Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Robin reminsices: It wasn't about me.
My title for this note about my recent visit to Cambodia runs completely counter-intuitive to today's norm. Absolutely everything now is about ourselves. What other explanation can there be for every Apple gizmo beginning with 'i'? iPod; iPad; iPhone.....?
But that was the message--it's about the Cambodians, not us!--which was instilled in our house-building team by the head of the Tabitha Foundation, Janne Ritskes, in the orientation she gave us 10 days ago in Phnom Penh before we headed for the southern province of Kep to put the finishing touches on 18 new starter homes we had raised money for and were building in the poorest of the poor areas of Cambodia.
How utterly refreshing to get out of our own head's, out of our own affluent worlds, and be brought down to earth with a thud by Janne (who also, in her words, scared 'the snot' out of us about workplace safety, accidently putting curses on the houses we built by letting a bloody cut be seen, or inadvertently leading the locals to think we were there to kidnap their children if we so much as played with them!) Talk about pressure! And I had worried about the heat. That was the easiest to take!
But even better, in a world sorely lacking in any context whatsoever, the first thing Janne offered us in our briefing was exactly that: Why is Cambodia the way it is now and why are we there building houses? She offered us a Cambodia 101 seminar before sending us off for mandatory visits first to the Killing Fields Museum (a converted school compound where Pol Pot tortured a figure cited as anywhere from 1.8 million to 3 million of his fellow countrymen during the reign of terror of his Khmer Rouge) and then onto one of the Fields themselves: an old Chinese cemetary desecrated by the instigators of the Cambodian genocide and used to kill those tortured souls who were not already half dead.
An informative but utterly haunting audio guide accompanied us on our walk around the Killing Fields, ending at a memorial filled with anguish. The Cambodian narrator on the guide said words that chilled me almost as much as what I was seeing: "Even now, a genocide is taking place somewhere." History teaches us nothing. I wanted to cry. But I remembered, it wasn't about me and kept my feelings to myself.
My Facebook page (all about me! me! me! I learned nothing, clearly) has been filled with photos documenting this incredible journey so recently completed in Cambodia. But photos can't capture all the raw emotion we all felt.
Imagine being with a team of people you have never met before, ranging in age from 15-71 (!), staying in a jungle eco-resort and feeling like Indiana Jones, hammering away in +30 degree heat, and discovering (this is the most unbelievable) that you can't stop laughing? I'm serious. Maybe I was due for some good hysteria, but our laughter was often as loud as the hammering, or the sounds of the wheels of our van trying to make it up a rutted road to our jungle digs....I even laughed when our prop plane took off from Phnom Penh for Siem Reap when my seatmate and fellow team member Sunny turned to me and 'cracked wise' as they say about what we had just accomplished with our houses. I forgot I used to be afraid of flying.
Flying back to Vancouver earlier this week and entering my empty house, I wanted to cry all over again (a gazillion hour journey will do that to you I suppose). First I passed neighbouring houses all kitted out already with Christmas doodads.....fair enough......this is the Canadian culture, not the Cambodian.....But when I looked at just one room in my wonderful home and realized it was the size of the 'starter homes' we had built, that's when I started to sob.
I'm glad I went to Cambodia, saw the magnificent Angkor Wat in addition to doing 'something good'....creating a community...but I won't kid myself as much as Janne insisted:
It was about me.
Maybe not when I was there hammering nails into a floor or touring around. But when I was lying in my eco-hut listening to jungle sounds that scared the 'snot out of me' calming myself by appreciating my own charmed life: as a privileged Canadian; as a happily married woman for three decades; as the mother of two incredible offspring; and finally, as a woman enjoying the health and affluence that allowed me to make the trip in the first place.
But that was the message--it's about the Cambodians, not us!--which was instilled in our house-building team by the head of the Tabitha Foundation, Janne Ritskes, in the orientation she gave us 10 days ago in Phnom Penh before we headed for the southern province of Kep to put the finishing touches on 18 new starter homes we had raised money for and were building in the poorest of the poor areas of Cambodia.
