Tarantulas revisited

We had promised to go back to Romdeng Restaurant and try the Crispy Tarantulas with Lime and Pepper Dipping Sauce. So on our last night in Phnom Penh we booked a table for 15 - our team of 11 plus our Habitat team of 4.
Tarantula's are served in threes in Romdeng, with cucumber and a dipping sauce

Most of us at least tried this Cambodian delicacy - some enjoyed them more than others!


Watch the video if you are game!

Crispy Tarantulas in Lime & Pepper Dipping Sauce

This finishes our time in Phnom Penh. As I write this, most of the team have packed and are ready for an early start tomorrow. We leave here at 5:15 and head down the Mekong River to Vietnam for two nights of well deserved R&R.

The Friends of BCS have been a great bunch - we have all got along well, looked after each other and worked hard together. There will be lots of stories to tell ( some will stay here in Cambodia) and jokes that no one else will understand. We know a little of the Khmer language, most belonging on a building site!

Chum Reap Lear.......from us all, thank you to all our donors and supporters!

Final Day on site - House 2

House 1 and 2 were at similar stages of completion, House 2 may have been a little more advanced, but both had about 10 days work left. We had done all we could as volunteers, the work remaining was at high level, and not for us!
The day started with shopping for gifts in the markets, we bought gas cookers, pots, plates, a mat, rice and cement. This was in the local markets, where we were a bit of a curiosity - narrow lanes with many stalls selling everything from pots and pans to food, snacks and fresh food. The rice and fruit markets were outside in the street, it was a thriving, busy market - but one we were all glad to get out of because of the heat and humidity.
Shopping done, we headed off to the village for our final few ours on site. Vitey, our GV coordinator, had given us a detailed program for the day - and we were already behind! Not that being late had been a problem any other day.
Our tasks for the morning were to mix up a bit of concrete to complete the beams that the skilled workers had started earlier in the day, and then clean up the site for the party. We also had to decorate the house with balloons. Once these jobs were done, we went for a walk in he community to have a look at some other Habitat homes - there are 33 in the area. We visited a couple of families who told us that they loved their home and were very grateful to Habitat for making it possible. Most of the families were carrying out some kind of business at the front of their homes - selling things, fixing things, making things or preparing food for delivery by cyclo. Habitat work with the families to develop income streams to assist in re-paying the loan.
The money that everyone donated to our trip did not go directly to our houses, it went into a revolving fund that allows others to borrow the money to build homes, help families develop skills and to work with communities to provide water and sanitation. The families are very grateful to habitat, our team and our donors for the help that is provided and the opportunity to have a decent place to live.
We had lunch with the families, the skilled workers and the habitat team - we had an opportunity to meet with them all and talk about all sorts of things, they had many questions for us. We then had a ribbon cutting ceremony, an invitation to enter the home by the new owners and then a party with singing and dancing. The skilled workers came to life and showed us how much they liked to dance and have fun.

The final videos are here for you to view:
Final Day - Part 1
Final Day - Part 2
Final Day - Part 3
Final Day - Part 4
Final Day - Part 5

Although it was difficult to communicate with our work team we developed some great friendships, and we will remember the people of our Cambodian Project for a long time! We said goodbye to the team, left some of our work clothes and tools for them to use, and headed back to town. I think that we all felt a little sad to be leaving, but very happy that we had made the effort to come - and would love to come back if given the chance.

Final Day on site - House 1

Martin led the team that built House number 1 - this is his final report!
The home owner of house 1 had 8 children, 4 died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and 1 died of HIV/Aids. She is currently bringing up 2 grand children. The final day showed the appreciation of the family for the work that had been done, we would've liked to have completed the whole structure, however our contribution and working with the skilled workers from the Vietnam border area, was a satisfying experience, although hard to communicate - we worked as a team.
The team managed to compete the slab and 70% of all brick walls, columns were complete and the septic tank was installed. The weather was hot, but we all had great laughs along the way.

