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

March 22: Feeling very satisfied!

It is now Friday afternoon in Phnom Pehn and this will be my final blog. Our last work day in Kep was Thursday March 21. We spent the day working on the 3rd project. The days work involved digging a trench 3m by 1.5 deep and 150 ft long in 42c heat with no shade. The locals made it fun and we managed to complete about 30m of the trench. We had a little celebration with the workers (water and Oreo cookies) before we left. We then stopped at a local skills and trades training centre where coconut jewelry, hand spun/hand knit scarves and baskets from recycled plastic bags are made to supplement income.
Friday we drove to Phnom Pehn and will spend the night here before we all go our separate ways.
We all left Kep with a very satisfied feeling that we did help this community and touched the lives of some of the local people. We sure know they touched ours.
We are all looking forward to being involved with this project again next year.

Wade Billey
DWC Participant
Cambodia, March 2013

March 19: Hard work, great comradeship and Kampot

We have started the next project, an irrigation gate for a small community. We are still working with the same local crew who are fun and sometimes tease us on how slow we can do cement work compared to them. Lots of good natured bantering and competition here that I am pretty sure the DWC team will lose. One of the exciting parts of this project is having to walk the 1/2 km to the site, through a water buffalo herd. The first time was a little scary but we are getting used to each other now. They are beautiful, powerful, large animals.

Friday night we all went for a nice meal at a restaurant with an incredible view. There was a huge lightning storm and rain that followed - It was pretty cool.

On Saturday we all went for a drive to Kampot City. An old colonial ocean port with amazing architecture. We walked the sea wall and visited the local open market which was fascinating. It had everything from textiles, clothing, kitchenware, jewelry and the fish market which we all especially enjoyed. Then we went to the Rusty Keyhole restaurant for what we were told are 'the best ribs in Cambodia.' And they were right!!

Sunday was a day off to do whatever each person wanted to do. Some went on a tour to Rabbit Isalnd, some on a hike, some just took TukTuks around Kep and some went to the salt fields and a secret local beach. It was a great day.

Monday we were back to work on the gate. Goods progress there: All holes dug, culverts in and we are plastering and bricking in the ends for the gate placements. Again, it's very hot and there's no shade. Hard work, great comradeship and again that teasing from the locals. A fun day.

Wade Billey

DWC Participant

Cambodia, March 2013 

March 15: Latrine's done and started a new irrigation ditch

Everything is well here in Kep. We finished the 2 latrines for the community on Thursday morning.
A very special moment as all the people on site helped out at the last moment, from the children to the adults. We all pitched in!
Then we went too a site very close by to build an irrigation ditch for another local family. A lot of cement, digging and dirt moving again. There is a 600 meter walk on a dike to get to the site. An interesting walk as we had to pass through a water buffalo herd to reach the site. This project is going well but there is no shade so it's very hot. But we did get a little rain shower on Friday which was very well received.
Friday night we went for a nice supper with the Equitable Cambodia (EC) staff and some Rotarian's. Great food, great conversation and a lot of laughs. Vy, our local EC rep is now referred to as the princess. A wonderful, passionate, hard working lady with a wonderful sense of humor.
We are now heading into the weekend and are going into Kampot on Saturday to shop and see the sites.

Wade Billey
DWC Participant
Cambodia, March 2013

March 12: Exhausting, but fun day!

We had another great day today. Layed more bricks for the latrines, dug holes, placed cement cistern holding tanks and stuccoed the outside walls. Very exhausting, but fun day. Highlights of the day were: watching Kim and Larry be hole digging machines, playing with the children at the work site and back to the community hall for lunch. We had a local favorite (and Tom our Team Leaders) which was cooked morning glory. Absolutely delicious for what we Canadians jokingly refer to as a weeds. 

Looking forward to finishing the latrines tomorrow.

Wade Billey

DWC Participant

Cambodia, March 2013

March 11: Lovely accomodations, great food and working hard!

We all arrived safe on Sunday. Our accommodations, the Kep Beach Hotel, is very nice and comfortable. It has excellent food for supper and breakfast, very friendly staff and an amazing view.  Monday was our first day of work and we started with building the brick walls for some latrines. We split into two groups with each building one latrine for two different families who are related. It was very hot with high humidity but there was a light breeze that was appreciated. A new experience for lunch....no restaurant, but instead we went to a community complex where the community made an excellent lunch of rice, vegetables and shrimp for us. It was very tasty with the Famous Kampot peppers included in the meal. 

After work, half the team went for a swim in the ocean. The ocean was as warm or warmer than the showers in the hotel. Diner was another nice meal at a local seafood restaurant with the Kampot peppers again. Absolutely tasty! 

Every one worked hard today and had fun working with the locals at the work site. Lots of smiles and a great atmosphere. We're tired but looking forward to tomorrow.

Wade Billey

DWC Participant

Cambodia, March 2013

July 16: A successful first week!

Things are going really well on our volunteer project. We are building a house for a local family who has recently lost their husband/father. There is the mom and her two young girls, one who is already attending school and the other who is still too young for school. They are such a nice family and everyday the grandparents (granddad is handicap) always bring us fruit, drinks and a big smile to show us their appreciation. The grandma speaks a little bit of English and always tries to speak with us, it is so lovely! The house we are building them has thatched walls and a zink roof.  Everyday the family, neighbors, some of our Host Partners volunteers and our DWC team come work on the house construction.  It has been a very joyful first work week.

This weekend we are going out to explore some of the surrounding areas of Kep: the caves, Kep national park, French arctic, hiking and going to the Kampot province, Borkor Mountain and the waterfalls near by. They are supposed to be really stunning!


DWC Team
Cambodia, July 2012

June 2nd: Team arrives in Cambodia

Yesterday we were provided the opportunity to visit the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. The museum was located in a high school that was converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge during the 1970's.

Through pictures, stories and access to the cells the museum vividly demonstrated the tragedy that occurred at the site and throughout the country.

The trip through the museum reminded us that even though we think of the tragedy as long in the past that it was less than 40 years ago and many people living in Cambodia still deal with the consequences of those events daily.

After witnessing the museum, we were provided the opportunity to meet one of only seven people who survived living in the prison. This gentle elderly man thanked us for visiting and left us with a clear example of the power of forgiveness.

Matt Creechan
DWC Participant
Cambodia, June 2012