1) The document describes a volunteer trip to Cambodia where the author helped build a house for a family. 2) The family consisted of grandparents taking care of their two grandchildren and two orphans, with the grandparents having to sleep outside due to lack of space. 3) Over the course of several days, the volunteers constructed the foundation, floor, walls and roof of the new house to provide better living conditions for the family.

1. Volunteer work
building houses in
Lieb Chas village
Cambodia
2 – 11 June 2017
Marcel van Wijk

2. Schiphol airport with the kids, heading to Cambodia via Guangzhou in
China, a 5,999 miles (9,718 km) and 17 hours flight.

3. A country with a horrible history of Khmer Rouge
violence, costing the lives of 1 – 2 million people.

4. A country with both
Buddhism and Hinduism

5. The daily trip to the building site
in Lieb Chas village , 43 km on
the northeast of Siem Reap,
took about 1 hour 45 minutes,
and started on a reasonably
well maintained road…

6. … of which the conditioned
changed considerably when
leaving the city…

7. … but also gave us
the opportunity to
enjoy some
incredible views

8. But the worse the roads gets…
… the bigger the change of
getting stuck in the muddy
ditches.

9. A house in the countryside, a car drive about 1.45 hours
from Siem Reap city, with a leaking roof and hardly any
space for the two grandchildren that live with
grandmother Ort and –father Kdam…
Their current ‘housing’
condition
… and the two orphans in the village were invited to live
with them without any hesitation, leaving no other place for
grandfather and –mother to sleep but outdoors…
although both of them being HIV positive.

10. Grandparents Ort and Kdam take care of 2 of their grand children and 2 orphans.
Their ‘old’ house is so small that only those 4 children can sleep inside, meaning that
they themselves have to sleep outside, neglecting the fact that they are HIV positive.

12. Bedroom
living room
dining room

13. If the baby needs some sleep, there is a ‘nursery’…

14. The ‘outdoor kitchen’

15. The building ground

16. And the materials
to start with

17. A lot of drinking is needed
to prevent de-hydration…
… but out here in the countryside water is scarce and needs
to be pumped up from an underground river 9 meters below
the surface, unfiltered.

18. Let’s start with
building a toilet

21. The first contact with the ‘locals’…

22. It didn’t take long before the first smiles appeared!

23. Words aren’t needed…
This is why we are here to
help…
…to give them a chance for
a better future!

24. Now it’s time to build a house,
starting with the foundation

31. It’s time to place the columns,
after which we can start with the floor structure.

40. Although very ill, grandfather Kdam
insists to help building the new house

43. A new house requires some
religious offerings.

44. The neighbours’ kid,
different then ‘ours’,
does have something to
play with…
although being broken…

45. It’s selfie time!

47. Never throw anything away!

49. Play time is over, back to work!
It’s time to start working on the floor structure.

53. We will use bamboo for the floor
and need to make it nice and smooth

54. And also grandma wants to help out

58. This is how we solve the problem
of not having a drilling machine

60. Some juggling between working and drinking
(water!)

61. And don’t forget your
daily portion of fruits!

62. And what about…
something extra?
Let’s go to
school!

65. After having heard these children sings,
you can only feel (and look) like a complete fool!

66. One of ‘ours’
Sonny!

67. Okay, let’s line up for a handwashing lesson!

68. Most of these kids had
never seen soap before

69. Show us those clean hands!

70. And we just couldn’t leave without leaving some gifts

73. First time ever in a car

74. Every house needs a roof

77. Another phase completed!

78. Followed by installing a proper zinc roof

79. Also needed are windows and a staircase

82. Fixing concrete, exactly the same
way as in India and Indonesia.

84. The final phase,
putting the sherba board walls in place

87. We did not only almost ran out
of time, but also almost out of
screws…
just like we when fixing the
floor when we almost ran out
of nails.
And the nearest lumberyard is
a 1,5 hours drive from here.

88. A proud team that can’t wait to
come back tomorrow to finish the house

89. And finishing means painting and fixing the door!

91. The job isn’t finished if you haven’t cleaned!
Where can we leave our signature?

92. Let’s party!

93. The ceremony ended with time for (emotional) reflection.

94. Followed by a great party with singing,
dancing and ‘baby powder throwing’.

96. We did it!

99. Memories that will
last a lifetime!