Post script

It's been a week since I returned home, and I'm just about over the jetlag.  12 hours is brutal, but Robin says her 16 is even worse.  I tried to explain that it wasn't really 16, but 8, but the logic was lost on her.  Maybe she is right.  Who knows.  In our brain fuddled conditions we were not making much sense.

As with every build I've organized, this team was no different.  Team #7 was a terrific group of people willing to fundraise, make the journey, get along great with each other, and focus on getting the job done.  Lives were changed, both the families who have a new, weatherproof, secure homes and those of the builders. 

Of the 14 million people in Cambodia, Tabitha has improved the lives of 2 million.  An amazing accomplishment for such a small NGO.  It's effectiveness is impressive.  It's work is in the poorest rural areas where a family earns less than $1/day.  There is still much work to be done, and it's projects are going further and further into the countryside in 15 provinces. 

City life is such a contrast.  Phnom Penh (pop'n 2 million and growing) continues to change at an ever increasing pace.  Manicured gardens in public areas, few beggars, high rise buildings, wifi whereever you want, coffee shop and clothing chains, indoor air-conditioned malls, you name it, it has arrived...thankfully with the exception of McDonalds and Starbucks, for now at least.  Everyone carries a cell phone.  Traffic is gridlocked, and overpasses are being built to reduce congestion at major intersections.  As Loney Planet describes it, "...it’s also a city on the move, as a new wave of investors move in, perhaps forever changing the character, and skyline, of this classic city. Phnom Penh is a crossroads of Asia's past and present, a city of extremes of poverty and excess, of charm and chaos, but one that never fails to captivate."

It saddens me to know that the government is still as corrupt as ever and most investment is coming from China and Vietnam.  Farmers have their land expropriated for factories.  Jungles are being logged.  Rivers dammed.  China needs Cambodia's resources.  Cambodia continues to rank low on the Global Perception Index for Transparency.  The govenment has built itself a very flashy building. The haves are having more.  Tabitha's work will always be needed by the growing population of have nots.  And I am glad to be one of those who can make a difference.