Breakfast once again was omlettes and baguettes (with our own jam this time, rather than the gelatinized strawberry freezer stuff that they had at the restaurant!). There is something to be said about Cambodian coffee with a large concentration of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of it. Or maybe it's just ANY coffee with a large dolop of sweetened condensed milk!! It certainly hits the spot though - you get both a caffeine and sugar rush at the same time.
Back on the road to the build, we did discover today that we are building in Koh Loong village, Rak Smey commune, Ro Vieng district, Preah Vihear province. Got that? What it really means is 60 km south of Tbeang Meanchey, with about 15 km of that off the main highway along a dirt "road". The traffic on the road is interesting. Since the village of Koh Loong doesn't have a market, the market comes to them. Motorcycles with a portable store come into the village on a regular basis carrying pots and pans, baskets, knives, hatchets, random bits of string and mesh, pretty much anything you might need for every day life. Today we even saw a snowcone truck come through the village! However the scariest visitor was the ice cream motorcycle. It comes through the village playing this very creepy tinned music - the type that immediately makes you think of a serial killer dressed in a clown outfit - THAT sort of creepy music. And it's so out of place in this remote, middle of nowhere village in Cambodia. But I tell you, if it had come through today, I would have chased him down the dirt path for ice cream! It was a hot one out there today. Although I suspect this was partially due to the fact that I was still not feeling all that great.
We built an additional 4 houses today to complete our 10. The second day is always a trade off of knowing the ropes which makes things easier, but being sore and tired from the day before, which slows you down. But the team did great, forged ahead and we only had one house to complete after taking a lunch break. In the morning, I discovered that everytime I got up on the top ladder in the sun, my GI tract said "No way! You're not doing this today!" and I felt like hurling and had to come down. They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result, right? Well, that was me today. Drink some water and then try the ladder again. Nope. Do some floors, drink lots more water, and try the ladder again. Nope. You'd think I'd learn, right? I finally did smarten up after realizing I felt like crap, was bending nails left, right and centre, and went to a house on my own to chill ou, drink more water and electrolytes and nailed down the entire floor by myself. I think I need the bit of quiet and being out of the sun.
Pon surprised us at lunch by cooking lemongrass chicken, banana flower and chicken soup, and rice for us to share! It was a warm addition to our regular baguettes with random weird fillings. The local dogs were especially friendly, hanging around our feet with the same look dogs around the world give when confronted with humans eating something tasty - that wide-eyed, pitiful look that says they are starving. Although I know that when my dog gives me that look, he certainly isn't starving! The dogs here, some of them appear to be - the nursing mothers are especially skeletal. Although I think the dogs up here are beautiful - they look like wild African dogs, or likely more akin to the Thai ridgebacks. But they are gorgeous as far as I'm concerned. They aren't amenable to be petted though...
After lunch and a short break to rest, we headed to the last house to complete the floor and the walls. The walls were completed in record time, 30 min, with help from the contractors and with Rory on the top of the ladder. Go team!! After this house was done, we paused for a team photo, and then headed off to the area we had lunch at to give out the quilts to each family. 10 families and ~ 55 people total. Pon asked me to say a few words on behalf of the team, which actually threw me for a loop for a minute and I got stage fright and blanked! I finally managed to thank the villagers, wish them well in their new homes, etc. Pon added at the end "and no more babies!" which is a routine Tabitha statement from Janne. Families have 4, 5, 6 7 kids. Those are a lot of mouths to feed and Janne is trying to make them realize that having more kids is not the answer.
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| 10 families and the R4T build team |
Since we have 5 team members, each of us got to give out 2 quilts to the families. As always, they are so happy to receive the quilt and are gung ho to move in to their new houses!! One of the small boys at the end of the line spent the entire time man-handling this poor 8-week old calico kitten! It was way too cute.
After saying our goodbyes and packing up the van, we drove a short distance to check out Koh Loong school, both the current one and the 6-room school that the Tabitha Foundation is in the process of building. The current school is open to the outside and has 3 classrooms - one for grades 1-2, one for grades 3-4 and one for grade 1. All the kids were there in their uniforms - white shirts and blue pants or skirts (white shirts in that dust? mine would be red and brown in 5 minutes!) and they were learning math and reading Khmer. The students gave us a few demonstrations by getting up at the board and reading the lesson, after which the entire class would recite it back to them. Well behaved students, that's for sure! The new school is a brick and concrete structure located about 50 yards from the old school and it will be completed in 2 months time. It currently has a concrete foundation, sunk 4 feet into the ground, and brick walls but no roof. It will be a huge improvement over the structure in which the students now learn, and will provide the opportunity for more students in the village to attend school - currently there is not enough space in the old school to accomodate all the children in the village.
Back here at the hotel, we discovered another van, which I presumed was our ride from Hanuman Travel. One of the employees managed to let us know that the person associated with the van was in a room across from ours so Pon went and banged on the door. It was Votha and our driver, Mr. Sim. There was definitely some confusion on Pon's part when we tried to explain to her that only Thora would be going back to Phnom Penh, that Dermot, Susan, Rory and I would be going with Votha across to Ban Lung to look for zircons. I *think* we got the point across but I suspect she thinks we are crazy! Votha told us that he as arranged for us to head 80 km north of here first to visit some miners and buy some rough zircon and sapphire, after which time we'll drive back south and pick up the road to Stung Treng and Ban Lung. He wants to leave early (ugh) but we can sleep in the van on the way afterwards. It's going to be another long day. When I think that I have only been in Asia for 10 days, I can't believe it - we have covered a lot of ground and have not really had any down time! I'll have to wait for Koh Yao Noi for that! The next week won't be as physically-demanding as house building, but will require the mineralogist brain to turn back on to focus on work and materials required for both the collection and research. I must say it's a bit of a hard reboot to go from house building to field work from one day to the next. I am excited to see the zircons from Preah Vihear province though - and to find out whether they are more similar to the Thai ones or the Ratanakiri ones.
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