Lotus Flowers and Water

You see beautiful pink lotus flowers everywhere. They grow in all the muddy little ponds in front of the houses.  The contrast of the beauty of the flower and the quality of the water is striking!  We did find out that the lotus plants are not grown for aesthetics -they are food just like pretty much every other living thing. We have never seen what we would call clean water in this country yet.  I guess we will once we reach the beach... You see people bathing, standing fishing up to their necks and children playing in this water.  We are not sure what they drink...there are big concrete cisterns pots at each house too - I guess they collect the rain water during rainy season. Also, we have come upon wells in our travels but I don't know how plentiful these are. Rotary could certainly help by providing clean water in Cambodia. We also heard that there is a real need for "family mosquito nets" since most families sleep together on their raised platforms. The cost is the same at $5 for a family net or individual one so let's go for the big ones! Posted by Linda