February 13, 2015: Significant Progress

Wednesday and Thursday were focused days of work with considerable progress on both irrigation gates.

Wednesday's effort was rewarded with happy hour at The Veranda...needless to say there was much laughter (unfortunately some at Bill's expense). 

Friday was a special and eventful day. Our day started with visit to a local market to purchase a few items (flowers, fruit and incense) for a special event later that morning. We were blessed with a traditional Khmer prayer, chanting and memorial to Larry Steele, Lindy's husband. We were all blessed to be able to share in this special moment with Lindy. It was very beautiful. 

Following the Khmer ceremony we all put the finishing touches to the irrigation gate and then proceeded to the Vine for an early lunch. This was not to be a normal lunch.

Lunch as usual was exceptional, however as we were getting ready to leave a significant amount of smoke was noticed about 300 meters west of the Vine Resort. There gusty winds and the appearance that the fire was approaching the resort. There was a significant concern that the vine would be impacted, and staff (with assistance from DWC staff) were actively working on protecting the resort. Later in the day, the fire was put out and was reported to be about 7 hectares. The Vine was not impacted.

Following the excitement of the fire we visited the women's crafting project to view the making of scarves. Dinner today was at the Sailing Club where we experienced a magnificent sunset, great food and a bit jazz. What a day.

We have had a wonderful week. To paraphrase a comment made earlier today, "this is like no other holiday experience" and yet we have another week to go. Bring on the latrines.

Don Brimacombe
DWC Volunteer Team Leader
Cambodia: February 2015

February 10, 2015: Focused On The Task At Hand

Arriving at the worksite, the water had been drained and prepared for the inlet and outlet walls. There was a different feel around the project today...focused. Fairly quiet around each site as everyone was busy with task at hand. Today was also a special day in honour of Larry Steele, Lindy's beloved husband who passed recently. We all shared in Lindy's heartfelt blessing and dedicated this site in Larry's name. We are a team of eleven.

After lunch, brick laying continued followed with application of a finishing coat of cement to walls.

Again, a well deserved swim at Kep Beach greeted everyone after a good days work.

Don Brimacombe
DWC Volunteer Team Leader
Cambodia: February 2015

February 9, 2015: Ferris Wheels and Muddy Feet!

First day on project started with a carnival type atmosphere. What started as a photo opportunity, turned into an unexpected early morning ferris wheel ride at a small carnival on route to Odong community.

Then it was on to begin construction of two irrigation gates. The gates will be used to manage water flow while providing access across the many irrigation channels. 

Our extended travel to Kep (32 - 36hrs) over the last two days did not deter anyone from enthusiastically getting started with both hands and bare feet. Prior to lunch, footings were excavated for both gates, rock was placed and cement mixed. Then it was off to the Vine Restaurant for lunch.

The afternoon started as everyone expected with placement of the concrete pipes when unfortunately one of the near by gates was opened and resulting in the flooding of our work site. Amazing to see everyone's quick response to remedy the situation (creating a new ditch block up stream and dewatering the project sites). A slight delay. Huge effort by everyone today rewarded with a well deserved swim at Kep beach (muddy clothes and all) and a refreshing Angkor Beer.

Don Brimacombe

DWC Volunteer Team Leader 

Cambodia: February 2015

March 21: Celebrating the end of the project

We are now back in Phnom Penh after completing the last 2 latrines of the Kep project. It was an extremely hot week with the weather staying around 40-45 degrees Celsius.

The families we worked with were wonderful. One of the fathers was in a recent industrial accident and had a damaged hand. But he could still work as hard as us all with one hand. All except Don who was a working machine. Thank you Don.

We had to walk through a Buddhist monastery to reach the two sites. The monks were very accommodating and even invited us to lunch with them on one day. At one site, the neighbours had a wedding. Lots of color, music, food and people. The wedding takes place almost non-stop for two days.

We had a wind up celebration on Thursday with both families together at one site. The entire community came out to celebrate with around 45 people attending. Was a lot of fun and thanks to Vy, Lorene and Janet for keeping things somewhat organized as we handed out juice, pop and cookies. We are all proud of the looks of pride and excitement on the families faces as we drove away.

After the celebration, we went to a school and delivered books to the library and supplies to the school. Then we handed out wooden toy cars to the kindergarten class who wasted no time learning how to do demolition derby with them.

We also drove to the school where the water filtration system was built and took some pictures of the tower. Very impressive and well constructed. You could hear the excitement in the principals voice as he described how the system worked.

A big thank you to all who made the 2014 trip successful and fun. Vy (Princess) for always being available to help. Mr Dy ( our driver), the Anders for making us laugh while we worked, Tom for his advice, Beth (who expanded her world so much), Don for being a working machine, and Wade and Janet for keeping things in check.

Kep Water Project Team
Chamcar Bei, Cambodia: March 2014

March 14: Three latrines completed in Week #1

We finished the 1st week in Chamcar Bei with the completion of 3 latrines. We had a small celebration with the 3 families and the workers. Juice, pop and cookies for all!

Beth brought some stickers and balloons for the children, and they had a blast. Especially with the stickers. Everyone got stickers for their for heads and shirts - adults included, even Grandma who was really delighted with the celebration and the laughter of all the children.

On the weekend, we went to Kampot, walked around the market, saw the sites of the town and went to Rusty Keyhole for the best ribs in Cambodia. What a great lunch! From there we toured an ancient Buddhist cave which dates back to 600 BC. Very interesting. Robin went deep into the caves with a guide and came out through the mountain at the bottom.

Back to Kep and the Beach house with a relaxing game of pool until sleep time. All in all a great work week with new friends.

Wade Billey
DWC Team Leader
Cambodia, March 2014

March 12: Starting work & getting to know the locals

The March Developing World Connections Kep team has arrived and all is well. Working with Equitable Cambodia, we have started 2 latrines in Chamcar Bai for to families that live beside one another.

There are wonderful people who are working along side us. The mother and grandmother of both families are bringing us fresh coconut each morning for our break. We watched the young lad cling the tree to bring the coconut down. It does not get much fresher than that!

The children at the work site were a little shy when we arrived, but they have warmed up and love doing the high and low five. A few learned how to "pound it" and they prefer that now!

We have lunch at the Vine restaurant and the food is fantastic! On day one, the lady Phantom (the wonderful cook) served us a salad of green papaya and shrimp. It turned out to be Don's favorite as he cleaned that plate completely.

Day 2 brought some excitement as it was very hot out and we could start to see the fruits of all the labour. Latrines are starting to look as they should. We did have one incident where the scaffolding collapsed and one of our team members had to take a day off with a bruised shoulder. He will be back to work the next day. Very nice how the locals gathered around to take care of the injured. It made all feel like we are a team: DWC participants and the local family members together.

Wade Billey
DWC Team Leader
Cambodia, March 2014