Building a Future in Cambodia

Back in October 2010, we made a commitment to spend our spring break in Cambodia working on a community outreach project.  This, is our story.

On the morning of Saturday, April 2nd, 2011, our group of 37 members(18 adults and 19 children) departed for Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  We were going there to perform volunteer work with two charities:  Tabitha and the People's Improvement Organization (PIO).  I'll tell you more about these organizations later.

We left that day for Cambodia with a certain amount of nervous apprehension.  We were going to a place that we knew would be considerably different from Singapore and we didn't know what to expect.  We knew that we were living in one of the richest countries and we were going to visit one of the poorest, so truth be told, we were expecting the worst.  We also knew of Cambodia's recent horrific past.....

In 1975, 5 years of bombing ended when the American backed regime led by Lon Nor, was defeated by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.  At that time, Cambodians thought their troubles were over.

In reality they were only beginning. Only a day later, their world was turned upside down when all of the cities were emptied and the entire populace was sent to the countryside.  What followed was  a three year genocide that saw almost 2 million people killed (20% of the population) in an attempt to return the country to an isolated, classless, agrarian society.   Part of our visit here would see us come face to face with that history and we were fearful to a certain degree about what we might experience. 

Our fears were quickly diverted when we met up with the 30+ strong contingent at the airport in Singapore and set off on our journey.  1 hr. and 40 min. later we touched down in Phnom Penh and headed towards our hotel by bus.  We were staying at the Golden Gate Hotel in the heart of the city and very close to 'embassy row' where most foreign embassies are located.  Our journey to the hotel was an eventful one, but at the same time not terribly different from car trips we had taken in other developing countries.  The roads were cluttered with people on mopeds/scooters, sometimes riding solo, sometimes riding tandem and in some cases we saw people out for a family outing on one scooter.  It's not uncommon to see 3, 4 and sometimes even 5 people on the same scooter.  But on this particular day, we set a new record.....6!!!  That's right, 6 people on the same scooter.  Not sure if I have all the details correct but I believe it was something like this: baby number one on the gas tank, dad driving the scooter, then kids number 2 and 3, followed by mom and finally the eldest child on the back.  I kid you not.   I know you'd have to see this  to believe it, by I'm not making it up.

The other amazing thing is the traffic flow.  Picture a city of over 2 million people with nary a traffic light, except for in the busiest of intersections.  Yet, somehow, miraculously, it works.  Cars and scooters weave through clogged intersections with the least bit of care and the greatest of ease and it appears that no one gets hurt.  No such thing as road rage here. You just go with the flow.  And getting cut off, that happens all the time, but nobody gets mad about it.  It just goes with the territory............ I think North American drivers could all learn something from their Cambodian brethren when it comes to driving.

We checked into our hotel and we were delighted with it.  Located on a quaint side street, everything and anything we wanted was literally a stone`s throw away.   We quickly had lunch at the most incredible rooftop restaurant and acquainted ourselves with the group.

After that, we headed to the Tabitha organizations headquarters for an orientation session about our housebuilding project with Janne Ritskes, the founder of Tabitha.   Tabitha has a number of programs aimed at helping Cambodians become self-sufficient, one of which is providing them with adequate shelter.  We had raised over $18 000 and would be building 10 homes in a small, rural village in the Cambodian province of Kandal, south of Phnom Penh.

Janne gave us some guidelines for when we were working in the village and we learned first hand through her own personal experiences how Pol Pot`s genocidal regime had left a scar on Cambodian society that has yet to heal and how important our work was in helping people develop self-sufficiency and more appropriate standards of living.  We were inspired by her words and couldn't wait to get to work.  But before we did, Janne insisted we learn more about Cambodia`s past.  This would take place the following day when we would visit the Killing Fields and Tol Sleng Prison, known as S21.

Tol Sleng prison is a converted school that was used as an interrogation centre for suspected Vietnamese sympathizers and enemies of the state.  To achieve his dream of an agrarian society, Pol Pot felt he must destroy the middle class or anyone with intellect that might question his policies.  So, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, people who wore glasses etc. were routinely tortured until they made false confessions of guilt.  If victims survived the torture at the hands of their captors, they were then sent to Choeung Ek (the Killing Fields) for execution. 

The visit to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek was an informative, but sombre affair.   A guide took us around and explained where and how people were killed. And as much as we could see firsthand what had  happened here, it felt rather surreal.   

Photo at right:  Mass graves in front of a Buddhist stupa or monument, filled with over 5 000 human skulls exhumed from the site.

