Though the concrete work on the water gate is completed, there are still a few construction issues remaining for us to take care of over the next few months. Chai began work on the excavation of the downstream canal yesterday and instead of hiring an expensive excavator that would probably sink in the ground once or twice a day, the work will be carried through by local laborers from the community of Balangk. Chai has hired twenty laborers and one foreman to dig the new pathway that will allow the downstream flow to merge with its original stream, O Ta Bet. Hiring manual labor allows us to help employ locals in the villages we work with, providing work opportunities that are hard to come by.
The first of many Human Translation t-shirts have also been delivered. We are sending most back to the US for our fundraising volunteers, but many of the residents of Balangk who have worked closely with us for the past few years deserve them just as much. Our first recipient was of course Met Sin, the hardworking and talented farmer who lives closest to the reservoir. Below is a picture of Met Sin with the HT shirt posing with Ceda.
We held our second big grassing party on Thursday, June 19th, to try and complete the embankment grassing for the reservoir. We had around 140 villagers participate along with 70 monks from the Wat Trach pagoda to complete another 20% of the embankment, which means we only have another 15% left. The day would not have been possible without the help of volunteer cooks from Prom Kod village, who cooked all of us a delicious meal, and various other villagers who helped set up the tents, collect firewood, wash dishes, donate ox-carts and refill the water supply. Without the support of the community we wouldn’t be able to pull off these events and therefore appreciate the time and effort that everyone contributes to the project. The monks from Wat Trach also deserve applause as their strength and continued support of the project sets a wonderful example for the community of Balangk to follow. Although we did not finish all the grassing, we still view the day as a huge success because as frustrating as it is working with uncooperative villages, it is more than worth the stress when you see other community members pull together to accomplish the goal at hand.
Ceda, Tobias, Chai, Bac Kron and Met Sin inspecting the newly painted control bars
Sunday May 18th, 2008 [Click the photo above for Gallery Shots]
This is a picture taken from last Sunday’s Grassing Kickoff. In order to involve the community on a large scale we decided to put on an event that would allow the villagers to get together for a day of fun and grassing. Along with our partner NGO, Human Resources and Natural Development (HRND), we invited the monks from the local pagoda, Wat Trach, to bless the reservoir and lead the community in the grassing work. It was a frenetic day as 350-400 villagers and monks showed up to help cook, set-up and most importantly, grass the 13, 200 square meter embankment. Although we were only able to grass 50% of the whole embankment, the event was a success as everyone had a great time grassing to the music blaring out of the speakers and slipping on the wet grass after the downpours of the day.
Our focus now is to keep the enthusiasm going among the village chiefs to mobilize their villages in order to finish grassing the rest of the embankment before the monsoon hits. We are depending on the continued participation of the community to complete this part of the reservoir reconstruction project as we are on a critical time schedule. But mobilizing a community of ten villages is a difficult task. It has and will take longer than we thought, but it will be done.
