Day 6 - Cold in Cambodia

We packed off early this morning for our last building day at Gunty's Island. It had been raining all night and had not stopped as the two vans struggled to stay on the slippery mud roads. Unfortunately one of the vans got bogged up to the chassis in a particularly muddy patch. It looked like we were going to have to dig it out by hand in the  rain as trying to pull it out with the other van had not worked. Rob Hartley remembered seeing a bobcat down the road and organised for it to pull us out saving a lot off digging.  Little did we know that this was only the beginning of the dramas cause by the rain. 

Bus stuck in the mud

When we arrived at the building site it was still bucketing down and an indefinite stop work meeting was called as it was too hard and dangerous to work on the house. It is disappointing that we weren't able to finish the house ourselves but it was organised for the local builders to finish the job for us when the weather permits.  

The house so far

Family we are building for

Also due to the rain, cooking dinner for the families was going to be an impossibility as there was no firewood for the bonfire. In the end we decided to pool all the food together to make a big lunch to hand out to the families. The girls all washed, chopped and boiled various vegetables, noodles and rice with the help of Gunty's wife Dep (the boys were busy having an extended morning tea break). We were using very traditional methods of cooking which basically consisted of a big wok over a coal fire in an outside kitchen. Using what was available we managed to create a large stir-fry with noodles and a curry with rice. The next step was to transfer the food to the families. This was quite a task as it involved transporting big saucepans of food along a muddy track to the houses. There was many a slip but the food and everyone made it without a fall. It was great handing out the food to the families who regularly struggle to provide dinner. We also handed out shirts, lollies and stickers which put a big smile on everyone's face. 

Impromptu Cambodian Cooking class

Walking the food out to the locals

Not sure if that is a grimace or a smile.  Either way all the food was taken. 

The last disappointment was that we were not able to be able to say overnight at the village. We did however make it off the island without getting stuck in the mud.