Khmer Builders

Khmer Builders: Part I – The Morning


So here we are, Monday the 4th of October. I roll into the office at 07:00 as normal, swing round to park my bike only to be confronted by a huge mountain of sand – 9 or 10 foot high, odd I thought, that is not normally there, so I ride round the next corner to be greeted by an equally large pile of bricks. All very odd, I think. Maybe they are branching out from fish into build supplies – after 8 months, I am being surprised by less and less. Plus it is early on a Monday morning, I have not had a coffee [or any rice] yet so I am probably not firing on all brain cells yet…After parking my bike I stroll over to the office, fishing the keys out of my pocket and thinking about the many things I had to do this week.As I reached the secret side door into my office I noticed that something was wrong, but did not immediately register what it was.Ah yes, now I could see.The entire office is a building site.Internal walls were missing, so were the tiles of the floor.All of the desks had been piled into one corner, in an opposite corner 3 square feet of new tiles had been laid.Rubble and dust were everywhere, staff standing around looking blank, workmen sleeping in the corner.As I was standing there feeling, and probably looking, slightly baffled, the office vice-chief wandered in, his eyes go wide as he looks around, turning to me with and with his mastery of the English language, says ‘oh, mess’And I thought that I had a knack for understatement…He has a hurried, and what seems slightly heated, exchange with one of the builders [who have now woken up] it seems that they will be here for about, maybe, around, half a month.So as more staff start to drift in we manage to commandeer a few desks in the adjoining office, although none of those are connected to the office network or the internet…About half the staff just shrugs and says that they will ‘work at home’ which is a Khmer euphemism for ‘ we are going to have an extra couple of week’s holiday now’The office chief is out of the Country this week, attending some seminar or another, and next week is a bank holiday. Well, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are Bank holidays, which translates as – nobody will be in the office all week.Every time that I think that I understand Cambodia, that there will be no more surprises.


Khmer Builders: Part II – The Afternoon


So having spent the morning fighting over desks and climbing over piles of desks and rubble and sleeping builders to get from one side of the building to the other, I award myself a long lunch break and head off to a restaurant for some quality peace and quiet.

Wonderful.

Upon my return to the office I actually manage to do an hour’s work, then the rain starts, pounding down on the tin roof of the extended part of the building that we are now in, deafening as I am sure that many of you are aware of.

After an hour of this dull semi rhythmic pounding, and the start of some throbbing behind the eyes, there is a god almighty crash, followed by much shrieking and wailing in K’mai.

The next thing that I am aware of is being very, very, wet and slightly confused – oops no, make that dazed.

The roof had fallen in.

Several hundred gallons of built up water that had leaked into the false ceiling had proved too much for it. Those of us crammed, squatting, into this office were drenched and covered in plaster, rubble, and bits of polystyrene roofing tiles.

There was about 2 inches of water on the floor and more was pouring in.

Dashing around like a lunatic I started unplugging the dozens of extension cables and adapters that were strewn across, after a moment my colleagues finally realised why I was doing it and joined in.

After I had made sure that none of us were about to be electrocuted, I looked around at my Khmer colleagues who were all now giggling and laughing.

Cultural differences not withstanding, sometimes I do think that they are all CRAZY