Need a snack? Fancy a Deep Fried Cricket??

Cambodia is incredibly flat. We traveled in our bus at abt 70kph for abt 2 1/2 hrs to travel 160kms. So scenery not stunning just rice  paddies. Most are fallow as it's the dry now. They don't irrigate

except near a lake or river. So unless it rains there's no way to have  the fields flood. Therefore only 1 crop a year. They had 2m tons  excess last year which they traded with overseas neighbours.

Have just finished a cooking class. It was sooooo good. Only 5 of us and we went to the market and learnt heaps abt different veggies (  they have so many I've never seen or heard of) and we made fish amok -  everyone loves this and will have to make it at home - spring rolls  and beef lac loc. Really bursting now!!! All for the princely sum of $8!!!  Most interesting at the market was a woman munching on crickets which had been deep fried. Just like we would eat a packet of chips. I have

eaten deep fried scorpions in china but it was an effort as I wasn't  convinced they were dead!

OSH in Cambodia - YEAH RIGHT!

Meant to say in earlier emails how the scaffolding worked usually they are so careful of hfh volunteers and youre not allowed to get up on shonky stuff without a hard hat etc but anyway this was thin branches of something treelike held together with the odd nail. There were some diagonal braces and the horizontal pieces were inserted into the wall by way of bashing a half brick out at the appropriate  height!! Anyway it all worked, nobody got injured and the walls didn't even budge when the skilled labourer was bashing through so I  felt quite good about that since we'd built the walls and they were only  single brick with little reinforcing. 

Did I mention to found a scorpion under a brick? It wasn't v big and was quite light coloured. I was fascinated and was watching it but the locals saw it and stomped on it. So that was the end of that! There were quite a lot of geckos and spiders we didn't see snakes but the other team did. Birds are plentiful but not large or pretty.  Butterflies quite pretty though.

Update from Annette..

Hi everyone,

We finished building today, didn't get the houses completed but gave it our best shot. It wasn't likely that we would finish them in a week anyway, too much work even with us all working hard. The village put on a big lunch for us to thank us today, and we had a dedication at each house, with speeches of appreciation on both sides. The 2 families we have been building for and with are very grateful, and they have been very welcoming alll this week.

The heat has been incredible - we survived working in the full sun in the middle of the day by drinking heaps of water, wetting our kerchiefs round our necks or even tying ice chunks into them, taking short breaks in the shade when we needed to. As the brick walls grew, we had to negotiate some very dodgy scaffolding, although the parts they built out of sticks was much sturdier than the very thin boards on the few metal H-frames they had, and at least there were upright poles to hang onto as needed with the stick constructions.

In the late afternoon, we arrive dirty & weary at the hotel, and then the fun starts - no, I should say continues, as it has been really fun on site too, getting to know the families and workmen, picking up some Khmer expressions, and of course working really closely with each other in our 2 teams. After a swim in the hotel pool to cool off & relieve aching muscles, we head into town in tuk-tuks. They are the best way to travel! I think Hamilton should have some! We have a ball whizzing rather scarily through the traffic, sometimes having races with each other's tuk-tuks, and enjoying the breeze and the sites as we go. We find somewhere to eat out, and there are heaps of places to choose from, with very cheap, good meals and drinks.

Then after we have had our fill, we stroll around the markets and haggle for silk items, silver jewellery, clothes, carvings, paintings, all sorts of tourist treasures. Great fun.

Still hot even into the evening, but not oppressive like the daytime.

Tomorrow we head off on tour for 5 days. We are sad to leave Siem Reap as feel almost at home here now, and the building experience has been wonderful. I have lots of neat photos (I hope), and a few souvenirs.

Hope everything is going fine in Hamilton, chum reap lear, (goodbye) Annette

Farewells, Schools and Birthday Celebrations!

After fond farewells we visited a school. We had lots of supplies to donate and of course the principal was delighted. The children were all  lined up at the gate when we arrived and were grinning and bowing and  saying chum reap suor ( which means hello in a formal way) and we were returning the greeting. The bowing with your hands together is lovely but I haven't figured out what you're supposed to do with things you’re carrying!!  We were invited into a year 5 class and they were so delightful. The children's ages were from 10-15. At first I didn't believe it. But it is because some children don't start at 6 like the govt would like them to. I  don’t think education is compulsory - I did ask the principal - more that  the govt through advertising etc wants people to send their children to  school. Public schools are free. There are two sessions. 7-11 and 1-5.  Teachers only teach one session.

All very interesting but it is so hard to judge the ages of the children as Cambodians are so small. Many adults are only as tall as my  shoulder.  We finished at the school and came back to the hotel for a swim and repack as the diaspora of the team starts on Saturday.

We celebrated Steve White's birthday a day later on a lovely restaurant which put us on their upstairs balcony so we could all be at one long table. We were  separated from anyone else and it was lovely.  So we are now getting ready to leave on our tour. Will keep you updated abt that as we go.  

