West Coast’s first and second year players, together with John Worsfold and a number of other staff members, have travelled to Cambodia this week as part of the club’s ongoing induction process for new players.

The boys hope to leave Cambodia at the end of the week having built 20 houses for underprivileged families in a small village near Phnom Penh, and new recruit Jacob Brennan updates us on the group's progress at the end of a long day of construction.

Click here to see some incredible photos from the first day of construction.

This is actually just my third week as a West Coast Eagle so it’s a bit surreal to be over here in Cambodia, approximately one-and-a-half hours outside the capital Phnom Penh.

To give you a bit of a recap as to what’s happened in the last 24 hours, we finished our day yesterday by heading over to an Aussie restaurant and bar which was pretty interesting. Getting a piece of steak and something different other than rice was pretty good and a nice change. After dinner, the owner, Carl, put on the 2006 grand final for the boys to watch, which was enjoyed by all.

We were in bed pretty soon afterwards for an early start the following morning when we headed on an hour-and-a-half drive out to one of the poorest villages in the whole of Cambodia. This tiny village has so far watched us get just over halfway through knocking up 20 houses for these people to live.

The villagers made us feel really welcome upon arrival. Everyone was lined up on this little path for us as we came through. After a couple of introductions, we then just got straight into work really.

I’m pretty sure I’m the most useless one here with a hammer. We have knocked 13 houses up so far, but Nic Naitanui and Andrew Strijk’s group couldn’t really keep up the pace and they’re only halfway through theirs, but that’s okay… we’ll finish them off and help them out.

It’s been a really good experience. There was this 70-year-old man standing there and he was just delighted with what we were doing for him. His old house was near the new one we were building for him and it was just made of bamboo and tree branches with leaves for his roof and now he’s got a shack that brings a heap of joy to his face. That has almost made the trip for me.

We then went on to the middle school house of Awareness Cambodia and had a quick tour through there. It was interesting to see about 25 students and learning about their curriculum in reference to Western Australian culture.

Right now we are at an orphanage called Sunshine House which looks after kids from about four to 14 within the same program. It was a really, really bumpy ride to get here, but we were happy to arrive. We just had a nice tea including chips and rice... different, very different.

I’m currently in a room, don’t know what you’d call it, little bunk rooms from like a holiday house.  Woosha walked in and saw a rat on his bed so... welcome Woosh! Beautiful. Plenty of mosquitoes around so we’re thankful for the mosquito nets on the bottom bunk. We’ve had to build up mini tents for people on the top bunk so you no one gets malaria. That’s the plan.

So we’re off to do some activities now with the young kids before they head off to bed and I’m going to go play on the drums! Should be a good experience because I am horrendous, no musical bones in my body.

Click here to read Tom Swift's account of the first day in Cambodia.