Having recently seen the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen’s music was fresh in my mind. Several of my teammates had seen the film and loved it as I did. Hearing Western pop music is common around the globe, even among people who have no idea what the lyrics mean. Cambodians love to sing and dance … Continue reading
Lucky me. I arrived in Siem Reap 5 days ahead of my Habitat Global Village Team. We would all be meeting at the end of the week to begin our adventure together, building houses for two families in need in the Tbeng Kert village, about an hour outside of Siem Reap. I wanted to spend … Continue reading
Day 5! Our final day arrived in the usual fashion – here before you know it, yet feeling physically tired having put in four full days of hard work, doing the kind of jobs most of us are not used to. Add the Cambodian heat and humidity to the mix and a few tummy bugs … Continue reading
Day 4! At the end of the day, I sat in amazement. I was looking at a house that was 95% finished and on Monday all that was in its place was a piece of parched earth with six square holes in the ground, waiting to be filled with concrete pillars to hold up a … Continue reading
Day 3! Today we were really rocking and rolling! Not just on the houses, but on the worksite when our host coordinator Pak and our translator Thy and construction supervisor Chai busted out the karaoke machine and sang American country western music! Some of the ladies on our team are now known as the “Pak-ettes“! … Continue reading
Day 2! This week we are working alongside two families in the Tbeng Kert village, which has 375 households and 1,661 people. The houses are about 360 square feet and sit up on stilts, a typical Cambodian style which protects the family and their belongings during the rainy season flooding. Today our work progressed … Continue reading
Welcome to Cambodia! Everyone on the team has arrived and we didn’t waste any time getting acquainted with this beautiful county and the charms of Siem Reap. Our welcome dinner was at Madam Butterfly, one of the oldest restaurants in town and one of the few set in a traditional Khmer wooden house with beautiful … Continue reading
In 1524 Spanish conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba named Granada after the city of home country. One of the oldest, if not the oldest, colonial cities in Latin America, Granada once rivaled León for the title of Capital. For more than 300 years the city was repeatedly attacked by pirates, burned and rebuilt several times. … Continue reading
Choices. How many are we fortunate enough to make every day? And how can we maximize someone else’s ability to afford a life that allows for more choice? Someone like our lovely homeowner Tania. Tania is a 32-year-old single mom with two children ages 11 and seven. She only went to school through grade nine, … Continue reading
Nestled among the mountainous hillsides of the central highlands near the Honduran border, Estelí feels like an honest blue-collar city, a sports town with devoted fans, a place where locals worship and shop the huge Saturday produce market, where students learn and where expats can buy sunscreen and lattes alike. Dotted with language schools, tobacco … Continue reading
