Thank you! Akun!

ROCKIN4TABITHA WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND A HUGE THANK YOU TO:

All of our supporters who attended R4T or donated from afar.

Tony Sotille and Modern Niagara Group for their very generous $15,000.00 donation.

Stan and Andree, who always do a fantastic job on any needed graphic design.

Alex Calci for providing our new banner.

Our anonymous corporate donor from NYC who wrote a cheque for $5,000.00.

Johnny Vegas and his All-Star Band for a great evening of music.

Rob: for making us all smile with his continual amazement of Cambodia, his persistence to get the job done right and for “going way beyond his comfort zone.”

Trudy: for her ambidextrous hands on the ladder hammering left or right handed made no difference to her.

Mary Ann: for adding Cambodia to her list of volunteer work and her willingness to do whatever job we asked her to do and get it done.

Elizabeth: for her quiet strength and selflessness in giving to these villagers when she had just lost so much herself

Delayne: for taking the time from her community commitment in Bang Lung Cambodia, joining us on the build and always saying “just tell me what to do and I’ll do it”.

Glenn: for being “Glenn the Goat” and climbing that ladder faster and more often than any goat could (if goats could climb ladders). Glenn is a hammering, climbing machine.

Akun, (thank you), Bob, Wendy & Paula

R4T founders, Bob Carver & Wendy Cunning (Tbeang Meanchey, Preah Vihear province, Cambodia)

The Great Ban Lung Cow Massacre

Traveling in Southeast Asia is always interesting. Many years ago Wendy and I made a pact never to travel by road in any form of transport after dark. This leaves overnight trains, if there is train service as the only form of transport where you are not significantly increasing your chances of a fire,y demise. The road death tolls here are astounding. Several years ago we were shocked to see that 600 plus had been killed on the highways  and bi-ways of Thailand over a five or six day holiday.
After dark almost everyone driving is loaded.

While daytime is slightly safer, a few observations from this year’s transport to and from our build may prove instructive.
Our drive north to Preah Vihear town was up the two lane (one in either direction some of the time). Cars, trucks, buses, motos, hybrid three wheelers, all size and manner of trucks, as well as the occasional group of cows were encountered. Regular four lanes in two were noted, and while there were some tight squeaks, we only witnessed one incident where a moot driver had apparently run into the back of an overloaded minivan (here, if your vehicle is not severely overloaded you aren’t really trying). While not severe, the moto driver was injured, no one around seemed overly concerned.

Our drive once we passed Kompang Chom was pleasant as the traffic volume dropped by ninety percent. There ain’t a lot of reasons to go to Preah Vihear town!

Drives to and from our build were uneventful, but on our drive to see the famous temple on the escarpment separating Cambodia and Thailand several traffic related items are worth noting. A mid nineties grey Toyota Camry coming towards us on a thankfully empty highway began veering towards our SUV. It was going quite slowly and the driver corrected back to his side of the road decently enough.

He looked about ten!

Then on the drive back we came upon a water delivery truck that had gone off the road and demolished the passenger side of the cab. The driver had eaten the steering wheel, and was lying on the side of the road unattended as the more important work of unloading the five gallon jugs of water took place.

The kicker was on our drive to Banlung, where we encountered another large truck that had just eliminated four cows in one fell swoop. Scattered on either side of the road, the three cows and one calf were probably partly converted to protein, but our drivers answer to the question “will the driver of the truck have to pay the owner of the cows” sums of how things tend to work over here. His reply?

“If the owner has power, then the driver has to pay, no power…….”

He finished with a shrug of his shoulders.

We aren’t in Kansas anymore Toto….

I love Cambodia

This is Wendy and my 9th trip to cambodia and 16th to the region. We have been here a few days, and are over our jet lag. Our first time in PP was in 2007. It sure has changed! In those 8 short years the city has grown a lot and the addition of a ton of new hotels and a good variety of western themed restaurants sees a lot more honkies visiting.

Our favorite elephant that used to walk along sisowath quay to and from his work day in front of the royal palace has retired, and reportedly is enjoying a happy rural existence.

those of you who know us have heard us say “if Janne was American, everyone would know who she is.”Her work here has been incredible, delivering aid in a way that is not only respectful and dignified, but also in an incredibly high yield. Example: that most important of first steps for our families is water. Janne gets those wells in the ground efficiently, often at TEN PERCENTAGE of the posted cost of other organizations.  This is  why we keep coming back. Our small contribution is managed scrupulously. Tabitha should be a case study on how to do development.

Nokor Tep, the women’s hospital is well underway. Maybe if some celebrity comes up with a new version of the ice bucket challenge we could see the infrastructure completed within 18 months, again at a fraction of the cost in the west, so tell ‘Unca Scrooge’ or ‘daddy Warbucks” and let’s help this project. It will make a real impact on the lives of Cambodians who currently have little choice or chance of proper medical care.

driving noth to Preah Vihear town tomorrow. We will see how the roads have fared since our last drive up there.

Pre-flight ramblings

Well, faithful readers, here we are less than 2 weeks away from departure for our second home of Southeast Asia, and the 9^th Rockin4Tabitha house building trip.

Last year, thanks to regular builder Paula Piilonen, our unbroken yearly build streak continued. As you remember a soft housing market resulted in us juggling between two properties, and there was just too many things to look after to be away. That has all been sorted out and Wendy and I are happily ensconced on 1.5 acres of tranquility near Perth, Ontario.

Paula rode to the rescue and led last years team back to Preah Vihear in northern Cambodia, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite areas, as the transport, while long, is on a good road, and Preah Vihear (Tbeang Meanchey) has a bit of a sleepy frontier town feel to it.

Going back to the same area again makes for three years in a row, another first, as we tend to move around the country quite a bit. As Janne has named Preah Vihear a ‘Canadian Province’, we plan to continue our efforts there.

When I think back over all of our builds what really hits home is what we have managed to accomplish with the help of our supporters over the years. What began as a ‘trial balloon’ has turned into quite an important part of our lives.

In 2007, we raised around $7000 and finished 4 houses.

But we were also ‘hooked’.

Counting this year’s fundraising we, and our supporters  have raised in the neighborhood of $237,000, not a bad neighborhood. More important than the $$ raised are the lives changed. How many? Five hundred or so have now live in the standard four by five meter house. The difference that single room dwelling makes is significant. We have also contributed towards the construction of three schools benefiting hundreds of children, funded hundreds of wells, benefiting at least a thousand people.

Our success is a reflection of the support we have received from compassionate individuals and businesses who like what they see when they look at what we have done, a small part of what the Tabitha foundation has accomplished since it was founded by Janne Ritskes in the early 1990’s.

Wendy and I are especially excited to be back in the saddle for the 2015 build, and next year we will have met our ‘secret goal’, one we kept to ourselves.

“Let’s see if we can do this for ten years and raise a quarter of a million bucks.”

Thanks to you, we are almost there.