Three Waseca natives pump clean water into Cambodian villages

Contributed Photo: Group in Cambodia Tom Kraus, Bill Cutts, Dale Deraad and John Priebe with two locals in Cambodia. Kraus, Deraad and Priebe have been to Cambodia every December the past three years to visits Cutts who lives in Cambodia almost half the year.

http://www.southernminn.com
Posted on January 22, 2013  
By Jennifer Holt

Once a year for the past three years, three Waseca natives have joined Bill Cutts, of Mankato, in Cambodia, where he lives two to six months out of the year.
Every December, Tom Kraus, Dale Deraad and John Priebe travel across the Pacific to re-experience what life is like in a Third World country and during each visit they give back to a Cambodian village.
For the Waseca natives, visiting Cambodia is a humbling experience. During their first visit Cutts was telling them that in a village not far from where he was living, the people had no running water.
“We wanted to rectify that problem,” Kraus said. “It was really humbling to provide water to those who previously had no running water.”
During each trip, they pay for workers to install a fresh water pump in a village that they dedicate to someone in Waseca.
The pump built on their last trip was dedicated to Fran and Wayne Hursh.
“We know that there are some wonderful members of the Waseca community,” said Kraus, “and the Hursh family have been long time contributors to the community.”
The pump itself is hand dug by locals whose attire consists of flip flops and running shorts – miles away work by American construction workers.
Most Cambodians have to retrieve their water by walking far into the rice fields, filling up a bucket and walking it back, then boiling it before using it to drink or cook with.
“It’s dirty water,” said Priebe, “and it’s just not healthy.”

New fresh water hand pumps provide clean water for up to 100 people to use daily for drinking, cooking and washing clothes and cost $300.
In the rice fields, Cambodians make about two to three dollars a day.
“Three hundred dollars to them is a lot of money that they just can’t afford to install something like a water pump,” Priebe said. “The country is a very young country and they have a long way to rebuild.”
During one of their trips, they had dinner with about 15 people on a double-decker boat as it sailed down a river at sunset.
While on the boat they saw families who were living in boats about 15 feet long and 6 feet wide, where entire families lived day-to-day by EATING feeding on the fish they caught in the river.
Kraus, who had been to Thailand before, was reluctant to visit Cambodia because it’s “such a Third World country,” he said.
“I’m so happy I went. If you go through this life and never get to Southeast Asia, you’ve missed a gem,” Kraus said. “You see people who have nothing yet they’re so happy. There are also few places you can go as an American and be well received – we never felt threatened or harmed in any way in Cambodia.”
During one of their trips they also visited the killing fields that were the sight of millions of lives lost during Cambodia’s genocide in the mid-seventies.
“It wasn’t that long ago that the dictator was killing people,” Kraus said. “Three out every eight Cambodians were killed. Almost 20 million total between 1975 and 1979. It didn’t happen that long ago and didn’t receive as much attention as the Holocaust.”
Despite an unimaginable history, the people of Cambodia seem to persevere.
One thing that surprised Priebe was that despite having access to an Apple product, the kids he would see playing were just as happy as the kids here – if not happier.
After every trip, all the guys bring home with them a sense of appreciation for life in Waseca.
“It’s a good reinforcer. The trip takes you to the most basic levels of life and has taught me how little we need to be happy,” Priebe said. “Watching people who have nothing compared to our standards of living here, yet they seem so happy and selfless.”