Moving to Saudi: February 8-16, 2012

I had so much fun in Cambodia! It was great- I got to build houses for other people while still having fun with my friends. It was a Habitat for Humanity (HFH) trip, so the purpose was to build houses for people who couldn't afford to build or buy one themselves. It was a lot of work and we got dirty, but it was such a rewarding trip. We worked four days and got one pleasure day for shopping and touring. I had such a great time with the other thirteen kids and two teachers on our trip. We got LOTS of pictures, so have fun touring Phnom Penh from your living room!

This is Hayley Wagner and me on our eight hour flight to Bangkok.

In order, me, Hayley, Danielle, Angie, Shalini, Nicola, and Daniel in the Bangkok airport

Playing Egyptian Ratscrew during our eight hour layover in Bangkok

We stepped off the airplane into the steamy Cambodian air. Once we got through customs, we hurried to see if our bags arrived since we knew that two pieces of luggage from our group didn't make it to Phnom Penh. We were all excited to see that only two donation boxes didn't make it. So everyone got their suitcase and no one had to share clothes with their roommate as we had expected.

We were greeted by a Habitat for Humanity volunteer named Colin. I found out that he is a college student who is helping with HFH for experience. He went to night school every night we were there because he is working to become a banker. It was hard to understand him through his thick Cambodian accent.

We all piled into two HFH vans. Some people fell asleep because we were so exhausted from the trip, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from what I was seeing through my window. I've lived in Saudi for almost half a year now, so I'm used to Saudi traffic. But the mayhem I was watching on the streets was like nothing I had ever seen before. The streets were crowded with cars, bicycles, and motorbikes all driving together. It looked like utter chaos to me, but all the Cambodians seemed to think it was no big deal.

<--- Tuk-tuk!

We saw so many things like little kids pulling carts, bicycles and motorbikes with as many people as could fit (we saw a picture of six people on one bike) and even a cow turning on a spit on a cart pulled by a motorbike. Since we were there to help people, the area we were in was not very wealthy. A lot of the kids were naked, the buildings decrepit, and the people looked a little dirty and unkempt. When we drove out to the work sites, we would often have to wait for a herd of cows crossing the roads all by themselves.

When we pulled up to the hotel, we were given red drinks that tasted like candy in a beautiful Buddhist-themed lobby. Even the elevators were gorgeously carved. We saw a Buddhist monk in a bright orange robe sitting on a bench. We went up and saw our rooms. The girls were all on the third floor and the boys were on the second and fourth floor.

The Goldiana hotel where we stayed

Hayley and me in front of our hotel

All the girls

Our rooms

We got briefed on what we would be doing throughout the week. We were taught a few useful phrases in Khmer and we were given a Chroma, which is a piece of cloth used by both male and female Cambodians for everything from clothing to dust cloth to holding a bowl of fruit on your head.

This is my friend Angie and a little girl who will live in the house we were building once it is finished. They are both wearing Chromas on their heads.

We woke up really early our first day and got ready for a long day of working. We drove to the work sites and got to see where we would work for the first time. Both sites had the beginning of a foundation. Our job, we learned, was to fill in the foundation with bucket-loads and bucket-loads of sand.We met the families who would live in the houses we built, and we got to know all their chickens and dogs. = )

One of the families

The other family

This is how far the houses were when we arrived--only the foundation walls.

I was the first one to catch a chick!

I love puppies!

We got a taste of what it meant to be unskilled laborers. We shoveled sand, made assembly lines, mixed cement, laid bricks, planted rocks, tied rebar, removed tree stumps, and shoveled more sand. All in 90-degree weather.

We got dirty and sweaty, but we had fun helping others. We went out to eat every night for dinner, and we got to try some pretty strange foods. When we went to the night market on the weekend, we were given $20 and told to stay with a partner. We got to buy whatever we wanted for dinner, like...

Squid...

Weird meats...

...And other unidentifiable foods.

All the girls in front of the night market

We saw lots of cool things for sale at the night market. It seemed to be mostly for tourists, so we had fun shopping for souvenirs.

A tent at the night market with dresses and scarves for sale

I got to try sugarcane juice one night and a fresh Asian coconut the next!

And we also got to try lots of new fruits, like mangosteens, rangotans, dragonfruit, and other fruits that I can't remember.

We worked...

and worked...

and worked...

and worked...

and worked.

But we found lots of ways to relax and have fun.

We even got to ride a tuk-tuk a few times! A tuk-tuk is a carriage drawn by a moped. It reminded me of a golf cart! = )

One day, we got a whole day off from working. First, we went to a Russian market, which was kind of like the night market. The Russian market had a roof overhead and it was open during the day.

It had lots of souvenirs, pictures, bags, clothes, teapots, and anything else you could possibly wish to buy.

After the Russian market, we visited a place called Dr. Fish Massage that had tanks of fish that we would stick our feet into. The fish would eat the dead skin off our feet, leaving them smooth and free of any unwanted skin. It sounds gross, I know, but once we built up the courage to put our feet in the water, we couldn't stop laughing from the fish tickling our toes!

After the Dr. Fish Massage, we went on a river boat cruise.

It was beautiful. I had so much fun enjoying the beautiful Cambodian sunset over the water with my friends.

We saw lots of houseboats and floating houses along the river bank.

On our last full day in Cambodia, we dedicated the houses to the two families. We each got to cut the ribbons, and we gave both families the "key" to their new houses. We had a bit of a ceremony, including dancing, singing, drumming on empty paint buckets, throwing flower petals, eating, and releasing birds to symbolize the freedom the new houses brought for the families.

Getting ready to release the birds

Group picture in front of the (not so) completed house. We were told that a Japanese group will come next week to pick up where we left off.

On the morning of the day we left, we were able to fit in one extra activity. We got to see the royal palace, where the Cambodian king lives, along with a temple and a lot of monks.