Making a difference

I have recently returned from a 19 day adventure in Southeast Asia. We visited Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand. The inspiration for this trip started with an invitation to participate in a house building project operated in Cambodia by the Tabitha Foundation, a not for profit Canadian charity whose focus is on helping the Cambodian people move forward after suffering under the murderous regime of Pol Pot where over 2,000,00 Cambodian people were killed.
Our project was in a small settlement about 1 1/2 hours from Phnom Penh. There were 12 people in our group and we had a commitment to build 12 "houses". In reality they are one room on stilts with a wooden plank floor, green tin walls and a tin roof. The idea is shelter and getting up off the ground in monsoon season. We completed 7 houses the first day and the rest on day 2. At the end of each work day there was a presentation by a Tabitha representative to each family who would move in that evening. As we worked throughout the hot, humid day (42 degrees!!) the community was gathered under a shady tree watching the action.
I don't know if we would have chosen this part of the world, or Cambodia in particular, as a vacation destination if not for Tabitha, but seeing first hand what benefits come when people have a safe place to live and clean water to drink and use for growing food was an experience that I am very thankful to have had.