Since our last post, we have been working on finishing the first part of our guest house, learning a lot about construction and building principles, and I am happy to say that we are now done! Our first customers and neighbors all helped celebrate the opening, and we got a lot of feedback on our weirdo construction like the heineken bottle kitchen and our bombay sapphire bathrooms.
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Tonight, over 400 people died in a accident in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. They where celebrating the yearly water festival, and as hundreds of thousands of people where crossing a bridge, panic broke out.
Here in Sihanoukville, the local elders have started collections, and every one is doing what they can to raise money, from village elder, to bar owner, to can collecting kids, to bracelet sellers, every one sees to it that they help the families of the decided, no Gala on TV required, they simply know how it feels to loose loved ones.
As the country mourns, I drove home after the sun down, and every where, outside every house, every hamlet and every shack, there where candles and incense burning together with offerings to the souls now sadly on their way to their next life.
- Sam
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For the last two weeks we have been up to, well, building simply put, and the progress that we are making on our plot of land is amazing. The main building is up and ready, and we are making rooms on top of it, instead of having a dorm as we originally planned. The rooms we’ve made are 4 double rooms, nice and big, 9 square meters, with a good roof height, and 5 single rooms, that are about 5 square meters, not very large, but we will try to be able to house all kinds of people in our place, from two-year-on-the-road backpackers to two week vacation guests.
About a week ago we also started working on our kitchen, which is made out from wine and beer bottles, that we join with cement. The kitchen will be a large working kitchen with lots of air moving through, and a half see through roof for the light. The bottles that it consist of will be light up at night, stay tuned for pictures of that.
The third project we have going at the time is the bar, which moves in harmonic half circles, and is made of double sets of cans and cement, which makes it very strong, beautiful and made from recycled material, which is the focus when we build things.
This week we are have a visit that we are very excited about. His name is Dave, and he works for the swedish wing of Clowns Without Borders. On his way to Burma he got a bit of visa trouble, and so deiced to give us a visit, and we are setting up shows at different orphanages around Sihanoukville, and started the tour in the local shanty town that is located close to us on Otres, it was a beautiful experience for both us and the members of the village, many of who had never seen a clown before, let alone a didgeridoo playing australian one, dressed in green!
We hope to have the guesthouse up and running in the first of december, then the work on the bungalows will start, alongside our other projects.
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-Sam
On the first of November, we signed a new lease contract, and acquired the land we wanted, no real drama there, simply signing six copy’s of the contract (Three in English and three in Khmer) along with our thumb prints, paying a three month deposit, one months rent and thats that.
We proceeded by breaking down the wall in front of our property, but just slightly as we have decided to keep the wall intact, sit gives a sense of security, and shields our land from outside disturbance. After that we went ahead and hired a head constructor, Mr. Dang, who by chance is also Rini’s father (Rini worked for us last year as well), and set to work, getting materials. The first building we decided, would be a wood superstructure, with a bar and kitchen connected. The initial material cost for the building is roughly 2000 dollars, which isn’t that much money for a building that large (142 square meters), about three truckloads of material in all.
As the materials started to arrive, and we started working the wood, we realized that us, Rini, and Dang would not be enough of a workforce, so we hired another three workers, old underlings of Mr. Dang, and work stared to go more smoothly, we have also hired Rini’s sister, Sok, to help us with cooking and cleaning, as our main chef Mom currently has other employment, and will only be able to work for us after three, and on weekends, we expect though that this will change in about a month or two.
The tools of the trade here are simple, small hand axes, hammers and a saw per worker, and your off! no electricity is really required, and our builders are all seasoned veterans, and know exactly where to cut and handle the massive wooden beams and straw roofs, we keep an eager eye on them, and help out as much as we can without being in the way, I have been nailing down floorboards on the top of the building with Rini, for example.
Before the actual raising of the main beams could be done however, Mr. Dang approached me, and simply told me – in a very serious voice – You buy chicken. Now, i thought to myself, what am I supposed to buy a chicken for, and waited till Mom arrived, and she explained – Before you start working on a building, the Gods and spirits must receive a sacrifice (Cambodians are technically buddist) to guarantee prosperity and good luck, in our case the sacrifice was to be an whole boiled chicken, fruit, water, and a couple of bottles of local rice wine. Mom also told me I didn’t have to do it, if i did not believe in such things, but warned me that another build in the area had not, and two workers had died. I also knew that my workers would refuse to continue building, so, off to the market i went. Back with me (in my back pack) was a live chicken and a lot of fruit and incense, that Sok prepared in their home, and everything was then taken to the site for a short ceremony lead by Dang, which ended with the workers leaving the food for about an hour, and then started devouring it, as they pointed out – the food is now blessed.
