The guy who I've been using for various plumbing task over the last few years, is a fellow I call Mr. Yim. I don't know if that's his first name, or last. I never really conversed with him much.

I had him fix somethings at another property I'm selling, and asked him to come to my house to pick up payment for the job.

When he got to my house, he got out and we walked around my back yard. As we investigated my yard, he pointed to just about every type of tree I had and started to tell me how that particular tree could be used for either medicine, or food. For example, I have two different kinds of bamboo growing, and he explained to me what parts of the bamboo were eatable, and how to harvest the shoots from the bamboo, how to cook it and what it taste like, and how to use bamboo to cook other things in.

On my 1.5 acres lot, I have different kind of random trees. He would point to this one and tells me what parts can be used for what, and which part to eat, how to cut the tree to get water from it. What he knew was really quite fascinating.

He told me that he knew how to survive in the jungle, living off of plants. Told me about how when he was 14, the Khmer Rouge came through his village, and made him serve in his gorilla army, and told me of the horrible things he saw, walking on bodies and bones of countless thousands of men, women, and children. He told me that because of his beliefs, he could not participate in the killing, so he was assigned in support type role. One of his task was to gather food, and he got very good at knowing the jungle.

Then he started to witness to me as a christian, how he believed that Jesus saved him for a purpose. He told me about how when you have nothing left, no food, no water, no hope, how your faith can save you, and how important is was to have strong principles that guide your life.

It was a blessing meeting, and talking with him. I told him that I intend to learn everything from him that he is willing to teach me about survival. He seem excited to share his knowledge.