Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Building in Siem Reap
The Southeast Asia Odyssey Continues

I apologize for not blogging often during this week as we build in Cambodia with Habitat for Humanity on our Global Village trip. I want to again thank the wonderful friends and family who donated to Habitat to help make our trip possible. I have not been online much at all this week, but here is the basic situation: Our team of volunteers is divided into two groups. My group works on a house made of wood, so there is lots of sawing, hammering, nailing, and painting, much of it done while precariously perched on makeshift scaffolding. Brian's team works on the brick house, a five or so minute walk away through the village. We all meet together at "our" house for lunch. The team leaders are great and do creative things to help us get to know one another. It is surprisingly not that hot while we are working, and our hotel is rather nice. Because the cost of living is so cheap in Cambodia, and because there are many many many hotels for the on-the-rise tourism industry in Siem Reap, we are able to stay at a good place, a bit more comfortable (and bigger) than my accommodations on previous Habitat builds. There are massively cute children at our worksite who are all smiles, like many people in Cambodia. All in all, it is shaping up to be a great experience.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Linda the carpenter. As Kyle ( age 3 yrs, 9 mos) would say, "Awesome." "Actually" and "Awesome" are a couple of his most common buzz words. Not sure if you use a claw hammer or an air hammer, but here's a tid-bit of which you may or may not be familiar. Most nails are not perfectly straight (epsecially used or pulled-out-to-be-reused nails). To ensure that the bowed nail doesn't come out thru the side of the board, put the nail between your thumb, index and middle fingers, and roll it. You'll soon get the feel for it's curve, then you can pound it in with the curve lined up along the major axis of the wood so it bends into the the wood instead of bending out toward the side wall. Try it! Then share it with your co-workers. Dad