Done Right

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

Another year has passed, and a new one is about to begin. If you ask me, though, the concept of New Year really is arbitrary, and using the Gregorian calendar as a symbol for change and new things to come is just a mind game. We as human beings constitute the change, if any, and that is something we all have the power to do any day of the year. Remember that on a dark and rainy days, long after New Year’s resolutions are broken or forgotten.

Times they are a-changing, though, new year or not. We’ve been in Cambodia for about two months, and so far it has been a fascinating journey of the mind, body and soul.

Life here is so relaxed I sometimes get the feeling we’re not getting anywhere at all. Then as I sit down to summarize our experiences, there is so much to tell I don’t know where to begin. Isn’t that odd?

Cambodia being one of the most corrupt countries in the world, we were prepared for a lot of bureaucracy, long negotiations, bribes and a generally difficult business climate. As it turns out, it’s far easier than in Sweden. Pay your business license and flat tax every month, stay below the radar, and the government leaves you alone. Suits us perfectly!

Finding qualified labor has turned out to be a challenge, for a number of reasons. Most of the English speaking Cambodians work in the tourism sector, and their lifestyle has been heavily influenced by western backpackers. Drinking, partying and slacking is often more important than showing up at work.

We’ve also found that Cambodians in general don’t care and plan for the future in the way we are accustomed to. Saving money for difficult times is almost unheard of. The work-reward model that western society is built upon isn’t understood here, instead people regard income and fortune as gifts from Buddha. This is fascinating as it calls for vastly different incentive models, a subject I will get back to later.

Our current employment strategy is to take on young individuals from small villages. These are poor people who we believe will benefit greatly from education, experience and income that we can provide. The language and cultural barriers are overcome by teaching English, with help from interpreters and some creative use of body language!

Currently, we have two full time employees from a nearby village, and an interpreter working part-time. We plan to employ 2-3 more people within the next few months, as we get started on production.

Speaking of production – we are looking forward to get started on what we actually came here to do – making some kick-ass products for you guys! This will be our focus for the upcoming weeks.

Anyways, arbitrary or not:

From all of us to all of you, Happy New Year!

Toby, Rani, Ana, Mom and Sammy

This just in: I just had the hands-down best tom yam soup of my LIFE! What would we do without our excellent chef?

Now we’re just taking it easy, enjoying another night on the beach with a glass of chilled white wine. Tomorrow, burger barbecue and preparations for another week of challenges!

Oh, by the way: we’re now officially hiring! If you want to help us make a difference, and have experience in product design, textile design, handicraft, construction or engineering, let us know! Perks include living on the beach, amazing food every day, all in a relaxed, creative environment. Work – Done Right.

-T

We’ve spent the last eight days working on our guesthouse, which has taken up a lot of our time. Our origional plan was to get the place and live there, but over time wh felt that – hey, if we’re here and people want to give us money, who are we to stop them?

This lead to the renting of two of our three rooms, and the hireing of our second employee – Mom. Mom is a very common Khmer name, but Mom is a rather extraordinary person! She helps us to fix and clean the rooms up, and we are no longer alowed into the kitchen

A problem with running the guesthouse is that it has taken our time of our origional project, but that’s over now, and I have set out to recover parts and materials for production – for the two lines of products that we are going to pursue to begin with.

Other than that there is not much more to report on now, we have sunny weather an 31 degrees in the shade.

So, when are you coming for a visit? We k ow you want to – want to visit paradise done right

-S

Sammy:
The last week has been spent on modifying our humble abode, which has given me the perfect opportunity to test a few of the ideas that i have been researching for the last year.

The first thing I started was a can wall, which is made up of cans and a mix of sand and cement. The principle behind this is that when the cement settles, it creates arches, which in turn holds up the weight of the above cement.

Can walls have a number of advantages compared to a regular brick wall. the first one being that regular bricks cost money – cans cost nothing. If we can teach the locals how do do this it will mean an increased level of living. They are also very good isolators, seeing as the cans are full of air, who are in turn covered with cement and plaster, which also means that sound travels badly through the wall.

