G'day All
It is Sunday evening and we are all settling down to whatever we do at nights. Some of the blokes went into Lomsak shopping this afternoon with Pete and Ros, two Queenslanders who have been working with us for the last week and have enjoyed the experience so much they want to come back with us next year and have joined the team. We even gave them our t-shirt so it's official. They all came back from Lomsak with, of all things, a bell commonly used for cows, so relatives back in SA beware - they can very quickly drive you mad! Malc spent the afternoon drawing plans for the windows for the buildings we are working on, and I spent the afternoon swimming.
Big Whun, carer for the big girls' house asked if I would drive them all to a waterhole for a swim. I took them in what is now our (Colleen's and my) ute which I bought from Helen, one of the long term volunteers with MI in Thailand. We went to Whun's parents' place which is quite close to the spot where we bought cows a few weeks ago and is really quite beautiful. Her parents' place is quite typical of village houses, made of weathered old boards, galvanised iron, on stilts, open on three sides and with the usual paraphernalia under the house - an old tuk-tuk (motor on an old ute chassis), endless bits of bamboo, bits of bikes and the inevitable chooks with a flock of tiny chicks in tow. Suspended under the house are racks and racks of tobacco leaves in the process of drying. Behind the house is a river with a concrete weir where they go swimming. The water was sort of green until the girls got in and stirred up the mud, but it was quite cool. I was a little concerned about swimming and swallowing some of the water but decided I would take the plunge. When I got in I slowly sank to my calves in the mud at the bottom so it was quite a different experience to the local tiled pool!
The girls all wanted me to teach them how to swim which is a bit like asking me to teach them to do brain surgery but we had a lot of fun trying. Whun's mum brought out a number of old coconuts in their husks and these were the perfect floaties. Where the river was low there was an exposed gravel bed and the girls spent a creative hour collecting plants, stones, little shells, green slime, mud and gravel to make little gardens with lawn and trees. I marvelled at how these kids can make fun for themselves without having the quantity of material possessions that most of us enjoy. Afterwards they pulled some fruit of some surrounding trees and enjoyed afternoon tea. They had some locquats and another purple heart shaped fruit which grows in bunches a little like grapes.
Last weekend we visited Khon Kaen and this proved to be a most enjoyable time. As is our custom we met Wendy when we arrived on Friday night and went straight to the staekhouse where we introduced Gordon to the delights of unlimited steak, varieties of salad, Thai food, and self serve ice-cream for the princely sum of 109 baht (about $4). That night we booked into a hotel near the orphanage site and luxuriated in the comfortable beds and watched some television in English.
We had an interesting experience while we were booking in when some Thai popstars arrived. There was a bit of a media frenzy with several papparazzi and the obligatory groupies trying to get close. Several girls were hustled through the foyer and up to their rooms and then the young bloke of the moment came in. He had the grunge gear on, enough hair over his eyes to seriously impede his forward vision and his cap on with the perfect 30 degree twist to the right. He was so cool that the temperature in the foyer dropped 5 degrees! A few photos accompanied by some female squeals and he too disappeared into the lift. Five bemused foreigners finally booked in with no fanfare and not a photographer in sight!
We visited Ban Meata in the morning and what a delight it was to see some of our young friends. Dtom, the little boy who couldn't speak stood at the gate and when he recognised us his face lit up and he rushed over for a hug before taking my hand and refusing to let go. Some of you may remember Sujaree, who was so sick when we first met her and has cheated death on a couple of occasions. She is the picture of health and it was great to play basketball with her and hear the squeals of delight when we played tricks on her.
Wendy had a "little" job for us which we finished at 4 o'clock and she then invited us to join 12 of the older kids who were visiting the steakhouse that night. We didn't feel as though we could refuse (!) so off we went again. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely and were beautifully behaved the whole evening, even when Malcolm pinched their icecream when they weren't looking. He picked on one particularly lovely little girl called Maht who suffered the constant loss of her icecream with remarkable patience. When she had finally finished she went back for another bowl and very seriously went around to Malcolm and kindly gave it to him. I guess she figured that if he needed icecream that much she would have to get him some!
