A few minutes ride on a bike leads to a scene something like this, with small raised dirt paths that wind between rice fields as far as you can see. It's beautiful. Apparently the rice fields in the wet season are an amazing site, so hopefully I'll have a before and after picture. It's difficult to see in this picture, but in the distance, people are planting rice by hand, stalk by stalk, that's how it's done...I'll try to remember that the next time I'm complaining about something.

FRUIT SHAKES!!!!!!!! These are my new obsession. 2000 riel (50 cents) for a shake made out of fresh fruit, what's not to love about that?!? Our fun night out is to take a tuk tuk to the little stand on the road where a lady makes these- we like to think that she makes the best ones in Cambodia. The folks in the picture from left to right are Sophie (a Dutch girl that is a constant source of amusement), Caleb (a great guy from Kentucky that has been living at RDI for about 1.5 years- he's fluent in Khmer, which is amazing and also amusing to watch how the Khmer react to that), me!, Hannah (a girl from Vancouver that graciously opens her home to us to watch movies, make grilled cheese...those kind of comforts), and Da (another great guy...he is from Cambodia but is fluent in English, which makes our interactions a bit easier. he's the one that got me into playing volleyball over here, occassionally. i'm now working on getting him to try out yoga.) Anyway, it's a great mix of people, always people coming and going, always something going on...

The view from my front porch. The court looks inactive right now, but there are lively games almost every evening. Occassionally there is a girl that attempts to play with the Cambodian guys...she has fun, and I'm pretty sure they find it rather amusing.

This merry-go-round is also right outside of my bungalow. It actually has a purpose other than a fun place to play. As the kids play on it, and it goes around, water is pumped into a storage tank. The first picture that I apprehensively took of them playing is not included here. Once the kids saw that I had a CAMERA, they immediately struck this pose. The picture that follows, but doesn't exist, is the kids surrounding me after the picture, wanting to see themselves and laughing hysterically. It was great.

A bridge in the village of Kean Svay where I'm living. And the view from the bridge...

An RDI sunset.