December Update

Since the tourist season has started, Tin will not be able to get the village well built until March or April. It takes 7 to 8 days of his time to accomplish that and he needs to work as much as he can. With the sale of the football tickets, I was able to have enough money to build two additional family wells. Even better then I thought. So I am sending money over for that and will keep the Village well money until early spring. Perhaps I can earn a little interest on it. The two family wells are going to be dedicated to the donation efforts of Milano in Kansas City and The Wild Bunch. The Wild Bunch is a group of people that Nancy and I hang out with after work. The Village well is going to be dedicated as being “From the Heartland of America”. The money for that came from so many different parts of the Midwest I did not want to just mention Kansas City.

We did it!!

With a couple of donations in the past week I was able to get very close to my goal. And thanks to the MU/KU football game, I was able to more than complete the money required for the well. When the Chiefs offered season ticket holders an early chance to buy the tickets last spring, Nancy and I purchased a pair. Little did we know how big of a game it was going to be. So I took the tickets to a ticket outlet and received almost 5 times what I paid for them. Now, I even have enough money left for an additional family well. I have emailed Tin with the news and soon will send the money over by Western Union.
In looking back at this experience, I can just say that I am amazed by the generosity of people. That fact that we could raise this much money in a relative short period of time just speaks volumes about the goodness of people. Starting in September and finishing in November when everyone has numerous expenses, yet still donated is really heart warming.
Although Tin will send some pictures, I promise to take plenty of pictures when Nancy and I return in February 2008.

I have received $300.00 in the last week. What a great week. This brings the total to $815.00, only $585 to go. I’m feeling very confident that we can have the well built before Nancy and I return in February. The village that will receive the well is located west of Siem reap about 90km away. It is called Preah netr preah district, Cheung wat village.
Our contact in Cambodia says the road is in very bad condition and it will take about 2 hours to get there. I’m sure it will be a worthwhile trip. Hopefully the 2 wells Nancy and I had done earlier will be in the same general direction. I have found this vilage on a map, but it doesn't seem to transfer very well. When I find a better map I will post it.

Now What Exactly are we doing?

At this point in the Fundraiser, I would just like to recap what we are doing. In Cambodia, a well for a single family cost $220.00. The water table in this part of the country is 30 to 40 feet deep. The well can be built in about 2 days. This water is very clean since there is no industry in the area. Otherwise the families have to walk long distances, sometimes well over a mile to get water from the river which is very polluted.
The well we are raising money for is for a village, about 30 families. It needs to be dug between 60 and 80 feet to reach an adequate supple of water. This well takes about 6 days to build.
The efforts in Cambodia are lead by tour guides that have banded together to help the local population. The country has been though so much hardship that people there really need to rely on each other. The tour guides show the tourist what can be done, collect the money and 100% of it goes to the well effort. The pictures show that the British, Spanish, Canadians and other countries have helped in this cause.

Once again, if you feel like helping and don’t see me on a regular basis feel free to send a check in any amount to,

Conrad Knab
2525 Main St. #410
Kansas City, MO. 64108

October Update

I’ve heard that when people do these things, it always surprises them that they get such a positive reaction from people they have never met. This has happened to me. I copied a friend in Omaha about my effort to get this well dug. Not only did she send a check, she also told a group of friends. The group is called the 12 women of Lincoln. Each month they join in a Random Act of Kindness and after a couple of phone calls decided to make the Cambodian village well their cause for this month. The $240 they sent will go a long way toward the completion of this well. They even thanked me for doing something good for the people in Cambodia, when in fact they are the ones helping to make this possible. We are at $515 working toward our goal of $1400. We are now over a third of the way to our goal.

Update

I thought it was time for an update on the efforts for the village well. It has been a slow start, but I do have $125.00 from two contributors so far. That's almost 9% in a week. So maybe in 10 weeks we will be there. Many people are on vacation or otherwise out of town. I still have full confidence that we will be able to get this done. At some point I may try to have a fundraiser if I can find a business to help me out. Otherwise we'll keep trudging along. I’ll keep you posted.

Fundraiser effort

I think I have about 8 to 10 people that showed an interest in helping with the well. So any amount of money will help a lot. For now I will BCC everyone to keep your email address private. However if you don’t mind or would want to contact others on the list let me know and I will place you on the regular “to” list. One problem I haven’t figured out for sure is what to put on the sign. I’m thinking of just putting Kansas City, USA although there are a couple of people not from KC, so if there are some other ideas I’m very open to hearing them. I will keep a running total of the money raised on this blog so everyone will know where we stand. Those of you that are in regular contact with me can just give me the money when you see me. Others that don’t see me very often can mail me a check at:
Conrad Knab
2525 Main St. #410
Kansas City MO. 64108
When we have enough I will get to Western Union and wire it over. I’ll find out in advance how long it will take to complete the well. When Nancy and I return to Cambodia in Feb. 08 we will get a chance to go to the village and take plenty of pictures to send back.
We were lucky enough to have our little story posted on the Friendly Planet website. Here is the link to that. http://www.friendlyplanet.com/traveler-quotes.asp.
We also have the same story at the bottom of the Treasures of Thailand Tour page.
http://www.friendlyplanet.com/thailand.html
After we saw that Friendly Planet had helped dig a couple of wells, we contacted them and told them what we were doing. So they added us to their website. It really is a great company to travel with.

Cambodian Wells

My name is Conrad and after a trip in January 2007, My wife, Nancy and I saw the tremendous need for fresh water for the people of Cambodia. We have sent $200 on two separate times to build two wells. These wells are for single families as you can see in the pictures. I would like to raise $1400 for a well for a village. Our tour guide while we were there is my partner in this endeavor. His name is Theap Bunthin. His story of surviving the Pol Pot era is worthy of a book or movie by itself. Nancy and I are returning to Cambodia Febuary of 2008. In my next post I will try to figure out how to raise the money for the village well.