We enjoyed a great service of worship at the church the kids attend on Sunday mornings. It is situated in what looks like a shop in a nearby street and although 50 people would crowd it out they have the full complement of amplifiers, speakers, drums and guitars. It was great time of worship even though there were no words in English - some songs we could recognise the tunes and the others we could just make up our own words. The preacher was from a Bible College somewhere and a Singaporean lady who has a children's ministry in Thailand translated for us. Afterwards we went to Tescos where Gordon again confirmed his status as the king of shoppers. When we finally got him through the checkout we headed for "home".
The road from Lomsak to Khon Kaen is noted for the number of sugar cane trucks that have to be negotiated. There is a huge sugar factory about 50km from KK and there are large number of trucks of all shapes and sizes going either to or from. They have two things in common - they are interminably slow with big traffic buildups behind each one, and they are loaded up many metres above the height of the cab. This time we saw two lying on their sides on the road - they had simply fallen over!
Apart from shopping, weekends away and swimming we are also building. The school building has all the steel up and welded and is ready to have the tiles fitted. It looks massive and once again I apologise for not getting on top of the technology so you could see it "in the flesh". The most spectacular progress has been on "my place". We have put up the posts (cement pipes), put up the prefabricated beams, welded them together up there, and then dropped the whole thing into some slots cut into the top of the posts. Quite a feat and a credit to Malcolm's ingenuity and skills. We did the beams yesterday morning and in the afternoon the concrete planks for the second storey arrived and we have most of those in place. At this stage it looks huge and will put the Taj Mahal in the shade!
We have 6 working days to go and the plan is to have the roof tiles on the school, to put up the posts and beams on the second storey of my house and put the roof on that as well. They continue to be amazed at the amount of stuff we do while we are here. If we had a bigger team we would be able to do even more - so if any readers have any skills at all, and you can manage a few weeks from mid-January in 2009, put it in your diaries now!
Many thanks to those who have contacted us by emails or by phone - it is greatly appreciated and keeps our spirits up. Malcolm had a phone call from Ruth Stolte, Murray's wife, the other day while he was in the car, so he suggested that she ring back later when he got "home" to Ban Meata. The phone rang at about 9pm, Malcolm answered it, heard the voice and called out to Murray who grabbed the phone and rushed outside where the reception is better. At least 5 minutes later there is a shout for Malcolm to come - he had been talking to Kay all that time without realising it wasn't Ruth. And equally disturbing is that Kay didn't realise she wasn't talking to Malcolm!! No-one is revealing what that conversation was about so I guess we'll never know, but there might be some explaining to do between some parties next week!
With all we have to do this week this will probably be my last entry for this trip, so thanks to all who have made the effort to get onto the blog and persevere with the ramblings.
Till next year
God bless
Ron
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Fourth Epistle
G'day Everybody
We seem to be flat out like a lizard drinking here and my blogs are getting later and later. We have had a bit of an extra load because they are short handed here at the moment with the work growing rapidly and the office girl who handles the finance being off to have a baby. Rob and Pawinee have had to do the office work and they are already overloaded so this has meant a couple of days off for some of us at various times but more of that later.
So what is happening at the building site. Seeing it come up out of the ground was quite spectacular, but the changes are a bit slower now. Chris, Murray and Gordon have spent a lot of time preparing for the first pour of the concrete floor. Malcolm has dictated extra underground beams and piers and lots of steel reinforcement because it is built on imported dirt which may compact later. At the moment the whole district could wash away but this building will still be standing there. I have spent several days with the Thai welders putting up rafters and purlins and clambering around (carefully I might add) several metres off the ground. Gordon has joined me in the last couple of days and has ventured up to the rarified air on several occasions.
Half the floor was poured last Monday and the rest will be poured next Monday so we have been furiously digging trenches for more of those strengthening beams. Fortunately the weather has been very kind to us and I would think it is not much over 30 degrees most days and on occasions cooler. Tomorrow we start putting up the trusses on top of the building - it's a long way up and we are wondering whether to wear oxygen tanks!!