Blog by Lynnette

Well it's finished!!!

Well it's finished! While it's quite nice to be relaxing it was quite sad to finish yesterday when it was obvious another week wld have done the job. The skilled labourers will finish off but they say it will be 2-3 weeks.  

Today (Friday) we only worked for the morning and then packed up and moved to the other house for the party. The community wanted to celebrate with us. The head man and leader of the commune and various other dignitaries were there, all the families and workers. About 50 in all I think. They had a long table and it all looked nice for us. The whole idea of a shared lunch had necessitated many discussions between myself and the host coordinator as they were worried we wouldnt like/be able to eat their food. Of course it was fine. The duck and chicken predictably was full of bones and organs we don't usually eat but tasty if you slurped the juice, but we've all fallen on love with ‘amok’ a dish which is based in coconut milk and is tasty and a little hot and has whatever meat you want.

We had fish amok, a mixed vegetable dish, grated mango salad, which I could live on, and beef lac  loc which had a nice lemon pepper sauce to go over it.

All the food to us was so tasty never mind how boring the ingredients.  After the meal was the dedication. For some reason it seemed hotter standing around than working in the sun.

There was much speechifying and then we all had a little cut of the ribbon and a big wooden key  with the hfh logo was given to the home owner and it giving from us to all and sundry and we were off to our house for a repeat performance  but without the speeches from the dignitaries who'd all disappeared by then! 

Building, Building, Building .....

On Thursday we continued building the walls as they are very high to keep cool. The other house wasn't as high and had ventilation brick inserted above head height. We never got a satisfactory explanation as to why ours didn't?? This often happens - somehow the query is lost in translation!!

The other house got the floor ready for concreting.  They had to chain gang big rocks, sand and little rocks (bigger than  gravel) into the floor space which had a depth of abt 2 courses of bricks. Then they had to pound the floor flat and compact the materials.

Meanwhile at our house had to prepare the steel for the concrete beams for the roof. This entailed wiring together( by hand) thinner steel which had been bent into a rectangle over the 4 long  lengths of stuff you see in Nz called T- bar (or is it rebar??). The ends of the bar were hooked and the bending took place using a piece  of car jack as the lever.

The rectangles of thinner steel were made by bending between nails on a board. All very efficient. However when one of our team members saw them sawing the thinner steel with a hack saw  he asked the hfh guy to go and buy some bolt cutters. Once they arrived everyone was v plsed.

The same thing happened at the other house and Bryan generously bought a wheelbarrow. The children apparently had a lot of fun in it when it wasn't in use.  These tools become the property of hfh not the homeowners. 

More above window beams were completed in the houses. (this consists of a boxing nailed into the brick wall then concrete with rough gravel  is tipped in and about an hour later the boxing us removed and bricking  continues). So the walls grew. At all times there were jobs for us. No standing around as there has been in all the other places. But there was still time for interaction with the families. Our homeowner could speak a bit of English so we had lots of questions and he could answer most. He was really nice and I hope he achieves his dream of not being a bartender all his life. 

Blog by Lynnette

Lynnette talks about the trip so far...

9 February 2011

Hi everyone

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a quiet look around Siem reap. It's really nice not hassley or pressured. The people are really nice and gentle. It's green and tropical and very poor. Although there are many nicer houses than I'd expected.

Ate Cambodian food for dinner at an outdoor restaurant. All very nice. $2 tuktuk drive back to hotel. Sunday we were collected at 5.20 am for a sunrise experience at Angkor Wat. It was worth it and the temple was beautiful but I could have gone home after that!! However we also saw the temple from raiders of the lost ark. It really is intriguing with the roots of the trees growing through the stones. We had lunch and some of us went back to hotel and then orientation with habitat and dinner meant early to bed.

First day was gruelling in heat but everyone enjoyed bricking away and feeling like we're achieving something. One family is. A mum dad and 4 mth old. Mum and dad are only 23 and 24. They are living with her parents at present. Nice couple. He has quite a bit of English. He's a bar tender earning about $40 per week.  The other family is a solo mum with a 6 yr old.

The families have to have saved a quarter of the materials needed to build before hfh will loan them the remaining 3/4. They pay it back over a 1-3 yr period depending on income. The houses cost $1000usd. They are brick inserts between concrete columns. I think these will have a pitched roof in keeping with Cambodian architecture.

Last night we went to a traditional dinner and dancing. Beautiful costumes and girls it was enjoyable. Especially as it was over by 8.30 and everyone was asleep but 9.30!!

Today was scorching and no wind. However I built half a wall very square and straight feel quite chuffed. Tomorrow we'll finish walls and start on floor. People are so smiling and generous with their food etc. We are all trying to use some words and phrases in khmer. They laugh but are patient.