Goodbye George ... hello charcoal

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Geo: 16.392, 103.924

I bike into Phon Thong for the internet but make a brief detour to the bus station first. George is smoking his last cigarette before his bus leaves. Wish him well and it is quite possible that we wont see each other again. I will have to talk to myself each afternoon from here on !!
Head to te internet where I check Jai's visa paperwork before submitting her application to the Embassy on-line, printing off a copy, paying the fee, booking an appointment for the day after we get back from Phnom Phen, etc, etc. One final photocopy in town before heading back to Khamnadie I think the job is done ... now fingers crossed ?!
Late morning we go to see neighbours Deu and Ang at their farm. When Jai had a large area of woodand cleared at the farm someone was supposed to be coming to take away all of the cut trees to turn them into charcoal for her to sell. They took one lot and have never come back. Jai and Ang have now decided to do the job themselves. Deu takes his dak-dak to our farm where we load it up with some trees that have already been cut up into manageable logs. Take them back to Deu's farm then we adjourn for lunch. Early afternoon we make two more trips out to the farm returning with loaded dak-dak each time.
We eat our dinner early then return to Deu's farm to set the first lot of charcoal off. lear an area of ground then start to make a stack of the smaller logs before covering the pile with rice husks from their mill. Will leave it all to burn overnight then check the results in the morning.
My first day's work in ages and I hope that I dont pay for it tomorrow ...

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