I actually got a good night's sleep in spite of the jet lag. In my experience if your room is dark and quite, you can sleep when you need to. And, it was dark and very quite. We gathered at breakfast at 7 and had local bananas, toast, and eggs. A good start to the day.
Our host Randy gave us a little history of the project and then we piled into two pickup trucks and drove to the site. The top picture shows the site from the bottom. Another The goal of our team
(shown above) is to get the floor poured for the main level, rough in the plumbing for the lower lever, and perhaps get the roof on the the top level.
The first task was to clear the floor of all the vegetation that had grown up during the 5 months since the structure was built.
That growth was accelerated by the rainy season (40 inches of rain in 3 months). So, we went after it with giant hoes, pick axes to loosen rocks when needed, and shovels. It was tough work, but with 13 of us, it went quickly. The end result looked a lot better.
This will be a meeting space when it is completed. The dirt part that we cleared is 7 meters (23 feet) by 25 meters (75 feet). When we leave, this should be concrete.
The next task here on this level was to put down 10 cm (4 inches) of sand. While we were waiting for the sand to be delivered, we moved down to the lower lever
to start digging trenches for the plumbing. In the right of this picture is just a bit of the level from which we cleared vegetation. Beam extend our from the top level for a roof over a lower level which will have bathrooms and showers.
There are lots of dogs running loose in Thailand. They are tame and seem to be unafraid of cars. On one of our trips, there was a dog lying in the road. Our driver honked at him, moved over to miss him, and the dog did not move a muscle. There were a couple of dogs
around us when we were working. One of them caught a little rest on the structure. On of the team saw this dog walking on the beam that was the farthest away from the ground. That dog is braver than I am.
We broke for lunch and had a soup, Pad Thai, and wonderful fresh pineapple. I believe they were being extra cautious with the Americans because it was quite mild. They had some condiments to spice it up a bit. It was quite all delicious. Attached to this restaurant was a little store.
You see them regularly on the roads. It sold cold drinks candy bars, some regular food, a few toiletries, and miscellaneous necessities. I bought 4 candy bars to share for group for 50 baht (about $1.60). Across the street was a hardware building supply store. It was essentially integrated with the family's dwelling quarters. Quite interesting.
After lunch we went back to the site and started moving sand. We used a combination of a wheelbarrow and a bucket brigade
to spread 10 cubic yards of sand over the area that we had cleared that morning.
After the sand was spread, we called it a day. Some of the group went back to the lodge and relaxed. Some of us went to the a river to play in the water and see the local scenery. On the way to the river, we saw a rice field
being harvested. It looks like hard labor on a hot day.
A good time was had in the river, especially by the younger set. It was a good way to cool down.
Supper was bamboo soup, stirred pork with vegetables, rice, scrambled eggs, and watermelon. It was quite delicious. After supper we had devotions and called it a night. I called my wife, and went to bed at 8 PM.
