This is the Bio as provided by Habitat for Humanity of Cambodia. Chhung Song Tet and family, a wife and four children, are living in the corridor road area, the land belongs to the state situated in 13 Makara Village Center, Prek Preah Sdach, Battambang Municipality, Battambang Province since 2005. Song Tet, 37 works as a construction worker, while his wife Boeung Tol, 27, is selling vegetable in the market to support the family and their kids to schools. “We’ve been living in this area after we got married, many years ago. We left Phnom Penh city and came to find the job in Battambang,” Song Tet shared about his family life. “We lived with my brother at first due to the financial constraint and moved out a year later to find the bigger space to ... read more

I am so frustrated! I typed 80% of this post and it just disappeared off my tablet. I will try again, but it is never quite right the second time around. I’ve traveled on multiple Habitat for Humanity (HFH) Global Village (GV) trips. I’ve been both a participant and a Team Leader (TL). The experience of being a team leader is significantly different than that of a participant. GV participants can focus on the building tasks, the personal connections and the cultural immersion. As a TL, my primary concerns are the health & safety of my team and ensuring each participant has a rich GV experience. Fortunately, our team shared the responsibility of job site safety. As TL I needed to make sure everyone who was not feeling their best got what they needed to recuperate. ... 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

Early in my trip, and already I am behind on my blog. Teams days are long, and my day as team leader is even longer. I get up at around 6 am and rarely get to bed before 10. All those hours with the exception of a quick shower are spent organzing, working , eating and touring. The last two days, I moved from brick making to house construction. Wall building with the CEB bricks is relatively easy. Mixing mortar with a shovel, not so much. The bricks fit together mostly like giant Lego blocks. Leveling in all directions is crucial and time consuming. Every third course we pour mortar into the preformed holes and set our creation. Over the last 3 days we have almost completed the exterior walls to the height of the concrete ... 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