Under Construction

There is fervant construction being undertaken everywhere in Cambodia. From flash exclusive 42 storey apartment complexes with their own shops and schools, to the humble townhouse style, like the one we live in. Townhouse builders move from job to job, their family coming with them. They often take up residence on the building site, put up a makeshift toilet and cook outside. As the building takes shape they move into the lower floor while they complete the construction. Their children play merrily in the grounds during the day. At times, if they do not have another building project lined up after their current one, builders will slow down their work, so they still have somewhere to live. Scaffolding is made of timber poles, and pulleys are used to draw buckets up and down the floors. As you can imagine there are lots of things to play with at a construction site, the sand pit being a favourite. Yes I can hear you alarm at the safety, or lack there of. The workers do not know any different, except that, should they have to move their family elsewhere, they would become even more impoversished than they are, and the children even less supervised. The probability of an injury at the worksite pales into comparison with their daily struggles, they are not stupid about it, just helpless.