1. New Home Built

We meet a lady and her daughter who live in a crumbling little shack in a rural village.

The lady has health issues preventing her from working and the daughter has finished school but not in any training or employment. They survive from the charity of neighbours and the community. Here is the journey of transformation, starting with building a new home. The lady says she will use the old home as a kitchen. We will follow the progress of the project, and their lives, and provide support to enable them to ultimately enable them to support themselves. First step. Building a new home.

Just 4 days later and the house build is coming on well. The foundations have been dug, concrete posts embedded in the ground and the legs of the house are welded onto them. The legs raise the house about 5 feet above the ground. This provides protection from flooding, and also creates a space under the house which provides valuable shade. This might be used for water storage. The frame of the house is constructed from steel, the individual sections welded together. Good progress so far! Mother and daughter are fascinated and delighted to see their new house being built right before their eyes.

On the same day the sun begins to set at the same time as revealing a rainbow.
There’s a particular beauty to the light in Cambodia.
It changes how everything looks, changes the colours and tone and feel of the place.
I guess it’s the tropical light, less filtered, more direct.

Just a few days later and the walls start to go up, made from corrugated sheet metal they are held onto the frame with screws. I’d help, but it’s 100c in the shade and I’d last about 10 minutes before the health and safety officer stepped in. 🙂

The walls are pretty much up, the roof is going up, the floor is down… it’s really getting there 🙂 running a few days behind schedule and the work crew are dragging it out a bit, and we seem to have gone from three workmen to four, as one of them has appointed himself foreman and is now the manager! Worksite politics, the same the world over.

The villagers are enjoying watching the project take place, and the lady for whom the house is being gifted is completely thrilled and excited. It’s a truly life changing experience for her. ❤️

The house is structurally complete. Roof on. Floor in. Windows in. Door in.
The steps are a bit of a bugger, more of a ladder than stairs, we can call that a snag and get it fixed another day.
The lady and her daughter are thrilled. Muylen translates to me that,
“She never dreamed of having such a big house as this”
Which brought a tear to my eye.

But given that this house has cost $1500 USD and the lady exists on charity and maybe $1 a day, there was no way she would have been able to afford such an accommodation.

Hand over day. Muylen assured me it would be inappropriate for us to just give the house and not have a ceremony. So the village was invited to attend the ritual.

There was a couple of speeches, and food provided, and everyone was happy.

I was also happy to see that there was sufficient sand and gravel left over to fill in half of the mosquito pool 🙂
I think it could become a nice water feature.
Speaking of water, where better to store it than under the house.

Genuine community of people. Thank you Ethical Much community for providing the means to make this happen. It certainly could never have happened without you. And it doesn’t stop here. Next stage is getter the new house fitted with light, and then creating a vegetable garden around it. Perhaps some chickens. The story will continue.

$1500 from subscriber fund.