Don't like your job???

So, have you ever complained about your job, like many of us have? Sure, it's a normal part of blowing off steam, right? I've had an excellent reminder recently, here in Cambodia, of how much I should really be thankful for my work that I love, even when it's trying or tiring.


Beside is a picture of the Boeung Kak Lake right behind our house, that is being filled in. Everywhere you see sand, is where there used to be water, houses, and foliage. It's amazing what they have done. The purpose is for development.

Now, right here is the picture of our neighbor's back yard, looking down off our rooftop, where I took the very same picture of the lake. This fairly new owner is also filling in the back portion of his property, that was all entirely swamp water just months ago. Watching this process has been one of the most humbling experiences I've had out here, and continually reminds me to be thankful for my teaching job and my education that has got me there.




It's because of this man.
The gentleman in this picture, if you look closely, is dropping the mud fill onto the property. This man has been doing this job since weeks and weeks before Christmas. He started at the front of the house, with loads of crushed brick and concrete, and has now turned into a clay-like soil.

Because the area to get from the front to back is so small, obviously the owner was not able to manouever any large equipment to the back of the property to dump the loads, so he's hired this one man, to do the entire job with physical labour! We have watched load after load after load, get dropped outside the front gate on the street, and virtually every day, this Khmer man starts work before 5 in the morning. He finishes and leaves at dusk, around 6 pm. Day in and day out, we pull out the car to go to school, he's filling two baskets with soil: We come home from school, he's carrying another load of soil: the two baskets hang off a pole he balances over his shoulder. We go on Christmas vacation--we come back. He's still hauling loads. And weekends? We come and go freely running errands, or going to school or sporting events, hosting birthday parties; He is always there, chopping the fill into the baskets and transporting them to the back of the house on the strength of his back. No "weekend" for this man. Needless to say, he's not got an ounce of fat on him. I figure he's younger than me, but the girls think he's older. He certainly is no youth.

That large pile behind Dean is the size of just one of the loads that this man has single handedly transported to the back of the property. There's been so many of them. It's heavy, it's dirty and it just never seems to end. He finishes one, another gets dumped out. For the owner, it just must be cheaper to make his own land, than to buy it. For the longest time, the worker took no notice of our comings and goings, but lately he's smiled at us, and I've been able to nod and smile back. I just can't get over the fierce difficulty of the back breaking labour, and the mundanity of it all.

Oh, and just one more thing. Do you ever complain about your pay? Not enough? Never enough? Our neighbor has told us that this man needs money, that is why he is working so hard. She found out that he makes 100,000 Riels per load. Divide that by 4000, and you'll figure out he's making $25 US, per load, for days and days of hauling soil.

Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it???