As I am writing this, I can feel a distinct throbbing on the inside of my right arm. It is not painful, but it is a physical reminder of what I did last Sunday, Valentine’s day. I have written in my previous post my feelings on (with a delicious experience related to) Valentine’s day. This year, like years past, I wasn’t paying much attention to it much, even though it is difficult to ignore it here in Phnom Penh (again, please refer to said previous post). On Friday night, I was supposed to have dinner with V, my closest-thing-to-a-date, but he begged off because of a pressing family matter. When he suggested that we had dinner on Sunday itself, I almost bristled, and said, “Let’s see”, and left it at that. I didn’t tell him that I have an extreme aversion to going out on a date on V-day itself.
In any case, I wouldn’t have been able to go with him since I had already signed up to join a group of friends to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity as construction workers for a day (which, as it turned out, half a day in our case). This particular activity is somehow connected to PiNOYs for Change, a group that was formed with the specific purpose of providing support to Noynoy Aquino, but at that time it was not clear to me.
I woke up at 5.30AM on Sunday to make the 7Am trip to Oudong, which is about 35 kilometers from Phnom Penh. I traveled with D because he brought his 2 year-old daughter with him, commando-style (meaning: no nanny). A third of the contingent were already at the site when we arrived. About half an hour later, the last group arrived. After a quick breakfast and a short safety orientation by the construction manager, we donned the required gear (gloves & hard hat for the brick-layers, plus goggles and face masks for the brick-makers) over the suggested outfits (rubber shoes, trousers, long-sleeved shirts) and we were off to work.