How utterly refreshing to get out of our own head's, out of our own affluent worlds, and be brought down to earth with a thud by Janne (who also, in her words, scared 'the snot' out of us about workplace safety, accidently putting curses on the houses we built by letting a bloody cut be seen, or inadvertently leading the locals to think we were there to kidnap their children if we so much as played with them!) Talk about pressure! And I had worried about the heat. That was the easiest to take!
But even better, in a world sorely lacking in any context whatsoever, the first thing Janne offered us in our briefing was exactly that: Why is Cambodia the way it is now and why are we there building houses? She offered us a Cambodia 101 seminar before sending us off for mandatory visits first to the Killing Fields Museum (a converted school compound where Pol Pot tortured a figure cited as anywhere from 1.8 million to 3 million of his fellow countrymen during the reign of terror of his Khmer Rouge) and then onto one of the Fields themselves: an old Chinese cemetary desecrated by the instigators of the Cambodian genocide and used to kill those tortured souls who were not already half dead.
An informative but utterly haunting audio guide accompanied us on our walk around the Killing Fields, ending at a memorial filled with anguish. The Cambodian narrator on the guide said words that chilled me almost as much as what I was seeing: "Even now, a genocide is taking place somewhere." History teaches us nothing. I wanted to cry. But I remembered, it wasn't about me and kept my feelings to myself.
My Facebook page (all about me! me! me! I learned nothing, clearly) has been filled with photos documenting this incredible journey so recently completed in Cambodia. But photos can't capture all the raw emotion we all felt.
Imagine being with a team of people you have never met before, ranging in age from 15-71 (!), staying in a jungle eco-resort and feeling like Indiana Jones, hammering away in +30 degree heat, and discovering (this is the most unbelievable) that you can't stop laughing? I'm serious. Maybe I was due for some good hysteria, but our laughter was often as loud as the hammering, or the sounds of the wheels of our van trying to make it up a rutted road to our jungle digs....I even laughed when our prop plane took off from Phnom Penh for Siem Reap when my seatmate and fellow team member Sunny turned to me and 'cracked wise' as they say about what we had just accomplished with our houses. I forgot I used to be afraid of flying.
Flying back to Vancouver earlier this week and entering my empty house, I wanted to cry all over again (a gazillion hour journey will do that to you I suppose). First I passed neighbouring houses all kitted out already with Christmas doodads.....fair enough......this is the Canadian culture, not the Cambodian.....But when I looked at just one room in my wonderful home and realized it was the size of the 'starter homes' we had built, that's when I started to sob.
I'm glad I went to Cambodia, saw the magnificent Angkor Wat in addition to doing 'something good'....creating a community...but I won't kid myself as much as Janne insisted:
It was about me.
Maybe not when I was there hammering nails into a floor or touring around. But when I was lying in my eco-hut listening to jungle sounds that scared the 'snot out of me' calming myself by appreciating my own charmed life: as a privileged Canadian; as a happily married woman for three decades; as the mother of two incredible offspring; and finally, as a woman enjoying the health and affluence that allowed me to make the trip in the first place.
A note from Pat
Hi, Team,
Am back home now in Singapore and just wanted to tell you all,
what a privilege and a pleasure it was to be a part of your team
on this house build. It was my first community volunteer experience
overseas and doing that with all of you was a delight from beginning
to end...You even made the hot sweaty work in the sun, cold showers
and close encounters of the third kind with the animal kingdom a source
of much laughter. Kudos to our fearless leader, Yolanda, for organizing this
build and so competently keeping us on track throughout...
I'll be talking about this incredible experience for years to come. Hope
to make it to a reunion with you all sometime, now that I'm an honorary
Canadian.
Sending much love and best wishes to you all wherever you are at this
moment.
Pat
Am back home now in Singapore and just wanted to tell you all,
what a privilege and a pleasure it was to be a part of your team
on this house build. It was my first community volunteer experience
overseas and doing that with all of you was a delight from beginning
to end...You even made the hot sweaty work in the sun, cold showers
and close encounters of the third kind with the animal kingdom a source
of much laughter. Kudos to our fearless leader, Yolanda, for organizing this
build and so competently keeping us on track throughout...
