Author: LMoulton

Today being the last day at the local community, everyone pitched in and helped out as much as we could to complete the finishing touches on the house. Seeing the familiar smiling faces of the villagers reminded us to make the most of our last day and to seize every opportunity. With most of the house already completed, we just had to finish off the walls and clean up the site. We picked up our tools and got to work on the final task ahead.

After the final nail had been struck, the tools were put down and the festivities began. Firstly, we gave gifts to the children who accepted them gratefully. Seeing the joy from such simple gifts made us realise that even the smallest things in our lives can mean the world to another person. The second stage of the ritual consisted of us walking around the house three times anticlockwise for good luck.

We then entered the house, followed by the family who would live there. Formally handing over the house, we then presented gifts to the family, such as much needed rice, clothing, mosquito nets, cooking pots, floor mats, blankets and pillows. Two representatives spoke on behalf of our group who showed our gratitude towards the people of the village for giving us the opportunity to work, play and spend time with the community. Leaving the house for the last time, we said our final goodbyes and reluctantly hopped on our pink party bus back to the hotel.

By Liam Dalwood and Kiera Rikard-Bell

Today was our last day working in the village, which was a day of both joy and tears. It began with putting the finishing touches on the house. We separated the rooms so that the family now had a multi-room house as opposed to their previous, sub-standard dwelling. We knew what a difference this would make and seeing the eldest daughter of the family burst into tears at the sight of her new home truly showed us how much our work meant. Today was also our last chance to play with the children, and we took every opportunity we had.  

Today during the building we experienced one of the frequent Cambodian downpours. The children and everyone working on the house took shelter under the structure. Seeing this showed us what an impact this would have on the villagers’ lives- and it’s safe to say we were glad it didn’t rain on the first day!

We also had the incredible experience of talking to a woman who communicated only through sign language. However, we still managed to talk and laugh with her. She told us how grateful she was for playing with her children, and how happy they had been. She told us how her children had been excitedly telling her about our high fives, secret handshakes and clapping games. Even these small gestures on our part had made such a difference to her and to her children which was touching to see.

The handover ceremony was unforgettable and today there were certainly no dry eyes. After the two of us made a speech which was translated by our guide, the family came and thanked us all with tears in their eyes. If you had managed to stay untouched by the wave of emotions, this gesture would ensure you had a lump in your throat. The joy on the faces of all the villagers at something as small as a bag of rice made everyone realise just how lucky we are. As part of the ceremony, we handed over gifts to the villagers, builders and family before circling the house three times as part of the traditional Cambodian handover.  We than gave them another gift in the form of a song, singing with surprising knowledge the first verse of our school hymn.

It is hard to describe the gratitude we all feel at being allowed into these peoples’ lives. It was incredible to be able to build them a house and the joyous expressions on their faces made every effort worth it. Yes, we have built them a house, but what they gave us was so much more than that. They gave us memories and emotions we will never forget and our gratitude is everlasting.

When we returned to our hotel, some of us had a much needed dip in the pool to cool off. We then headed back out into the centre of Siem Reap to a Khmer cooking class. After a brief tour of the local market, we put on our chefs hat and apron and watched a demonstration of the three courses that we were going to cook. After studying the chef’s chopping and cooking technique, we attempted to make the following dishes: fresh spring rolls, followed by khmer amok chicken curry, followed by fried banana chef’s special. Each course was delicious and we came away with the recipes and some other Khmer cooking goodies in a show bag. We can’t wait to cook this meal for you when we get home!!!

By Niamh Nolan and Madeleine McIntosh

Today we continued the house project. With the frame work and floor almost finished from yesterday’s work, we finished the floor. We then began putting up frame work to support the windows. With help from the workers, they were secured. The painted window frames with metal bars across them were carried over to the building site, constantly waving to the little kids. We struggled to attach the windows with nails as there was quite a bit of hammering from underneath, but we eventually got there. There were plenty of laughs (from the builders too) as we bent nails and were challenged with sawing the edges off the planks that made the floor.

