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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