Malc hopes to get a start on our second building project next week - quarters for Colleen and I when we come for an extended time in June. As usual, plans change quickly and we are now building a 2 storey place. Mercy wants more accommodation for long term volunteers and there is a possibility that friends of ours may come this year and take up residence in the top storey. There is little money available to build these units so if anyone feels led to further the work in Thailand in this way, contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Gordon and I had a bit of an unexpected adventure last week when a bloke from Queensland, looking to see what mission projects his new company might support, arrived here to have a look at the orphanage. Terry is a builder and has started a company to raise funds from the corporate sector for missions. He enjoyed his time with us and spent many hours talking building with Malcolm. He had a friend, Sunni, a Filipino doctor living in Bangkok with his wife and family who delighted us with his sense of humour and stories. We very much enjoyed the company of both of them.
Because there were no spare people to show them other Ban Meata sites I took them to Khon Kaen and Gordon came along as well. We spent a couple of hours with Wendy looking at the redevelopment plans for Khon Kaen and then Terry wanted to go further towards the Cambodian border where he knew of a little orphanage. Towards evening we arrived and were met by a Thai pastor and his wife who took us to their orphanage. They, Hannah and Neehami, were a delightful couple and she spoke very good English and the joy of the Lord just shone from her face. Their orphanage has just 12 children and they have 2 buildings and a church on their property. Serendipitously, or more likely a God-incident, a young Australian was working with them for a couple of weeks and it turned out that I had met him a couple of years ago at my brother's place in Melbourne when we spoke of Thailand and orphanages.
That night Hannah had booked us into a motel/resort - a series of separate buildings - nearby. We had 2 units, Gordon and I in one and Terry and Sunni in the other. The first surprise was that they just had double beds! We all looked at one another and decided that wasn't on so we demanded extra mattresses to sleep on the floor. My mattress was pretty thin and I think I could feel the grout between the tiles. Gordon slept on the bed and had his first experience of Thai hotel beds. Typically you could have used it for road surface so he woke up less rested than he expected. Otherwise the units were excellent - very clean, the shower was hot (at least ours was) and they ordered in breakfast of a hot dog and 2 fried eggs for us from a local restaurant for breakfast.
We made our way back to Phetchabun the following day under Sunni's expert navigation. He seems to have a great memory for maps and just calls out which way to go even though he's never been there before. At one large town he decided to take us around the town rather than through the main street, and the streets became smaller and smaller until we found ourselves bouncing along a dirt track through someone's backyard. We emerged on the main highway however so his reputation as an infallible navigator remained intact.
While this was happening Murray and Chris went with Rob and Pawinee on a visa run to the Laos border so Rob could get his visa stamped. Murray and Chris only had single entry visas so they had to stay in Thailand while Rob and Pawinee shopped in the markets of a Laos border town at one of the Friendship bridges (engineered and built by Australians over, I think, the Mekong River).
Malcolm had his adventure yesterday when another baby and a 2 year old turned up and had to be taken to Phrae for Sharon to look after. Again there was nobody spare to take them, and Malcolm has been nursing a strained knee, so he went. He had only ever travelled to Phrae in the back of the ute so I drew him a map of which turns to take and off he set with big Whun (as distinct from Colleen's and my Whun) and another carer looking after the kids. Whun is apparently not good with directions and she had him turn south down a highway that he should have gone north on. He didn't think it was right but thought he had better trust the locals. 60km down that road Whun made a phone call to check and was most embarrassed to have led Malc astray. They duly delivered the kids, albeit a little later than expected and then headed back "home", arriving about 8.30pm.
This weekend we all head off to Khon Kaen where we stay in a hotel (which we already know has good beds!) and some of the blokes are hanging out to do some serious shopping. More news of that in the next blog.
Today is Valentine's Day and is it ever big in Thailand. Sand, one of the carers, marched her kids on their way to school past the visitors' house while we were having breakfast, and gave us all chocolates and a big hug. All the kids we came across had sheets of little stickers and they put them on our shirts. Walking past the school buildings I had several kids (not from the orphanage) call out in their best English, "Happy Valentines Day - I love you"! If I had gone any further I could have had proposals of marriage!! The newspapers are full of government warnings about some of the more illicit forms of love on Valentine's Day.
I must apologise for the continuing lack of pictures. I tried tonight but they would not upload onto the blog for some reason and my deep and intimate knowledge of all things technological couldn't cope.
Our health is very good except for Malcolm's knee which nearly prevents him from climbing ladders and stuff. Keep praying for us that we will achieve what we plan to do and enjoy continued good health. For those interested (could be up to 3) my glucometer readings for diabetes have never been lower since being diagnosed. Even the fruits of Valentine's Day didn't make much difference!
