A random government hotshot recently stopped by our place and paused our construction project until further notice, so now we are fighting bureaucracy instead of mountain weather.
💸 Life Savings On The Line 😞
A recent visit by a government bigwig put an end to our construction plans because apparently there is a law that prevents us from building a home taller than 5 meters within 20 meters of the highway. We weren't sure if the visit was a shakedown because our house is the furthest from the road in our village, and just down the road from us is a 4 story resort being built about 3 meters from the road, and many more construction projects are underway closer to the road that this same bigwig would've seen on his roadtrip.
We assumed the guy was trying to fleece us, so we did our research on all the construction projects nearby only to discover they were funded by VIPs, the governor's son, and loyal party members. When we called the guy to ask why this law doesn't seemingly apply to anyone else other than us, he responded that others had done wrong in the past, but it doesn't give us precedent to break the law that 50% of the other highway homeowners near us have. He asked use to relocate the house 20 meters in, which ironically enough would mean our house needs to learn how to swim in the river.
🧑⚖️ The Law Applies To Some ⚖️
To be honest I haven't been posting because the whole situation made me sick, basically watching my whole entire life's savings slip into peril just because one guy probably heard there was a foreigner living on this land and it caused him to target us yet-to-be-known reasons. I was quite upset that between two hired construction foremen and my Cambodian wife, nobody bothered to visit the government before we began building our house was concerned about that this law would affect us.
It probably didn't make my brothers-in-law construction crew happy, but I had to halt construction and send them back home until we can sort things out with the government and/or hire them to come back and use the last bit of our life savings to tear down our partially finished house. The irony is not lost on me, 40 years on planet Earth only to see all my life's efforts be condensed to a pile of sand, rebar, and cement bags. Had it become a house we could live in, it would've seemed a modest prize for half a lifetime's efforts, but they have may have been too much to ask in a country where I already can't own land in my name, become a citizen, legally be a family, or now even obtain anything more than a short-term tourist visa.
A Surprise Distraction Arrives 📦
On the upside, ChairWoman Meow has learned that she can simply drink water from the bathroom bucket, no need for her water bowl anymore. She also put in some good efforts to make me forget about the government problems, giving me lots of kitty cuddles and funny moments to distract me from a harsh reality. In the midst of all this we received a package from the USA that contained Srey-Yuu's tech upgrades and many board games and stuffed animals for Monkey-B, so stay tuned for that........
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Well, my husband and I are selling our house (that we never lived in) because we can no longer afford it with huge commitments left and right, and almost 0 funds in the bank to survive any kind of emergencies. I'm sorry this is happening to you and your family and I think the shitty government guy just wants you to pay him some "under table" money (bribe).
I am sorry to hear about that, I assume you weren't living in your house because it is too far from work, school for the kids, etc. Are you renting these days? I hope things improve for you, the economy seems to be going down here, so corruption is getting more expensive.
We can't even get the guys to commit to a meeting, seems they would rather not bother with us because we aren't of a high enough status to afford what they would expect to give us "special permission" to do what everyone else in the village already did.
I'm sorry shit gotta go this way. If you learn you've fought half of your life to earn nothing, try owing the bank the other half of my life(another 36 years to go). I'm still paying back the bank a thousand "dollar" a month for the condo I didn't live in 😞 hope my unfortunate situation can comfort you a little
Geez, that's the pits. Luckily or unluckily I have never gone in debt to a bank or university, surely things like that would've changed the trajectory of my life. I think had I done that, I'd probably be married to a Shirley or Lisa and still living in my little farm town in the USA. I think more than comfort, your situation makes feel stress and anxiety on your behalf 😞😭
I hope the development you build will be fast after my friend, and I pray that there will be a way to face the government, friend. Cats also get shocked when there are restrictions, I hope you are all well there.
I hope things work out, but I guess in a worst case scenario I will have to send my kitty to protest the government decision 🤣🤣
Your house is near at the river my friend, same as our house here. I think it is really hard for the foriegn people to lived in the place my friend.
For me it is very easy to live here because it reminds me more of home than the rest of Cambodia. But as a foreigner it's difficult to live anywhere here because we can't get citizenship, vote, marry, own land, or do just about anything a resident can do, even if we live a lifetime here and learn the language, citizenship is still not an option.
That is to sad my Friend.
Even with all these difficulties, there are some freedoms I enjoy here that I don't in the USA.
:<(
**** bureaucracy and hypocrisy
Hope things works out, over time ( as they usually do )
For now on hold, and the only government guy that could approve our plans is never in his office, making a meeting impossible. Even though it seems 1/3 of the country works for the government, things are still not very accessible.
It sucks but things like this happen in Portugal too.
I trust that it will work out though, over time.
It's always rough when you can't control it though.
Keep breathing ;<)
🙏🙏🙏
Yay! 🤗
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For now it's an indefinite pause, and the whole construction site, half-finished, is an eyesore that ruins potential mini resort plans. As much as I hate to, if we can't get the the provincial authorities to at least show up to work and meet us face-to-face, we'll just have to tear it down and create a new business for around half the funds we had before we started this whole thing.