The Road to Cao Lanh

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We departed the Alagon fairly early Sunday morning and headed Southwest to Cao Lahn. The whole team loaded into one bus and hit the road on a four-hour journey. During the trip Kristy chatted with our build crew while Brad wrote several blog posts.

We arrived at our hotel, the Huong Sen Hotel, in the early afternoon. We had lunch at the hotel and sat through a safety and mission presentation. During the presentation, we learned about the two families we were helping and that our build was a test-build for a larger effort scheduled for November. After the presentation, we loaded onto smaller vans and headed to the village.

Before heading to the build sites, the group stopped by the local government building to meet with some officials. The building was run-down and the rooms had Hammer and Sickle symbols on the walls. We were welcomed by the mayor of the community through a translator. The meeting felt like a dog and pony show for the party rather than a genuine greatful gathering. We departed and headed to the build sites.

There were two build sites. The first was nestled between the family’s current home and another construction site. The foundation was poured and six vertical concrete columns were in place. Site two was about 200 yards down the road. The site was at the edge of an expansive rice paddy. The site was in a similar state of completion as the first. We were instructed that the crew would be mixing and pouring a concrete slab and laying brick for the walls.



Kristy and I decided that we preferred site one because the construction manager on that site seemed to be more experienced than the construction manager at site two. The crew made plans to depart the hotel at 7:30 AM and headed to bed after another meal at the hotel.

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