Well, as always, till next time....
God bless
Ron
We seem to be flat out like a lizard drinking here and my blogs are getting later and later. We have had a bit of an extra load because they are short handed here at the moment with the work growing rapidly and the office girl who handles the finance being off to have a baby. Rob and Pawinee have had to do the office work and they are already overloaded so this has meant a couple of days off for some of us at various times but more of that later.
So what is happening at the building site. Seeing it come up out of the ground was quite spectacular, but the changes are a bit slower now. Chris, Murray and Gordon have spent a lot of time preparing for the first pour of the concrete floor. Malcolm has dictated extra underground beams and piers and lots of steel reinforcement because it is built on imported dirt which may compact later. At the moment the whole district could wash away but this building will still be standing there. I have spent several days with the Thai welders putting up rafters and purlins and clambering around (carefully I might add) several metres off the ground. Gordon has joined me in the last couple of days and has ventured up to the rarified air on several occasions.
Half the floor was poured last Monday and the rest will be poured next Monday so we have been furiously digging trenches for more of those strengthening beams. Fortunately the weather has been very kind to us and I would think it is not much over 30 degrees most days and on occasions cooler. Tomorrow we start putting up the trusses on top of the building - it's a long way up and we are wondering whether to wear oxygen tanks!!
Malc hopes to get a start on our second building project next week - quarters for Colleen and I when we come for an extended time in June. As usual, plans change quickly and we are now building a 2 storey place. Mercy wants more accommodation for long term volunteers and there is a possibility that friends of ours may come this year and take up residence in the top storey. There is little money available to build these units so if anyone feels led to further the work in Thailand in this way, contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Gordon and I had a bit of an unexpected adventure last week when a bloke from Queensland, looking to see what mission projects his new company might support, arrived here to have a look at the orphanage. Terry is a builder and has started a company to raise funds from the corporate sector for missions. He enjoyed his time with us and spent many hours talking building with Malcolm. He had a friend, Sunni, a Filipino doctor living in Bangkok with his wife and family who delighted us with his sense of humour and stories. We very much enjoyed the company of both of them.
Because there were no spare people to show them other Ban Meata sites I took them to Khon Kaen and Gordon came along as well. We spent a couple of hours with Wendy looking at the redevelopment plans for Khon Kaen and then Terry wanted to go further towards the Cambodian border where he knew of a little orphanage. Towards evening we arrived and were met by a Thai pastor and his wife who took us to their orphanage. They, Hannah and Neehami, were a delightful couple and she spoke very good English and the joy of the Lord just shone from her face. Their orphanage has just 12 children and they have 2 buildings and a church on their property. Serendipitously, or more likely a God-incident, a young Australian was working with them for a couple of weeks and it turned out that I had met him a couple of years ago at my brother's place in Melbourne when we spoke of Thailand and orphanages.
That night Hannah had booked us into a motel/resort - a series of separate buildings - nearby. We had 2 units, Gordon and I in one and Terry and Sunni in the other. The first surprise was that they just had double beds! We all looked at one another and decided that wasn't on so we demanded extra mattresses to sleep on the floor. My mattress was pretty thin and I think I could feel the grout between the tiles. Gordon slept on the bed and had his first experience of Thai hotel beds. Typically you could have used it for road surface so he woke up less rested than he expected. Otherwise the units were excellent - very clean, the shower was hot (at least ours was) and they ordered in breakfast of a hot dog and 2 fried eggs for us from a local restaurant for breakfast.
We made our way back to Phetchabun the following day under Sunni's expert navigation. He seems to have a great memory for maps and just calls out which way to go even though he's never been there before. At one large town he decided to take us around the town rather than through the main street, and the streets became smaller and smaller until we found ourselves bouncing along a dirt track through someone's backyard. We emerged on the main highway however so his reputation as an infallible navigator remained intact.
While this was happening Murray and Chris went with Rob and Pawinee on a visa run to the Laos border so Rob could get his visa stamped. Murray and Chris only had single entry visas so they had to stay in Thailand while Rob and Pawinee shopped in the markets of a Laos border town at one of the Friendship bridges (engineered and built by Australians over, I think, the Mekong River).
