the last year. This time was a little different, though. I let go of the handles instead of riding it to the ground. Somehow (only God knows, and I thank him for it) I managed to hurdle the handle bars as the bike was falling and land on both feet! I literally hit the ground running. I couldn't stop because of the force of the momentum and after 4 or 5 steps I ran head-first into a pole.

The Cambodians who witnessed the whole incident were peering on with a look of disbelief . Both the dog and pole were uninjured. Thankfully I was wearing my helmet and my only injury was a bit of pain and swelling in the toe that I broke at youth camp last month. The dog got a good rebuke from his owners at the roadside. He learned that you have to look both ways when crossing a busy street, and I learned a thing or two about momentum.

Fish added to our Fish Pond

We stacked our two ponds at the end of July- one with tilapia and the other with tre pra.

Bridge to the farm

With the wet season upon us, we have to drive our motos across this small wooden bridge to reach the farm. A lot of the sticks are loose so you have to keep moving and be sure not to drag your feet.

Wells and pumps added in Takam.

We built Anyu's house (with the tremendous help of a team from Lee University's Business dept.) at the end of June. The photo above shows a well that was recently added to the property near Anyu's house for his family's personal use. He is the caretaker for the farm. The middle photo shows a second well that was added, in between the two fish ponds. A pump was purchased so that water can be pumped from the well into the fish ponds for aeration. The top photo shows water being pumped out of the fish pond by the same pump. The two ponds (each 10x15m; 4 m deep) are being prepared for tre pra and tilapia farming. All photos were taken July 20. Both wells were added and the pump purchased a few days prior.

Football Camp

We organized the youth football team in the village with a 3-day camp from July 15-17. We had 4 practices in 3 days. Around 20 youth participated in the event. Here are a few pics from our time together.