Hygiene and Houses

Time has seriously flown by.  I can't believe I've been in Cambodia two and a half weeks.  Also I use that as my excuse for not posting sooner.  There's been so much that has happened.  We did a Days for Girls outreach and have planned three more outreach activities before our week retreat in Thailand.  The big things we've done recently are building a house with Heartprint and doing a hygiene perception survey. (Also I this post might be a little bit of a picture overload, if that's possible, but I just couldn't decide which ones to share).

The house we helped to build was for Da Liam, who has since passed away. I'm not even sure he got to sleep in the house which was sad, but I hope it made his passing easier to know that people cared for him and that his sister will be able to have a good shelter over her head.  Liam had been sick and in pain for a long time.  Since the Khmer Rouge in fact so it's been 40 years.  He had never seen a doctor because of fear.  I don't know for sure, but I would guess his experience of seeing the doctors during the Khmer Rouge played a role in his fear.  That's just another example of how much the Khmer Rouge has affected the people here.

The house with the walls and floor removed. This is the best before picture I got.
The bricklayers hard at work.
Jessica made friends with the children and they brought her a bouquet!
Inside the finished house
Here's the finished house with the ramp for Liam's wheelchair.
A friendly calf that came to visit everyday.
One of the cute children that we got to meet.
The other project we've been working on is the surveys.  They are mainly focused on seeing the practices and beliefs of the people here in regards to things like hand washing, bathing, garbage clean up, and caring for infants.  Initially we hoped people would be able to read and fill out the survey themselves, but probably around half of Cambodians can't read so we instead have translators that read the questions to the people and record their answers.  At the end we give them a bar of soap, donated from Eco-Soap, as a little compensation for their time.  The people here are so kind and willing to give of their time even if they may not see the direct results from the survey.  It is only the first step on a journey to make changes among the people here.

Pheap and I doing surveys.

One of the few Cambodians that is able to read and fill out her own survey.

More surveys with Pheap!

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