Day 4 on site

Today we learnt even more new skills, more bricklaying and steel fixing, with an added bonus of flower arranging.
The back door was in place when we arrived on site, and Marie the 2nd year (day) apprentice was on the case, doing the back wall with the skilled workers. Greg & Andy were up on the scaffolds like old hands, Tony was the bucket boy, until Andy called it a day. Gerry & Jodie learnt to fix steel, making the reinforcement for the beams that sit on the brick work at about 2000. The tools were sophisticated, two pieces of rebar, stirrups, tie wire and a nail. Our skilled worker was a good teacher, and we were both quick learners.

Here is the link to the You-Tube clip Day 4
Gerry and Jodie also hatched a plan to stay out of the sun, by offering to help the man next door with his flower arranging. He taught us to make betel nut decorations for weddings!

The morning went quickly, with rambutans and longans for morning tea. After the break it was removing the bricks stacked in the house and getting ready to spread the sand screed and then lay the slab.

Lunch was again a quick trip to the local resort - our food brought in from elsewhere. It is a pleasant place, but if in Australia would probably be closed down by the NSW Health!

After lunch we laid the slab, buckets of concrete were carried up and spread by hand, with trowels and a leveling (?) device. It will be interesting to see how it was finished off and looks tomorrow. The You-Tube Link: The Slab.

Orphanage for Peace

We finished work a little early so that we could visit a local orphanage. We had been to one of the International Book stores the day before to buy some gifts - books, paints, pencils, colouring books, glue, scissors and some balls.
Fifteen minutes along winding bumpy lanes saw us arrive at a bamboo fence with a narrow entrance. The buses pulled up and we were greeted by milling children who wanted to say hello, show off their english and desperately needed some human contact. They held our hands, hugged our legs, and smaller children wanted to be picked up and held.

After some initial games and introductions, we were seated in front of a huge stage and treated to some traditional dancing and singing. This is now on You-Tube The Welcome Dance The children were very good, they learn dancing and singing at the school and obviously enjoyed entertaining us. Four of the team were invited onto the stage to learn the 'coconut' dance - the children roared with laughter at our attempts to clap the coconuts in time and in sequence. And now have a look on You-Tube: Team Performance
The rest of the team came up on stage - a real test of a ricketty stage, made with many old planks and simple supports. We danced with the children, some of us were better than others, but we were all pretty bad! It was hot on the stage, with dozens of kids and the team. We then presented our gifts and the official part of our visit was over.

Eric had arranged some games with balloons that we had blown up at lunch time, musical chairs and bottle filling.

All too quickly the visit was over and it was time to leave - we said our good byes and thanked everyone for sharing their school and orphanage with us.
The orphanage also acts as a school for local poor children, so some of the children go home - about 30 live there in very basic conditions. They are currently supported by a Japanese group, but not a lot of money is coming through at the moment, due to the tsunami appeals in their own country.

Day 3 on site

Bricklaying 101 - we learnt to lay bricks, Cambodian style today.

For those of us that had never laid a brick, it gave us an appreciation of the skill - and the wonderful brickwork we see in Australia! Marie has decided that she may become a brickie.
We, with the skilled workers help,made great progress on the side walls, one a single skin of bricks, the other a single skin against the next door neighbour's single skin. At about 2000 a concrete beam is added, we did not quite get there.

We spread the large gravel to the rear sub-floor, and compacted it.

House 1 - Day 2

House 1 is being built by Martin's team, and has not had quite the coverage that the other house has received in the blog! I can assure you that they are working just as hard as the 'other' team, and making great progress. Dan Bamblett-Furner has been taking some videos and was quite intrigued with the electrical work going on in the street - nothing to do with their job at all - but worth a look!
Day 2 - Part 1
Day 2 - Part 2
Day 2 - Part 3
Day 2 - Part 4
Day 2 - Part 5