Today was nice. This morning I visited the Apopo Center in Siem Reap. This center trains the African giant pouched rat to sniff out unexploded bombs and landmines for the purpose of defusing them. Cambodia is covered in unexploded bombs and landmines from the Vietnam war as well as from the Cambodian genocide. Thousands of people have lost their lives from stepping on an unexploded bomb and even more have lost limbs and eyes. In the streets of Cambodia this is very obvious. You see many people missing limbs and eyes. It is the sad reality of a country ravaged by war. The rats in Cambodia come from Tanzania where they are born and trained. They are trained via a clicker, similar to how you train a dog. When they hear a click they are rewarded with banana or peanuts. The rats are trained to sniff out TNT, gun powder, and other explosive material. They can smell 1 trillionth of a gram of TNT! They also can smell one meter long and deep. Rats are perfect for the job because they are light and move fast. They can clear the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes. The hero rats usually work from 6AM to 9AM clearing various areas in the country. There are four teams in Cambodia scattered throughout. 10 rats are a part of the Siem Reap team and one of them is retired. It was super cool to see the rats in action. I got to hold one and it licked me! I also wanted to talk about how I tried Kefir today. Kefir is a creamy, tangy drink made from milk or water using kefir grains (colonies of yeast and bacteria). It's high in protein, probiotics, and calcium, supporting gut health and digestion. It differs from kombucha which is slightly fizzy, tangy-sweet tea fermented with a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). It's rich in antioxidants and probiotics, promoting digestion and detoxification. Kefir is actually stronger in probiotics. I had passionfruit turmeric flavor and mango lavender flavor. They were both phenomenal. I think I like it even better than kombucha. I might go the local Kefir brewery tomorrow.