Malcolm had his adventure yesterday when another baby and a 2 year old turned up and had to be taken to Phrae for Sharon to look after. Again there was nobody spare to take them, and Malcolm has been nursing a strained knee, so he went. He had only ever travelled to Phrae in the back of the ute so I drew him a map of which turns to take and off he set with big Whun (as distinct from Colleen's and my Whun) and another carer looking after the kids. Whun is apparently not good with directions and she had him turn south down a highway that he should have gone north on. He didn't think it was right but thought he had better trust the locals. 60km down that road Whun made a phone call to check and was most embarrassed to have led Malc astray. They duly delivered the kids, albeit a little later than expected and then headed back "home", arriving about 8.30pm.
This weekend we all head off to Khon Kaen where we stay in a hotel (which we already know has good beds!) and some of the blokes are hanging out to do some serious shopping. More news of that in the next blog.
Today is Valentine's Day and is it ever big in Thailand. Sand, one of the carers, marched her kids on their way to school past the visitors' house while we were having breakfast, and gave us all chocolates and a big hug. All the kids we came across had sheets of little stickers and they put them on our shirts. Walking past the school buildings I had several kids (not from the orphanage) call out in their best English, "Happy Valentines Day - I love you"! If I had gone any further I could have had proposals of marriage!! The newspapers are full of government warnings about some of the more illicit forms of love on Valentine's Day.
I must apologise for the continuing lack of pictures. I tried tonight but they would not upload onto the blog for some reason and my deep and intimate knowledge of all things technological couldn't cope.
Our health is very good except for Malcolm's knee which nearly prevents him from climbing ladders and stuff. Keep praying for us that we will achieve what we plan to do and enjoy continued good health. For those interested (could be up to 3) my glucometer readings for diabetes have never been lower since being diagnosed. Even the fruits of Valentine's Day didn't make much difference!
Well, as always, till next time....
God bless
Ron
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Third Epistle
G'day Everyone
Firstly a building update and a big thank you to all those people from Lucindale, Naracoorte, Glenunga and Broome (and some others I have probably forgotten) who have contributed around $23 000 to the building effort here. We are still working through that money and have about $4000 left at the moment. You would all be delighted to see what the money has produced so far.
To date we have all of the posts up and a steel beam right around the outside on top of the smaller posts. On top of the larger posts (4 and a half metres high) we have pulled up a series of 6m by 1.6m trusses and they form what looks like a second storey. We have nearly finished putting in the rafters from the bottom of the trusses to the top of the beams. We have also started to put in the clearspans on top of the trusses and they are a very long way up - the ridge is over 7 metres from the ground and looks even further when you are clambering around up there, especially when it is a bit wavy before the rafters are welded on! Deo, one of the Thai workers, walks along the top of the beams as though he is on an afternoon stroll, welds up there all day without a ladder and slides down a post when he is finished!
Yesterday and today were hard yakka for most of the blokes as we are putting in trenches for underfloor beams to support the walls and the floor. This is pick and shovel work and today it was a bit warm so everybody lost a bit of weight. We have been very fortunate with the weather and it has been quite cool for the last week or so with heavy falls of rain over several days (mostly at night so we haven't lost any work time). I think Gordon was wondering what we were talking about when we spoke of the heat and the fact that it never rains at this time of the year.
Anyway, the structure is beginning to look quite spectacular as it rises from the ground - it is a huge building. On the top of this blogging page there is a thing called "Add Image" so I'll get organised and show you all some pictures soon.
Some of you know that Colleen and I will be coming over here for an extended period in the middle of the year and one of our "little" extra jobs will be to start a house for us. Malc has been busy designing and has come up with a delightful bed-sitter although the other blokes have been having a lot of fun choosing "suitable" accommodation from some of the more rustic examples we see in the villages.
Last Sunday Gordon and I had an opportunity to see some of the villages around Ban Meata when we went with Rob and Pawinee on an excursion to buy some cows. The "buying a cow for your child" scheme has taken off amazingly and more are needed for sponsors who have sent their money. The villages we went through in search of cows were stunningly beautiful. Rich soil with crops of garlic, sweet corn, tobacco, rice and many others. Houses set into deep green jungle and tall coconut palms against a backdrop of the nearby mountain range completed an extremely picturesque part of Thailand.
