Volunteer workbuilding houses inLieb Chas village

Cambodia2 – 11 June 2017

Marcel van Wijk

Schiphol airport with the kids, heading to Cambodia via Guangzhou in China, a 5,999 miles (9,718 km) and 17 hours flight.

A country with a horrible history of Khmer Rouge violence, costing the lives of 1 – 2 million people.

A country with both Buddhism and Hinduism

The daily trip to the building site in Lieb Chas village , 43 km on the northeast of Siem Reap, took about 1 hour 45 minutes, and started on a reasonably well maintained road…

… of which the conditioned changed considerably when leaving the city…

… but also gave us the opportunity to enjoy some incredible views

But the worse the roads gets…

… the bigger the change ofgetting stuck in the muddy ditches.

A house in the countryside, a car drive about 1.45 hours from Siem Reap city, with a leaking roof and hardly any

space for the two grandchildren that live with grandmother Ort and –father Kdam…

Their current ‘housing’condition

… and the two orphans in the village were invited to live with them without any hesitation, leaving no other place for

grandfather and –mother to sleep but outdoors…although both of them being HIV positive.

Grandparents Ort and Kdam take care of 2 of their grand children and 2 orphans. Their ‘old’ house is so small that only those 4 children can sleep inside, meaning that they themselves have to sleep outside, neglecting the fact that they are HIV positive.

Bedroomliving room

dining room

If the baby needs some sleep, there is a ‘nursery’…

The ‘outdoor kitchen’

The building ground

And the materialsto start with

A lot of drinking is neededto prevent de-hydration…

… but out here in the countryside water is scarce and needs to be pumped up from an underground river 9 meters below the surface, unfiltered.

Let’s start withbuilding a toilet

The first contact with the ‘locals’…

It didn’t take long before the first smiles appeared!

Words aren’t needed…

This is why we are here to help…

…to give them a chance for a better future!

Now it’s time to build a house,starting with the foundation

It’s time to place the columns,after which we can start with the floor structure.

Although very ill, grandfather Kdaminsists to help building the new house

A new house requires some religious offerings.

The neighbours’ kid, different then ‘ours’,does have something to play with…

although being broken…

It’s selfie time!

Never throw anything away!

Play time is over, back to work!It’s time to start working on the floor structure.

We will use bamboo for the floorand need to make it nice and smooth

And also grandma wants to help out

This is how we solve the problemof not having a drilling machine

Some juggling between working and drinking (water!)

And don’t forget your daily portion of fruits!

And what about… something extra?

Let’s go toschool!

After having heard these children sings,you can only feel (and look) like a complete fool!

One of ‘ours’Sonny!

Okay, let’s line up for a handwashing lesson!

Most of these kids hadnever seen soap before

Show us those clean hands!

And we just couldn’t leave without leaving some gifts

First time ever in a car

Every house needs a roof

Another phase completed!

Followed by installing a proper zinc roof

Also needed are windows and a staircase

Fixing concrete, exactly the same way as in India and Indonesia.

The final phase,putting the sherba board walls in place

We did not only almost ran out of time, but also almost out of screws…

just like we when fixing the floor when we almost ran out of nails.

And the nearest lumberyard is a 1,5 hours drive from here.

A proud team that can’t wait tocome back tomorrow to finish the house

And finishing means painting and fixing the door!

The job isn’t finished if you haven’t cleaned!

Where can we leave our signature?

Let’s party!

The ceremony ended with time for (emotional) reflection.

Followed by a great party with singing, dancing and ‘baby powder throwing’.

We did it!

Memories that willlast a lifetime!