Many mornings everyone walks to school, including those who do not have class that day and those who are too young to attend. We walk from classroom to classroom saying “goodbye” and “have a good day” and then make out way back home. One morning, as a handful of us were walking back from the […]
Cleaning up
For many years we have had a saying here “Make Wat Opot Sa’at” (Sa’at being the Khmer word for beautiful) when ever we want the kids to clean up. The school year has started, but there is a lack of teachers so 1st through 3rd grades have been cut in half because of the large […]
Making Kimchi
As we have posted about before, we are growing lots of food. Greens grow very well and fast and we often have an abundance. One day this large 5 kilo (11 lb) stack of mustard greens was brought to me with the request to make kimchi out of it. I have made kimchi many times, […]
(Part 1) Second garden
We have the beautification bug! After the success of the completed first flower garden, it only made sense to start on an area next to it…since admiring one led your eyes to the other. I didn’t get a ‘before’ photo but you can see the overgrown area in the background of the group shot and […]
Happy New Year 2021.
Best wishes to all for the New Year. Wishing this new year brings everyone hope, joy, and movement!
COVID 19 UPDATE
Greetings from the Wat Opot Community From a recent Facebook post by our Director Dara; -Due to COVID 19, the children are helping out around the property. Working hard to raise and feed animals which helps keep down food costs and also makes us money. Thank you, children, for your hard work. Because of Covid-19, […]
(Part 5) – The finished flower garden.
With the border completed, it was time for the final step, planting the flowers! It was not as nearly fun as I thought it would be…there were still so many rocks in the soil! I had to move a bucket with me so I had someplace to put the stones I dug out of the […]
(Part 4) Change of plans.
After looking at the rock border for a few days, I wasn’t loving the look, it just seemed too symmetrical and plain. Hmmm, what about bamboo? YES! So, the rocks were carried back to their original place by the kids (who looked at me as if I was crazy) as I tried to figure out […]
(Part 3) The makings of a flower garden.
So I thought that the next step would be buying flowers, but I quickly realized that the soil was hard and full of small rocks. It needed to be tilled and many of the rocks had to be removed before I could even think about planting. Enter eager helpers again! I would hoe a little […]
(Part 2) Sights set on a bigger project.
Walking to my door multiple times a day made me smile. The kids would come and look at their handiwork and comment on how pretty the new plants were. They wanted to help water them and just enjoy the beauty of nature. I would see the new planters and look at how nice they made […]