For our other buildings that we plan in the near future, we deiced to go with the earthship approach, which meant we needed cans and bottles, lots and lots of them. We realized that simply picking them up from the local bars would take to much time and effort, so we did the only responsible thing – We set out a reward for what the locals see as garbage, 100 riels for a bottle we said, and we would buy anything they brought us. Thinking we where insane, just as last time, they showed up in small numbers on the first day, and we received about 200 bottles. Three days later we had 3500. Basically the back plots of the beach is where the locals put their garbage, including bottles, and they set in motion an enormous cleaning campaign to find the hidden gold, which means that A) We get bottles that we can build with, cheaper than bricks. B) the local people get some much needed money. C) The beach and surroundings was cleaned of garbage. I write this on day ten of our project, and I am happy to tell you that the first building is almost complete, the roof is coming up, and things are really looking up, we hope to be open before the end of November, in the following posts, you will follow our road to fulfilling that goal.
- Sam, Nova and Derek
We’ve been quiet for quite a while now, to be exact, since I left Cambodia for Sweden last spring, and we have received a lot of questions on what we’re doing and what is going on with our project.
First off, the team members of Done Right have changed. One of our founders, Toby, has left the team and is soon to be following his dreams in Canada, we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors! We also have three new members in our team, Derek – a bar consultant, Nova, – a bartender, and Regan – DJ. We’ll give you a better introduction on them later on.
So, I arrived on Otres beach to find that our old place had been torn to rubble, the government simply decided that when most expats had left, they would go ahead and remove three fourths of the guesthouses, and start to build a garden, which should be complete in a couple of years. The remaining guesthouses on the sands of Otres loose their right to have accommodation in early november, and will be removed altogether within two years
My trusty staff had saved most of our equipment, and i set up a new base in town, a small 100 US per month, to put our stuff, and a base for future operations. I contacted a number of real estate agents, and started looking for other options, and the options where plentiful. In Sihanoukville, right now, you can get anything from an apartment to a house, a small restaurant in town to a three story hotel on the sands. We decided for none of that though, we managed to find a plot on our beloved Otres beach, but a safe one this time with something called a “Hard land title” which means its owned privately, instead of by the government or the military police like last time around.
The plot is 30 times 40 meters, and is currently covered with trees. The building starts in two weeks, so the next couple of updates will probably be regarding materials sourcing and building techniques, basically how to start building something in Cambodia. this is where we will mould the future for Done Right, as a guesthouse and a creative place to brainstorm business ideas, and making visions become reality, stay tuned!
- Sam
We’ve been here for almost 8 months, and we started planning this venture about 14 months ago, and I will try to give you a summary of what we have actually learned and done, and what is to come.
Planing a life and the start of a company in a country you’ve never been in is a tricky thing, and with the large lack of information flow on the internet regarding everything from housing to medical, we set out fairly shorthanded, and we arrived in Cambodia with a fresh set of ideas, and a little money.
We touristed around for a while, and the most important part of this season started, the learning curve. We went from being fairly clueless to knowing a lot more about this country, this town, these people and their culture than we could ever hope, and this is the largest asset when I plan the foreseeable future.
So, what exactly will the future hold? As the end of the season comes ever so close, the last preparations for closing down are being set in motion, and everything is getting packed up, and shipped to Sweden (even though we actually sent and order for our customers in Japan). Myself, I will fly back to the reality that the world imposes on us, and will spend a few months talking about the vision that we set out with, and try to find one or a couple of new business partners, to re-rethink how this can all be made possible-er.
We managed the guesthouse, we created products and we helped the people and area around us, even though the original plan was to do it the other way round, and one lesson learned is that the guesthouse takes a lot of time and effort, so someone will have to look after it for me when I get back.
So, with love, This will be the last post from my beloved home in Cambodia this season.
- Samuel
With only a week left of our stay on Otres Beach at Done Right’s cozy guest house, we are already making plans to return. It’s very hard to describe this place to anyone who hasn’t been here but we are going to try over the next few lines.
This is certainly no sad place, but there are definitely several small scale and large scale projects that need to be created or contributed to. Creativity and relaxation come unforced for the ‘barangs’ (us Westerners) living here, along with the spontaneous desire to contribute to the community. The Khmer people have this admirable capacity to give you a smile no matter what the situation and this makes you want to give something back.
From our experience of the last two weeks, it seems the worst form of desperation and poverty is not very evident here. However, this is clearly a developing country and what is needed now is improvements. And because of the positive and practical nature of the locals, these improvements seem to need not much more than some initiative to actually happen.
One of the main things we’ve been working with here is the so-called “can-kids”. Srenu, Da, Kumli and Nang are four of them. These kids run along the beach every day with huge rice sacks which are about the same size as them, collecting cans for which they get about 1 US cent per can. If they don’t collect enough cans in a day, they are likely to face consequences from home – exactly what, they don’t talk much about.
