After a 5 1/2hr drive north to Battambang, we checked into our nice hotel, with a pool. Great bonus to look forward to after our first day of building.
We set out from the hotel at around 7am for a 45 minute drive back towards Phnom Penh. About 15km off of the highway is our village. It sits next to a hill, which pops right up in the middle of a lot of flat land that during rainy season is green with rice paddies.
Srie, our Tabitha staffer, who has been with us on all three of our builds tells me that the Khmer Rouge brought many people here to be killed.
We are getting used to seeing friendly faces who manage to survive in very hard circumstances. Since it is dry season, there is dust everywhere. There is no electricity in the village. Some of the richer households have a car battery that powers a small tv set.
We hope to build 8 houses today. I am fighting wobbly stomach syndrome, but will have to hang tough.
Everyone pitches in and starts to build. We could all take a lesson from Terry Brennan Sr. who is in his mid seventies. Terry takes it slow and steady, and works the whole day through, with only mandatory water and lunch breaks.
Another of our team CW Young, who is a friend of the Brennans, has taken time from his "Around the World" trip to help on this build. CW went to UofO with Terry Jr.
We had a little cloud cover today, which helped us finish 9 houses, a little better than we hoped, so we are off to a good start.
The best part of the day is when we gather the families whose homes we have finished that day and hand over their houses. Their faces say it all.
2 more days.
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