Day 2 - tourism and hard work

Dear Readers

The morning started early with a trip to Angkor Thom and Angor Wat – the building and the stories of their construction were awe inspiring.  At Angkor Thom we took elephant rides around the perimeter of the temple and the view from the top of these gentle giants was fantastic.

After a brief drive and lunch, we arrived at the village where we are working Yous Sar shared the story of the family whose house we are building.  The father of the family is a coconut farmer and he recently fell and broke his leg.  Unfortunately his leg couldn’t be repaired and it was amputated.  Whilst he was in hospital, the injured man’s father, who was cooking in the house, left the cooking fire on and the house burnt down, leaving only the frame and roof.  The mother of the family and their children have been homeless ever since. 

When Yous Sar finished speaking we were introduced to the whole family, bringing the reality of their desperate situation to life.  Romy Miller put it beautifully – she said that hearing the story and meeting the family was inspiring and made her even more motivated to do what ever she could to give the family back their home. Her sentiments were echoed by the other kids.

And so we began – we had to demolish the existing structure first, but many capable and enthusiastic hands make light work.  From there we cleared the area, we nailed the frame together, we dug holes for the foundations, we shifted concrete blocks and the final, most satisfying act for the day was raising the 3 frames which we had built and lifting them on to foundations.  To give readers an idea of the weight of each frame, it took all of the kids and teachers, plus more than 10 of the village helpers to lift each frame into place.  But we did it and the kids were so excited to see what they had achieved in only 4 hours.

Tomorrow we have a full day on the construction site. Stay tuned - see our progress in the photos at the botoom of the blog!