Clare from next door started this admirable endeavor with these kids spontaneously and we have been joining her. While us living here on Otres might not be able to bring about enormous change for all the children in Cambodia in a similar situation, we do what we can with the ones who are here. We teach a little english or any other useful skills we can and we try to create a space in which they can be the children they actually are for a few hours a day. Dreamworks animations are a particularly effective way for us to bribe them to learn their ABCs.
So in our small way, we try to do something right; helping around the guesthouse and anywhere we can in the community. it is a comfortable chaos, down to earth and real.
Below is our workforce (OR not, thats kind of the point, Done Right, Red. anm)
- Felicia & Filippa
We are proud to announce that the first three lines of products from our beloved Done Right have come to existents! We have been working with local tailors, that own their own little shops, and with them designed the products using local materials, so to leave a as small carbon footprint as we currently can.
The first product is simply a Wick Cover, a product designed for Salza Fire Gear. Not only do we now have a product quite superior then before, we can produce it at a reasonable cost, and we know the materials are made in the area, and we know that the workers are getting treated well, as we live among them, first hand, because honestly, do you know how made the computer your reading on, the t-shirt your wearing or the chair your in?
The second two products are Skins, or computer bags if you wish, in two different designs, both being quite different from the ones generally sold in stores. The colors and materials have been chosen as prototypes, to see how different textiles can stand wear and tare, and to see how people react to them.
The first one of the two is made in a white outer textile with black flowers, with a blue lining, and closes with a flap, connected to the base by two buttons. on the flap there is a large pocket with a zipper, this is made to hold USB memories, modems, bank devices and so on (I know that I’m sick and tired of those things scratching my macbook).
The second one is made from a black outer textile with red stripes, and is more “hand bag” like, as it moves along from the actual case into a handle, so that its a bit easier to carry, and this model also has the same kind of pocket as on the first white model.
So, what now? Well, Im going to select the best models and textiles, together with my designer friend Ida (she’s also the one planning the shelter project as seen below, if you follow our blog) and soon we will have a line of products, that will be brought back to Sweden, and hopefully sold in a store close to you!
These are big times for us, as all the things we set out to do so many months ago are falling in to place, one by one, we are slowly proving that a life outside the western world can be productive, and not only so, but more productive, with a heightened sense of enjoyment of life. Work Done Right.
-Sam
A long time since the last post, we are working harder than ever and the end of the season is coming faster than we expected, hanging around the beach in a hammock takes more time than you would think.
So, what are we up to more specifically? We are producing a line of products for one of or sister companies – Salza Fire Gear, by employing local women from a makeshift village close by. We are planning and designing the first Done Right product, namely ipod and macbook skins, which also will be produced in Sihanoukville.
So thats fine, but what about helping? Our friend and colleague Ida is starting a project to get power and new roofs for the above mentioned village. We will help her in any way that we can, not only by donating money but also contribute our time and personal effort. It is important for us to follow this project to see that the people in the village gets a better shot at life, and basically won’t drown during the rainy season.
Our crew has changed a little, So the skeleton crew is now based on Anders, Sander, Rani, Mom and I. We’re a small group, but in about two weeks we’ll be joined by two more friends from back home.
Also, we were hit by rather high waters after a tsunami near India, which led to sea levels rising to about two meters higher than normal. Thanks to our lovely staff and friends, we managed to get a good crew together to save our place; digging up and moving about 100 sandbags from a nearby location to our place. Right now the building of a brick wall is in the final stages, hopefully we will be done in a couple of days.
-Sam
We’ve been quiet for little over a month, so I’m sure you guys are wondering what’s going on.
We’ve been preoccupied facing our first big setback since we came to Cambodia; in the beginning of January, we were notified that the Governor of Sihanoukville had decided to demolish a number of buildings on Otres beach, including ours, to make room for a public park. Since then we’ve received information from many different sources, which has been contradictive and to large extent based on hearsay and rumors. One day we are told that everything is ok and nothing will happen, the next day someone tells us we have three weeks until the bulldozers come.
Needless to say, this has affected our ability to move forward with our venture, for practical reasons as well as emotional. As of today, we still don’t know for sure what’s going to happen, though we believe that most likely we will be allowed to stay at least for the duration of this season. Either way, there are other suitable locations available, relocating is not the end of the world.
I arrived in Sweden yesterday to take care of some business, I’ll be staying for three weeks before going back to Cambodia. One of my main priorities will be recruiting a textile designer to help us in prototyping.
Meanwhile, Sammy has began to set up production of Salza Fire Gear equipment, which will be the first products to ship from the Done Right eco-factory.
- T