 

Once the windows were fixed, we left for lunch while the builders began to make the roof. We were now going to have some shade from the very hot heat. Once we finished lunch, we got out a skipping rope and started to play with the kids. Huge smiles covered their faces. After our break we went back to the house and began to secure the tin to make the walls while the builders continued on the roof. However, this was very hard and not many could help so we played with the kids again. We played tiggy and did lots of tickling and dancing. The smaller kids loved being lifted up and thrown around. They ran around with our cameras and absolutely loved taking photos and seeing themselves in photos. The kids, their parents and all of us were smiling and laughing. It was incredible to see how happy the kids, their parents and the builders were despite their obvious challenges. One skipping rope and tickles made their day.

 

At 4:30 pm we packed up, ready to be picked up by the other group. We hugged a lot and the kids taught us how to say shirt and shorts (we think)! Before we left we gave them our leftovers from lunch and they savoured every mouth full of plain bread rolls. We said goodbye and got on our beautiful, purple party bus.

After a long, hot, sweaty and dirty day we enjoyed a swim in the awesome hotel pool. We look forward to going to a night market tonight and enjoying our chosen meal.

By Charlotte Raberger

Yesterday we managed to get the framework done and put up the roof, and today we finished placing floorboards down and began putting up the walls. Today was hotter than yesterday, but we were super excited to make a difference in the community – especially after meeting and interacting with the kids. We’ve all created bonds with the kids that are so special and mean a great deal to both us and hopefully them too.

When we first arrived we were enthusiastically greeted by the village children who didn’t waste any time in playing with us just as they had yesterday. We quickly jumped up onto the building where we began placing down the flooring. It was sometimes difficult to understand what the local builders wanted us to do, or how to do it, but we managed to work it out after lots of hand gestures!

We really worked well as a team during the day. We worked really productively before taking a well deserved break for lunch. After lunch however, there were more limited jobs, and we all alternated in playing with the kids and working on the house. A few of us also bought out some toys for the kids to play with such as skipping ropes or a soccer ball. It was exciting to see how much they used and appreciated the toys. I think it’s safe to say the highlight of the village project so far has been interacting with all the children – learning their names, skipping with them, giving them high fives or teaching them little English words or sayings. The kids are so much fun to play with, because they are just always laughing and are amused by the tiniest of things.  Their happiness and love for life is infectious and refreshing. It is incredible to see that they are extremely happy even with hardship. I hope that we have made a difference in their lives, because I know they’ve really made a difference in ours.

Back at the hotel now, we have just gone swimming for the afternoon and are about to go out for dinner, then to the night markets. We are so excited for tomorrow and the rest of the trip, and are having a blast!

By Jemma Gray

Today was our first day of building a house for the most disadvantaged family in a village. We were all up before 8:15(local time) where we bought some snacks for the day. We were all ready by 8:50 and we sat in the hotel lobby for the entire group meeting. By 9:10 we were jumping on the bus to be driven to our destination. We jumped off the bus and got greeted by the disadvantaged family at the entrance of the village. They took us in and we put our belongings outside where they are temporarily living. We then greeted some of the locals and we moved to the middle of the rice paddock where a little hut was standing. We had a chat to the family and they told us about them and about the hut. The hut was home to 7 people, the only advantage it had was that it is next to the drinking well. Here is a photo of their old house:

The locals then came down and I personally got a massive hug by one of men. While they discussed what was going to happen we put our drink bottles away and got ready to do what they asked.

