Earlier today, we were driving in the van and I was getting discouraged because I was having trouble watching the LA Dodgers baseball game, it keeps buffering... Let that sit with you for a second. I am in rural Cambodia, drive a cross miles and miles of dry rice fields and I'm upset that the internet on my cell phone is not strong enough to watch a baseball game being played live from the other side of the planet.
Yes, I'm a spoiled unfortunate person...Technology has its talons deep into my soul. When we check in to a hotel, my first instinct is to obtain the wifi password. I then move to find the closest outlet to plug in my multi-port charging station. It is only after all my electronics are charging and happy that I can settle in and take my sunglasses off and put down my cell-phone. I guess it's just the shape of the world now.
Today we spent time at a local silk farm. The number of steps that go into growing, processing, dying, designing, weaving and processing the smallest strip of silk is frightening. Each stage of the process has specialized technology that is involved. For example, in the earliest stages of the silkworm growing process, the supports for the buildings, and legs of the tables within the building are all set into vessels filled with water.
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| This is to keep ants out, as they would kill and destroy the growing silk cocoons. |
I don't even know how to explain the threading process. But I guess the cocoons in one single, continuous thread. So they have to kill the larva so it doesn't breakout and destroy the filament.
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| Larva producing the silk |
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| Cocoons being dried after the larva have been killed |
Then they do some other stuff and then more stuff...I don't even know...I'm tried and I have ADHD so I didn't listen as well as I should...I'm sorry. I'll let my phone tell the story... Here are the pictures.
Drawing raw silk from the cocoons on to the spindle
Colored silk being respooled
Patterns being made in the silk strings (tie dyeing) for later use in weaving
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| Hand weaving a length of silk. It can take up to 36 hours to produces 2 meters of the cloth |
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Silk products in the store. These products are not exported but are sold locally
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All around us are signs of techniques and technologies that have been practiced here for centuries. The way rice is processed, the way people get access to water, the way people trap animals and insects, the way they cook and process food...all have their roots in the ancient techniques.
I'm not saying that Cambodia is somehow trapped in the past. In no way is this the case. As we have ridden through the smallest and most remote villages and it seems that everyone has cell phones.
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| Note the name on the building to the Left "Yang Phone Shop" This is in the floating Village in the middle of Tonlé Sap, the very large lake in the middle of the country. |
We've seen numerous kids streaming videos on these phones...I heard some child playing "Johnny, Johnny..." if you have children who watch internet videos, you know what I'm talking about.
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| Kids crowded around a cellphone |
I kind of feel for better or worse, that people's access to the larger world is blurring the lines between countries, communities and societies.
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| Nothing to do with the post..Its a puppy who rested his head on my foot at lunch the other day. |
P.S. Although it is dangerous, it is not illegal to Facetime your children who are halfway around the world, while riding your bike down a moderately busy two lane (sometimes six lane, depending on how many vehicles are passing each other) highway in rural Cambodia...A police officer drove by me on his moped while I was doing it...didn't even pause.
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