During the making of the wall many o khmer came by and looked, all thinking i was a crazy barang, and i tried to explain it to them, and they agreed that it might be a good idea.

The second thing we’ve been building is a solar oven. The basics of the oven are simple, but a metal box in bricks and cement (isolators) paint the whole thing black and smack a big piece of glass on it. what happens is that the rays from the sun hit go through the glass, hitting the black metal, which in turns gets warm, and warms up the air around it, this is why we’re trying to get it compact and airtight. The oven should reach temperatures on between 100 and 200 degrees Celsius.

You can use the solar oven for a number of things, you can bake bread and cook food, and with a small modification you can use it as a solar distiller, this is a good way to get foolproof safe drinking water, but you could also technically use it to distill alcohol, should you which to. (You can make lesser alcohol from bamboo and yeast, which you then distill, which means you could make your own fuel to power generators or vehicles).

You could also combine the solar oven with a toilet, crazy huh? well, what you basically do is make a separate solar oven, build a toilet above it, and the produce drops down in the oven, which is then heated up, becoming a sterile, odorless, energy rich powder, perfect food for plants.

The above are only tests of what we intend to build, strongly inspired by the Earthship concept of living – to live with the earth, not on or against it. Our hope is to be able to build schools and factories in this manner, and teach the locals how to do the same.

- S

We’re slowly starting to settle in here on Otres beach. Getting established has taken up more time and energy than we thought, and has kept us from blogging these past few days. Although it’s paradise in many ways, there is much to get used to. Hygiene, especially related to food, is an issue. We’re keeping fresh food on ice to keep it from going bad, but it’s a constant battle against the heat. At nighttime the local animal life such as mosquitos, roaches, spiders and what Sammy refers to as “huge scaly monsters” (small geckos) also disturb our peace. Security is also an issue, there have been some break-ins here lately. It’s very dark at night and hard to spot intruders. We’re working on routines to minimize the risks.

In a few days we’re going to Phnom Penh again, among other things we’ll be looking at solar and wind power solutions. We’ve also started construction of a solar oven and hired our first full-time employee.

More info shortly!

- T

Guys, time for celebration! The lease is signed, we are now proud inhabitants of our own ocean-front property on Otres Beach. These are very exciting times for us!

It’s not the biggest or fanciest place around, but we have what we need to get started! Three bungalows with bathroom & shower, a big loft to be used for extra living quarters and production, a kitchen, a bar, plenty of space for creative meetings, workshops and relaxation, furniture and cooking equipment, not to mention 40 sqm of empty land in the back.

We’ve been on site all day making plans in the sun! There is some work to be done before everything’s just the way we want it, here are some pictures of what it looks like at the moment:

Otres isn’t connected to the power grid – which means we have to provide our own electricity. Our neighbors all use diesel generators – not an option for Done Right. With plenty of wind and sun available, conditions are perfect for testing renewable energy sources and strategies for minimizing energy consumption. We are also looking forward to trying other aspects of sustainable living such as solar ovens for cooking and water distillation, passive air conditioning and earthship construction techniques. More details on these plans will follow shortly!

The legal and practical aspects of all this have kept our focus away from the blog, we’ll make it up to you guys, promise! Some other progress we have made recently include:

• Research and initial contacts with local schools and aid organizations to see where and how we can be of most use, as well as basis for recruiting personnel to our business. We have some very promising leads.
• Research on materials and manufacturers to supply our production. Finding good quality materials that are guaranteed to be organic and produced under fair work conditions will be challenging – but we love a challenge!
• Product design and production planning of the first items to be produced by Done Right for sale in Europe.
• And of course, learning more about the Khmer way of doing things – I’m already more relaxed and comfortable doing business here than I ever was in Sweden.

This week most of our “work” time will be spent on practical things such as hiring administrative staff (cooking, cleaning, security etc) and shopping for things needed in our home. We will also move forward on many of the above mentioned plans and ideas.

We’ll be back shortly with a status update!

- T