Tourism to Volunteerism

On November 5, 2011 we travelled as a group by long boat to a floating village on the edge of Tonle Sap lake. The original purpose of our trip was tourism and to explore the region more fully – the lake, and its associated rivers are known  for its floating villages, where local residents literally rise and fall with the tides. But through good, on-the-ground connections we were forewarned of a desperate situation ahead.

A highlight today was the Khmer wedding we happened upon at 7 a.m. while touring the village market near the job site.

Our ‘easy first day’ of work proved to us how jet-lagged and out of shape we all were. Up before 6, at the work site at 7, and after opening formalities and welcomes we started carrying pails of earth to fill in the road through the Bakong Technical Centre site. It was really hot.