Blogs from Battambang, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 3

This is the family bio as provided by HFH Cambodia Soem Salest is living with his wife and four children in a small house on the road corridor - the state land located in 13 Makara Village Center, Prek Preah Sdach Sangkat, Battambang Municipality, Battambang Province since 2006. They moved after facing the family crisis – as his mother needed to sell the house to repay the loan. Salest (43) and his wife Kuy Sreyno (38) requested a permit from the village chief to build a small temporarily house, size 4m x 5m on that state property. The place attached to the ground and cover by many old pieces of wood, zinc, and pieces of fabric. Few years, in 2000, after Salest had a traffic accident, he is unable to perform any job. The family responsibility ... read more

Cambodia – Party Time Our day began with a visit to Battambang’s Bamboo train. None of us knew what to expect, but the outing was a novel and fun adventure. Four by four we were loaded onto bamboo platforms. Each ‘car’ of the train ran individually, powered by a small motor and piloted by an ‘engineer’. One by one the cars rode along the tracks. Although the path was straight, the tracks had visible gaps, bends and curves. We sped along at roughly 20-25 mph. It felt much faster from our crossed leg seat on the bamboo platform. At the end of the line we got a chance to stimulate the local economy at a market. Most of us had fun collecting trinkets to bring home and practicing our negotiation skills. Once our shopping was complete, ... read more

On our first night in Battambang we had a meeting with the Habitat Staff. There we learned a few Khmer pleasantries and customs. The language is very difficult for most of our American team . The Khmer script is unidentifiable. The Latin versions use phonetics that don’t match our expectations. Finally, we are unable to discern the nuances of phonetics. Communication without our translators would be most difficult. The Habitat team shared data about the demographics and economic situation in the country. Unemployment is extraordinarily low(0.3%). But what constitutes employment is meager at best. The average family earns less than $100 USD per month. Others subsist on only $30/month. Monday was out first day on the build site. We began our day with an introduction of our partner families. We are building two homes. One for ... read more

DÉSOLÉS! On parlait évidemment de l'aéroport de SEOUL et non pas de celui de Saigon! Trop de soleil et de bière! Aujourd'hui on est partis en minibus vers Battambang. On s'attendait a un minibus super charge mais on l'a eu presque privé:on l'a partagé seulement avec un autre couple de réfugiés cambodgiens habitant aux E.U. Charmants et chaleureux, ils nous ont même payé le diner en signe d'hospitalité! Quant a la route, un vraie film surréaliste: une mobilette trafansportant une porte, 2 mobilettes avec des cochons relaxants sur leur dos sur le support arrière, un rhinocéros dans le champ, des buffles, des grosses pyramides de poches de riz semblant avancer toutes seules car la mobilette et le chauffeur etaient invisibles, des gros bouchons de circulation due aux.....travaux sur la route. Et un chauffeur souriant qui tricotait ... read more

What a full on day. Nit picked me up in his tuktuk at 9.00am and I was joined by Franco who is working for an NGO in Phnom Penh. Our first stop was the bamboo railway about 6km out of town. Each train consists of 2 sets of wheels (bogeys?) And a bamboo platform that seats about 6 with a little motor strapped to the back. It jolts along at around 25km/h on rickety tracks for about 30 minutes to a little village and then they dismantle the train, turn it around, and back you go. If you meet a train coming in the other direction the one with the least passengers stops and dismantles their train to let the other past then puts it back together and away you go again. From there it was ... read more