I'll be talking about this incredible experience for years to come. Hope
to make it to a reunion with you all sometime, now that I'm an honorary
Canadian.
Sending much love and best wishes to you all wherever you are at this
moment.
Pat
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Meet the Team
Here are the wonderful friends, and friends of friends who were part of the adventure:
Robin from Vancouver. Formerly the expat expert, now the hammering honey.
Lys, originally from Peru, now retired in Niagara-on-the-Lake
Mike from Niagara-on-the-Lake
Pat from Singapore and Terry Ann from Ottawa
Sunny from England
Michele from Niagara-on-the-Lake
The Kam Family - Dennis and Kathy from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Tracy and Riley from Ottawa
and me!
Robin from Vancouver. Formerly the expat expert, now the hammering honey.
Lys, originally from Peru, now retired in Niagara-on-the-Lake
Mike from Niagara-on-the-Lake
Carole from Niagara-on-the-Lake and her son Andrew from St. John's, Newfoundland.
Pat from Singapore and Terry Ann from Ottawa
Sunny from England
Michele from Niagara-on-the-Lake
The Kam Family - Dennis and Kathy from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Tracy and Riley from Ottawa
and me!Thank you to everyone who supported us. You have helped 18 families have homes that provide comfort from the elements, security, and a sense of self-worth.
A complete photo gallery of the trip is now online at http://fromtheedge.typepad.com/photos/2011_cambodi/
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Mission Accomplished!
18 houses for 18 families. What a sense of accomplishment. The last 7 houses that we completed today went quickly. We had a terrific breeze to keep us cool, and we knew what we were doing. Michele and I nailed up the walls for one house on our own, with help from a couple of the village men. Trying to hang on to the sheets of corrugated steel in the strong wind was a challenge, but we managed. My hammering arm isn’t sore, but my legs are. Climbing up and down a ladder countless times is as good as a step class, or better. I expect to be stiff tomorrow, and actually am looking forward to sitting quietly on an airplane.
The handover ceremony is always a very moving experience. The 18 families gathered in a semicircle, and one by one, each builder presented each family with a quilt – a housewarming gift. They are so anxious to get into their new homes, I’m sure they couldn’t wait for us to leave.
Staying at an eco lodge has been an experience in itself. We are up on a mountainside, in the jungle, surrounded by all sorts of jungle noises. The first very loud screeching we heard was not a man-eating creature, but a hornbill. I haven’t had the thrill of seeing one, but we certainly know they are around. What some of us have seen are jungle rats, large frogs, big geckos called tokays, and one friendly snake. There are rat traps in some of the rooms. Any rat caught becomes a barbequed snack. Not much is wasted. There is only cold water for showering, and electricity is solar generated. Each room has a battery, so once you’ve used up your allocation of power, it’s lights out. Not that that is a bad thing. There is wifi in the vicinity of the front desk, but we are asked to use it sparingly. Last night after working all day, most the team was in bed and happily dreaming of hammers and nails by 8 pm.
Today we have more energy, having finished building by lunchtime. A few relaxed with a cool drink and feet dipped into the pool. You can pay a lot of money to have fish clean your feet in a spa, but here it’s free. It tickles at first and then you get used to it. The fish are picky. Some feet are more attractive than others, although we don’t know what their criteria is. This evening we are going to the crab market in Kep for a group dinner with Tabitha staff to celebrate another great build.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's off to work we go!
I am exhausted. Our day started with breakfast at 6 am, pickup at 7, start hammering at 8:30 and the hammering continued until 3:00. We completed 11 houses today. The learning curve is fast. The floor team was comprised of Sunny, Carole, Robin, Terry Ann and Pat. They hammered down the floorboards in each of the houses. Wall teams had the tougher work of hammering the exterior sheets of corrugated metal to the toughest, nastiest wood ever. If there is one thing consistent about Tabitha house builds, it’s the wood. Michele, Mike and I got a great system going so that we were able to complete three houses ourselves, taking about 2 hours to get the walls up on a house. It’s a lovely, satisfying feeling to finish a house and put the sign up. 
Tomorrow we have 7 houses to complete and then we have the best part…the official handover ceremony.
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