Tabitha House Building in Cambodia As the 12 of us - representatives from Bishop Druitt College - stepped out from our air-conditioned bus into our Tabitha-assigned construction area, there was an air of excitement about the group. We knew, of course, that we were going to sweat, be challenged with the task of manual labour and probably sustain spatterings of minor injury, but we also knew, thanks to our briefing at the Tabitha Foundation the previous day, that we were ultimately undertaking a task of goodwill. We jumped in, very eager and less cautious, and quickly made fools of ourselves.

As the day progressed, and we received cheerful tuition from both Tabitha helpers and the local villagers we were working for, the houses began to take shape. We hammered in the floors and walls, sweating and smiling, because, as we reiterated firmly to one another, this day was not about us, it was about helping. After a solid ten-ish hours of construction, all of us had perfected the art of nailing two pieces of wood together (the result of a struggle which caused many a hearty chuckle through the helpful locals) and completed five basic houses.

We then played a game of "duck-duck-goose" with some of the local children before completing an official hand over of the houses to the local families. We communicated our mutual thanks, theirs for the houses we gave them, and ours for their putting up with us and our poor construction skills for a day. The experience was eye-opening and nothing was more gratifying than the thanks we received from the families. We all collapsed back into our bus seats, utterly exhausted, but satisfied. not in some grand self-assurance that we had changed the world, but that we had, in our own way, contributed.

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