With Our Own Two Hands...

Hello World! We are all doing just fine here in Cambodia. It has been a crazy week. We left Vietnam in style, cycling 30 km through the Mekong Delta and stuffing ourselves with coconut candies. After crossing the border into Cambodia we headed to Takeo district to stay with the lovely and amazing Meas family. We learned a lot about Khmer history and spent 3 days building a house and toilet for 2 local families. We worked from the ground-up, literally breaking down a crumbling home to construct a new one in its place and building a toilet for a huge family who had never had one before. We are now all skilled with a machette and can carve bamboo with the best of them. Being able to get down and dirty (if you will) in an area that needs so much help really gave us some perspective on what life is like for local people here. The work was hot, hard and beautiful. I was so impressed with everyones ability to jump right in and really take an interest in what we were doing.

After arriving in Phnom Penh we had some free time to explore the city. We visited Toul Sleng and The Killing Fields, both intense and interesting sites where we learned about the Khmer Rouge's atrocities and more importantly about what people are doing to rebuild their lives. Today we visited KDFO (The Khmer Developement of Freedom Organization) an orphanage dedicated to improving the lives of kids here in the city. We were able to take 17 kids to play at the local water park. These kids are so beautiful and after 3 hours of playing, chasing and laughing with them we were all smiles and a bit sleepy as well.

Now were are headed into the north to visit Angkor Wat and the Tonle Sap nature preserve. That's all for now...Southeast Asia over and out!
-Hillary

You can't walk two steps down the street in southeast asia without making that universal cooing sound everyone makes at a baby. There are babies everywhere and they are all 100% cuter than american babies. Most of us are having trouble not attempting to take one home.
-Liz

The orphans in Phnom Penh were awesome. The excitement of driving in tuks-tuks to the water park was great, you could really tell that it was a special event and i got to hang out with a great kid for 3 hours as I chased him up and down the slides.
-Matt

If there is one thing that I will not miss when I get home - it will be the constant honks and attacks from motor bikes which flood the streets of Vietnam. Tourists and locals dodging both directions just to make their way across the street in any of the cities that we visited, was an experience which is burned into my memory. Other than that I cant really make a complaint about Vietnam - Hanoi was my introduction to the prevalence of themed streets, which was not only hilarious but proved to make shopping choices more difficult because you have to chose between 20 stores, which all stock the exact same thing. Hoi An was certainly my favorite town - mainly because it gave me opportunities to have gorgeous dresses made, and also have time to enjoy the land by bike, and the sun on a beach.
-Jane

Although the places we have seen are amazing and the activities we have participated in are exciting-what I have enjoyed most about this trip are the people. In spite of poverty, loss, and violence, these people have remained resilient and smiling. I communicate best to the locals through smiles, nods and hand motions-and it never ceases to amaze me at how sincere their responses are. White teeth, crooked teeth, chipped teeth or lacking teeth, everyone smiles all the same.
-Carolyn

Now that we have arrived in Cambodia, we have reached a whole new level of humidity. The temperature during the day is the worst kind of heat, sticky, sweat-all-day, never-cool-down heat. The only way to relieve ourselves is to duck into the closest cafe for an ice-cold fruit shake.
-Sara

As we walked into the community where we would be building a bamboo house over just two days, we were immediately swarmed by thirty smiling kids who, throughout the day, were constantly putting up peace signs and asking for their picture to be taken. In no time, our group immediately started demolishing what was left of the old structure, at which point I was instructed by a frail old woman on the proper way to utilize a machete. While we were all covered in dirt, cuts, and blisters from wacking bamboo for hours, and dripping copious amounts of sweat, the gracious support from several locals, and the thankfulness that was expressed in the faces of the audience was enough to keep us working for hours. It was incredible to be a part of something that was so life-changing for not only a family, but also myself. -Erika
The volunteering experience was very insightful and exhilarating. I really enjoyed the bike ride thru the Mekong Delta. I think Phnom Penh is one of my favorite cities so far. It is very exciting and mysterious.
-Priya

The 2 days that we spent building the house and toilets were so incredible. It felt really good to know that just with a little hard work, you can make the difference in so many lives. My experience in phnom penh is definitely something I will never forget.
-Jordan