Scott G Trenorden

I had the opportunity to visit the Trailblazer Foundation yesterday evening, which was a very rewarding and enlightening experience.

In the photo above, Scott, one of the key members, explains the process of filtration the Trailblazer filters use. They are handmade, and house three layers of sand and gravel. It’s a simple system but supremely effective. Their hard work is to be admired.
As Scott and the team develop the system they use, they are training locals to do the work so that he, Chris and Steve can move on to another country, and the locals can take over the task of building and delivering the filters.

While chatting with Scott, he recommended I visit the Singing Tree, which is a café/meditation centre/outreach post for NGOs. Sadly it was closed today, but is open tomorrow so I will be sure to visit. It looks a very peaceful place to go.

Speaking of peaceful, I think I shall spend my afternoon at Wat Athvea, a small, quiet temple south of where I am staying. It is a good place to sit and meditate, see monks going about their daily chores, take photographs etc.
While visiting the Trailblazers, Steve (a Blazer and fellow photographer) asked if I’d looked next door.

Replying in the negative, I followed him over some very loose rubble, up a small hill of broken mortar and bricks, lent over a very rickety corrugated iron fence and saw this:

Right next door to the Foundation’s grounds was a massive crocodile farm. Hundreds of the prehistoric horrors lay about, seemingly dormant… Waiting.

The lack of infrastructure and safety was bewildering and outright horrifying. I tested the give in the iron fence and immediately knew that if I had put my full weight into it, well, I wouldn’t be writing this entry.

Steve joked that the lack of safety was intentional in case someone needed to disappear, but I could tell there were some unspoken truths lying far beyond the joke.

Discussing this lack of safety with Scott (seen here [right] surrounded by water filters, explaining the process to Carlo [left]), he told of the experience of viewing the work of an artist of the Pol Pot era. He noticed a watercolour painting, framed but hidden away in a corner. Upon closer observation, he realised the artwork depicted peasants being thrown into a crocodile farm by the Khmer Rouge.

This was not an uncommon form of murder and extermination apparently… What a horrid way to die.

There is more to this story but it will have to remain a voiced conversation in case local people happen to be reading this blog.

This is just a short post for now. I will write more later tonight or tomorrow on my observations from the several hour walk I took today through the ‘back streets’ of the area of Siem Reap in which I’m living.

Scott.