First Try

Well, here we go - my first try at this blogging stuff. Sorry to those who have been trying for days and finding nothing.

We arrived safely on Tuesday night at 10pm Thai time (3 and half hours behind SA) after uneventful flights in which I nearly finished one Dick Francis novel. Being diabetic has one of its few advantages in being served meals first - the disadvantage being that I eat it dodging pillows and airline hot towels launched from somewhere suspiciously close to Malcolm's seat!

We were met by a mini-bus driver who drove us straight to Phetchabun, breaking the pattern of previous years where we spent the night in a hotel. It was great to be back in Thailand. Crowded Bangkok freeways at midnight, big trucks with high sides and "hungry bars" sticking out the back to increase load size, utes piled 4 and 5 metres high with produce, motorbikes by the countless thousands buzzing down the dedicated lanes but not necessarily in the right direction. Service station toilet blocks where the male urinals (haven't seen a female one come to think of it) are behind a wall where the concept of privacy includes open air and a lady in attendance doing the cleaning. Buying a diet coke and the inevitable plastic bag (if you bought a plastic bag the Thais would put it in a plastic bag). Yes, we are back in Thailand and I love it.

We didn't arrive at Ban Meata until after 3am so we fell into bed in our usual room and even in our usual beds. We are creatures of habit so Gordon, our newest member had to make do with the only bed left in the room (Tony's from last year). They were of course all made up for us in the neatest possible fashion so we already feel very much at home. Our body clocks were a bit out so we were up again at 6.30am and raring to go.

Reunions with much loved friends on the staff were first on the agenda and then I headed off to the girls house. What a delight to meet Whun running out to greet me. We spent ages just hugging each other and she was my shadow for the rest of the day. Her sister Why, and friends Wean, Aom, Bow etc, etc all came for their share and all in all it was a pretty happy, huggy time.

We had a look at the project for this year and surprise, surprise - it's a school room!!! Or more correctly 4 school rooms with a verandah all the way round. Or even more correctly one day later, 8 school rooms because it looked like a good idea to push the walls out to the verandah edge. It's a fairly large building (38 metres long) and we have to bring in about 70 truck loads of dirt to level the site which is at the end of the school building we did in 2005. This year we have plans, but Malc has spent a good deal of time modifying, cutting back on materials, changing some of the materials we will be using, so that the only thing left the same is the outside shape!

Rob was very keen to show us the new farming projects and we were amazed at the progress we saw. Last year they had just purchased the land and apart from an acre or so it was covered with dry scrubby, jungley vegetation. It now is an absolute picture. The whole area has been cleared and there are heavily fruited paw paws, banana palms, several fish ponds with turfed edges and trees and shrubs around the edges and pasture for the cows. One of the ponds has 10 000 fish which have already doubled in size. The farm manager has had a house (typical rural Thai with a wooden platform on stilts, roofed and partially enclosed for living quarters) built next to the ponds. Other employed farm workers were busy on the tractor provided by a visiting American group.

We started work on Thursday marking out the school building and while we wait for the truckloads of soil we have started on building a large tankstand on a hill at the farm and this will double as a tractor shed.

We are into it and having a ball. Keep praying for us.

God bless
Ron