The Adventures of Kevin, Lori & Caleb: Tabitha Cambodia

Janne Riske, a Canadian and now Cambodian citizen, started the Tabitha organization to help the poorest of the poor in Cambodia. Tabitha Cambodia trains and hires women who produce amazing bedding, bags, ornaments and numerous other items made from Cambodian silk. These products are all available in the Tabitha shop in Phnom Penh. Tabitha also organizes house builds, where volunteers can raise money and offer their time to build houses in a local community in need. Thanks to Erin and Cam, I heard about their housebuild in Cambodia and they kindly invited me to join. I had always wanted to do something like this and getting to do it with friends seemed like the perfect opportunity. Kevin happily took over as Mr. Mom for a couple days this week and I stayed on in Cambodia.

After an early breakfast at the Kirirom Hillside Resort, we got into the vans and headed further southwest on Highway 4 in the direction of Sinoukville to the area of Koh Kong. We pulled off the highway and entered a small village where we were welcomed by about 50 villagers as we got out of the van. I am sure that these people had been awaiting our arrival since sunrise. On the first day we built 10 houses - they are simple structures on stilts. The floors are wooden and the walls made of corrugated tin. Our job was to nail in the floorboards and the tin walls. Although a little sore from our first day of house building, we completed the final six houses before lunch on the second day. There was a short, but emotional, ceremony where we each presented one of the families with their new home and new quilt. It was an incredible experience and this blog post really does not do it justice. I was so impressed with the Tabitha organization. I am looking forward to another housebuild in the near future. If anyone else is interested, check out the Tabitha website for more information.