The next morning we departed for our housebuilding trip.  We left Phnom Penh and drove an hour and a half to the countryside.   Quite a difference between the city and the country.  The village we went to was a community of a couple hundred people with a dusty, single track path connecting the homes to one another.  No stores here.  The people literally live and work off the land and earn little or no income.  However the people here are content and received us openly, but somewhat tentatively into their community.  

Our group broke up into 4 teams and started building.  All the materials for the build were already on site and the homes were already partially completed.  The homes already had been roofed and framed and were built upon cement pilings about 2 metres in the air.  Our job was to put steel siding on the buildings and to complete the floors inside. Men, women and children worked side by side on the project and with the help of local villagers, we had completed about half of the homes by lunchtime.

After being in the village for several hours, the villagers felt much more relaxed with our presence.  While we were eating our lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, our group of kids had a great time interacting with the village children. Some played soccer, others played jump rope and at one point all of the kids joined together in a game of duck-duck-goose.   Watching the interaction between these kids while we ate our lunch was most enjoyable and was truly one of the highlights of the day.

We got back to work in the afternoon and completed all 10 homes by about 4 p.m.  Everyone converged on the final house at about 3:30 and a team of about 10 people worked together to finish nailing down the bamboo floor.  It was a great way to finish off the project as we were all working together to get the job done. 

The group was standing around celebrating their accomplishments when we were asked to meet in front of one of the homes we had completed.  We walked down the road and were pleasantly surprised to see that all the new homeowners and their families had converged to offer us their collective thanks.  A few words of thanks were exchanged through a translator by both groups and then we offered each new homeowner a blanket as a housewarming gift for their new home.  If there was a moment when one may have been moved to tears, this was it.

Large group and small group photos were taken,  many exchanges of, 'ah-kuhn' or thank you were made and it was then time to get into our vans and leave.  And as  muted and reserved as our welcome to the village was, our departure was enthusiastic and heartfelt.  Children and adults all down the road bade us farewell and their smiles left us with the feeling that our efforts had helped to make a difference.

At dinner that evening we exchanged stories and showed each other the blisters, scrapes and cuts we  had as souvenirs of our day.  We went to bed that night wondering what the following day would be like at the PIO school.

The following morning we made our way to the People's Improvement Organization (PIO) school  in Borei Santipheap II, which is an area on the outskirts of  Phnom Penh.  It is a settlement area for many of the displaced people of the riverside slum, who were forced out of the city centre by developers.  We arrived at the school and were greeted enthusiastically by the students, many of whom were wearing old, previously donated school uniforms from CIS.

Thanks to donations organized through PIO founder and CNN hero Phymean Noun , the school is  expanding by four classrooms and so we donated the paint and were going to paint the new rooms. The change of pace from hammering to painting was welcomed by all as there were some pretty stiff muscles following the previous days work.

 The students not only welcomed us, they actually delivered our painting supplies!

And then, it got interesting.  We got ourselves organized, opened up our paint and got down to work.   The next we know, all the kids who greeted us had grabbed paint brushes and were proceeding to help us.   Picture kids as young as 4 and 5 years old randomly painting stuff, the walls, themselves, and you might be able to conjure up a picture of what it was like. In a word it was.......chaos.  But, the kids were eager to help and we were only to happy to have them give us a hand to paint their school.  They were proud of  themselves for helping and we, although a little frustrated at times, were thankful for their help.  It gave our job purpose.  We weren't just painting a building.  We were painting a school. THEIR school.

At the beginning of the day, most of us felt that a day of painting would be much easier than our day of housebuilding the day before, but boy, were we wrong. The walls were 20+ ft. high and we were painting both the interior and the exterior of the building.  The walls were bare concrete, so we spent the entire morning just applying a primer.  Over the lunch hour, we looked at the work we had in front of us and didn't think we would ever get done.  But, thankfully the top coat went on very well and covered very well and we only had to apply one coat.  Both the team working inside the school and the team working outside the school saw instant progress and there was no second guessing what had been painted as the exterior colour was lime green and the interior colour was a yellow brighter than the sun!!  We were a little leery of the colours when we first got started, by the time we finished, we all agreed it looked great.

At the end of the day we were quite proud of the work we had done, all of which was christened when a few of the workers put up the school sign.  The place looked great and thanks to a very large community effort, we got the job done.   

That evening everyone got together for a 'victory' dinner of sorts where we swapped stories, congratulated each other on a job well done and began minor discussions about doing it all next year!

The following morning some of the group boarded a bus and headed for the airport to go home.  While others, including Haylee, Lisa and myself prepared for our trip to Siem Reap Province and the ancient temples of Angkor Wat.

See my next post for more about our experiences in Siem Reap...