The alarm was set for 6am but we were stirring before hand, eager to get up and get going. Over the weekend we'd got ourselves well and truly settled in, but this is what we're here for and much more real so we were feeling the anticipation. Everyone meets downstairs at 6.30am for breakfast but we were the first ones down and we even wondered if we'd set our clock wrong. But we ordered our brek and soon enough the others joined us and by 7am we were loading ourselves and the drill into the tuk tuks that take us down to the site. This week there are four of us volunteering on site, plus Gan then carpenter and both the tuk tuk drivers who work with us.
The tuk tuk ride to the village takes about an hour, first through the outskirts of the city on the main road then, just after a large village market, the route turns off onto a dirt road through villages. We stopped at the market half way to get supplies of water for the day, ice to keep it cool and some lunch ingredients. The daily routine seems to be for us to get fish or meat and veges to go with it from the market on the way in and then the lady who we are building the house for cooks it up while we work and then it feeds everyone for lunch. Its a great arrangement as it means we get food to keep us going, get to try local recipes and they get a good meal while we're there. The market was a bit intimidating at first because it is very local but we followed behind and soon learnt that everyone is really friendly and welcoming.
The journey in through the villages is a great way to start to feel settled. Plus you cannot arrive not feeling cheerful because you spend the whole time waving to the children who run out as you go past shouting greetings and waving and grinning frantically. On the way Robin the project manager met us to show us the previous projects around the village. It was great to see living embodiments of the work and how they look a year on with the families settled in.
Then we moved onto the project in progress; number 7 where the others were hard at work. It is very nearly ready and the deadline everyone is working towards is to get everything done by the end of Wednesday so that on Thursday the family can have their moving in ceremony and start living there. In Cambodia it is bad luck to move in before the ceremony and so at the moment the family is sleeping beneath the house, that's why the pressure is on the get it finished.
Rob got stuck in straight away; he was up in the house sawing of the overhanging edge of the floor boards, then up on the ladder nailing the wall onto the side of the house.
Then was given the task of stripping the soft fleshy part of large banana tree logs off with a machete to make flat boards to build with. Compared to the rest of the tasks this was less of his specialty as at one point the mum of the house had to point out to Rob that he had the machete upside down, but that was a good jolly bonding experience I think as they could laugh together about it.
In the meantime I did a bit of a clear up job around the place so it started to look like somewhere they were going to live. Then I helped Pekhary (one of the guys who drove us over in the tuk tuk) make a side roof panel and so this was a good introduction to the technique they use to make all the walls. First a wooden structure is made to measure and then strips of dried banana leaves that have been woven together are pinned along in overlapping rows.
Half way through the morning we had stopped to eat the fish we'd bought this morning. It was yummy! We even sampled a little local rice wine to help it down. Then it was back to work and before we knew it we checked the time to find we'd worked for an extra hour, it was 2pm! We'd all been so into it we hadn't noticed. But on finding that out we all felt very ready to go and so we packed ourselves up and headed off back to the guesthouse feeling very satisfied.
That afternoon we got ourselves cleaned off and then headed to the pool for a well deserved sleep and a swim. We found Claire, Aaron and Sarah there and so after our snooze discussions moved onto dinner. The plan was made to try a nearby Thai restaurant tonight and so hungry thoughts of this eventually roused us to go back and get ready to head out for an earlyish dinner. Seven of us had a very good, if slightly chaotic dinner, and then Rob and I made our excuses and had an early night.
It was a good idea as it meant we felt relatively rested when the alarm went off for our second day of work. Yesterdays routine repeated as it will another 28 times, the only difference being that Aaron was unwell and not able to come to work. This meant that Rob and I were in charge of the lunch shopping in the market and we bought a kilo of pork and veges for curry which the guys were very excited about. It was an extremely good "lunch" (at 10:30)!
Today I focussed on more wall making and after our yummy pork curry Pekhary handed the drill over to me and one of the sons of the family whose house it will be helped me make the wall. This was great as he took real pride in it and was such a perfectionist about it. We made a good team and had it finished and hung before the end of the day. Rob mainly made window frames and "shutters" that are joined to the top of them and propped open during the day, the wall I made was also designed to do this. These openable pieces make the place look very homely.
Back at the guest house that day I was wiped and fell asleep for an hour or so while Rob did some internet jobs. Then we headed downstairs to join the others for a pre-dinner drink. Tuesday night is BBQ night at one of the hotels and in true Aussie style Aaron and Claire are big fans so we went along with them to check it out (although Aaron had to miss out as he was still ill). It certainly was a meat fest, but that's ok as we've mostly just eaten fish since we got here and it was another sociable evening with eight of us out. Poor old Rob, who hadn't had a nap, was nearly asleep at the table by the end so I took him off home for another early night (which I partook in too).
So Wednesday D-day arrived. Still no Aaron but Bill joined us today. We worked really hard and despite a few set backs we got the windows, floor and one wall all finished and so the moving in ceremony can go ahead tomorrow.
One wall still needs to go up but its one for the extended kitchen area and so not as urgent, we'll get that up ASAP after, it'll just be good to get them in there. I think there was a lot of excitement in the air today as both sons and her little girl were joining in even more than usual today (and skillfully showing us up). We definitely consolidated the skills we learned on Monday and Tuesday today and so are looking forward to making our new found skills over to project 8 next week and seeing a new house start to take shape.
We finished a bit late today and then once back needed to do a few jobs but we still found time for a quick swim and sit at the pool. We've just had our Wednesday night 6pm volunteers meeting and in a minute we are going for a leaving dinner for one of the teachers. Then no doubt we'll be early to bed so that we're well rested for the moving in ceremony tomorrow, they've got a wise man booked for it and everything!!!
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