 The first plan was to completely knock down the entire hut into pieces and put it by the bamboo tree. They changed their minds about doing that. The second plan was to move the entire hut somewhere else so they could reuse it. So we all got around and 3,2,1 LIFT! Magically the entire hut came out of its foundations and was movable. We slowly started to move it and suddenly the hut got caught onto one of the already placed frames. Then it got caught onto the concrete stumps that were already installed. As soon as we cleared these obstacles, the hut began to make noises, like the ones that shouldn’t even be happening. As they moved it into the harvested rice field, we all let the locals take it away but they stopped as soon as they entered the field. They knew it was going to happen and my favourite local, wasn’t moving from under the floating hut. They began to yell at him, and eventually he moved to let the entire structure fall flat in the rice paddock. So that plan didn’t go to plan… Anyway we all headed back to the entrance of the village to get the buildings frames. These frames were quite big and heavy, that everyone had to lift. But there was a problem, there wasn’t enough space for the frames to get through. Half of us had to lift the frame above our heads and over another small house. We accidentally knocked down two trees in the process. After we got it passed we had to leave it for the locals to get it across the already harvested rice field. We only had a small walkway to get across and so there was no possibility of getting it across the rice field without taking our shoes off.. As the locals got one of the frames across we as a group tried to do one ourselves. We successfully managed to get the frame across and we left it for them, so they can get it across. When we tried to get the last frame diagonally over, we couldn’t. So we put it back down, just before this obstacle and waited for the village men to carry it over.

After that we went back to the construction site and helped the village men to put up the three frames. It took a bit of time to put each one up and a handful of people were able to help. Once the frames were up, we passed 4x2s of wood and had to hammer these big long nails to hold these up as they were sitting horizontally to the frames. Then on top of those 4x2s we placed even more 4x2s which had to be hammered into the frames again horizontally. While the villagers started to secure these pieces of timber, slowly people went to have lunch. Some people stayed and helped to secure the timber by hammering the big long nails into the wood below.

The next task was to move all the floorboards over to the building from the entrance. While people were getting lunch some of us carried all of these boards over. Once that was done, everyone was having lunch. For lunch we had bread rolls with a choosing of toppings and some mini bananas and mini mandarins.

I went back to help out a few minutes before everyone finished their lunch. The floorboards that were carried over, were distributed evenly on the raised floor so that everyone can start nailing them to the 4x2s below. Everyone was keen to do this. While this was happening the village men were working above building the frames for the roof. It was a painful wait as some of the floorboards had to be cut so that they could fit around the vertical frame posts. Once most of the floorboards were nailed down, some of us began to saw the overhanging edges so they are in a straight line.

Near the end, one man from the village showed me how to fix the bad nailing that happened (yes, the nails went 90* off to the side and hammered into the wood, instead of going straight down into the 4×2). We finished working about 4:30 and we had to wait for the bus which came at around 5:15. Before the bus arrived we had an explanation of how rice was grown.

As we got back there was 45 minutes of pool time and some time to rest before we had to go to dinner. We had dinner along a lively strip of restaurants in the city and after this, we went for a tuk tuk ride through the streets of Siem Reap.

By Jan Topoljski

After a bumpy bus ride we split into two groups into two different villages. We were welcomed warmly by all the families and quickly got into the work. Firstly we looked at the family’s old and small house they lived in and then we had to take it down. The family’s old house was tiny – a little shack to house seven people, which had to be rebuilt every 18 months. This is their old house:

We then all worked together to place up the frames of the family’s new house. It took a lot of teamwork but eventually all the nails were in and the frames were done. After this we split again into two groups: one group stayed and continued to work on the house and the other group got a tour of the whole village by some of the locals. This tour was very eye opening to us as we saw how people in Cambodia live and what little they have. Everyone we met were very friendly and inviting despite our big language barrier. To communicate to a 17 year old girl, we used an English book with pictures which she was learning from to ask questions about her, her family and their community. Once we finished our tour and went back to the house, we saw what the other group had accomplished. They had started on the roof and it started to look good. We all get very excited to see the finish product.

Gradually the children became less shy and we got to communicate and play games with them, such as hokey cokey, duck duck goose, happy and you know it, ring a ring of roses and head shoulders knees and toes. The kids really enjoyed playing and they were so happy, smiling and we were laughing together.

 

 

 

 

After this we had some lovely lunch that the locals had made for us. This gave us energy to get back into the hard work. We then as a group started to finish the roof and started to build the floors. At around 4 o’clock it was time to say goodbye to the families, pack ourselves up and go back to the hotel. After a hard day we cooled off in the hotel pool and are now about to head off to dinner. After dinner we are all excited to go on tuk-tuk tour around the streets on Siem Reap. We can’t wait to get back to the village over the next two days and finish the house.

By Jessica Ball and Tayla Rainsbury.