I was sitting in my office and minding my problems Received an e-mail from Bill. He was saying that he got – or may be getting some money to fund a project, which would help to mitigate poverty especially in the rural areas. It was very timely because few weeks ago Government kicked out two Concession Company from a considerably large forest area. The forest was badly abused by legal and illegal felling but the area still had substantial resources, which could worth a lot to the local communities if managed properly and the income is allocated for the local development.

I made some contacts and gathered some information about the area. The area was settled in 1996 by a defecting Khmer Rogue unit with their families. Allocation of the area was a part of the deal between the KR unit and the government. There were about 10,000 people living in the area some in small villages some as scattered individual families. The colony or the community has maintained discipline kept their guns and lead by an ex KR General.

It sounded good. Especially having KR and ex general added a lot of excitement. The only problem was there are no motorable all season roads to the area, it was rainy –monsoon- season and no body really know the mine situation of the area.

Few weeks later I received another e-mail from Bill he was informing me that he would be coming and would like to go and visit the potential project area. I made arrangements. In the mean time my boss, John, was also exited with the project idea and wanted to join the trip. He also asked Collin, the engineer and Garry, forester, to join us. Finally Bill arrived and we hired two 4X4 vehicles and set of to visit the area.

As arranged we were met by the local welcome committee consisting of the General, one of the provincial Junior Governor and two staff of a local NGO, who were already doing some good but limited development in participation with the people.

My idea of a KR general was a dark faced very mean looking obnoxious person. How wrong one can be! The general turned out to be a medium height, broad build, genuine and a very modest person. He was wearing an old green shirt, khaki pants and sandals.