We also found some cows. Those we bought were from a bloke who slaughters cows and sells the meat to traders in the markets. We arrived when he had just finished one and his ute was stacked with plastic baskets of meat to take and sell. The work all happens on a concrete floor under an open sided shelter and the skins are laid out under salt in a square concrete tank. We ended up buying 7 cows, 4 of them pregnant and the other 3 quite young and not yet ready to be joined. Pawinee drove a hard bargain and pushed the price down and down with us egging her on and giving lots of "expert" advice about which ones we thought were the best.
We discovered a couple of things which escaped us so called experts. The cows of course are of the cebu/brahmin breed and usually white. They also usually have a black tip to the tail - and if they don't they are practically worthless(except to butchers) because no-one will buy them. You can buy them at bargain basement prices, but if you want to buy an animal of value for a child you have to steer clear of them. There was also another very good looking cow with a bit of tan on the body, but it had a white blaze on the forehead - same story, no-one will buy such a cow so we had to leave it (to an obvious fate considering who we were buying from!).
While travelling around we often come across utes with huge speakers on them blaring out political messages urging the locals to vote for particular candidates. You will no doubt be aware that Thailand has recently had a general election and the government has recently been formed by dint of some coalition arrangements. Corruption and voting irregularities are rife in polotics however and the electoral commission has just finished reviewing the results and many winning candidates have been "red carded" or "yellow carded", so new elections in those seats are being held (yellow card means you can stand again).
Local mayoral elections are also being held and these too are not quite like we have come to accept in Australia. The past mayor of Phrae had been very good to Mercy International and was well known to Sharon and John as well as Rob. This election he decided to change parties and campaigned with another group. Somebody was not happy (no doubt the deserted party although the investigation turned up no evidence) and he was shot in the back of the head. This is not an isolated incident in Thai politics so it is little wonder Pawinee suggested her brother Thanagorn (Principal of the Mercy school and Mayor of the newly proclaimed Ban Meata village) not stand for the leadership of the local council of mayors!
There have been some difficulties at Ban Meata as well with some of the older boys in particular and only tonight Rob and Pawinee had to tell one of the boys he had to leave because of some unacceptable behaviour which was influencing the other boys. This is heartrending for the village because they invest so much time and love into the kids here and the dream is to send them off into adulthood with a Christian faith and values. Making a breakthrough with faith in Thai men is extremely difficult and something we pray for constantly.
A lad called Yai is a case in point. He came to Ban Meata with his twin brother when he was 12 and had never been to school. He struggled with his schoolwork (obviously because he couldn't read) and got into trouble with truancy and glue-sniffing. Last year he left school and spent time working with us. He has given trouble in his house all year, hasn't worked well, and has been giving the glue a bit of a hiding as well. The day before we arrived this year he was fiddling with the electricity in his room and set it alight. The room was blackened and it went within an ace of getting into the roof and burning the whole building down. You can imagine that he is not all that popular at the moment. He has been "sentenced" to work with us again and Malc has had him right under his nose and kept him on the hop. This has worked really well as he relates well to Malc and he has got more work out of him than he has produced in the last year.
At the other end of the scale is the arrival of new babies. Just tonight a hotel owner rang up to say that a woman staying at her hotel had just given birth to a baby and because her new husband did not want it she was going to leave it at the hotel. Pawinee and Glom went in and picked up the mother and baby and the hotel owner and we were party to the sad sight of seeing a mother distraught at giving up her child but with no alternative. Afterwards I took the mother and the hotel owner back into Lomsak. It was very sad but at the same time the child has the chance of a wonderful future. Rob says that children are abandoned daily and many end up being "sold" overseas.
I have been "rabbiting" on and it is time to close. Please continue to pray for us. We are in good health at the moment and only suffering the aches and pains that come as a consequence of age!!
Till next time
God bless
Ron
Firstly a building update and a big thank you to all those people from Lucindale, Naracoorte, Glenunga and Broome (and some others I have probably forgotten) who have contributed around $23 000 to the building effort here. We are still working through that money and have about $4000 left at the moment. You would all be delighted to see what the money has produced so far.
To date we have all of the posts up and a steel beam right around the outside on top of the smaller posts. On top of the larger posts (4 and a half metres high) we have pulled up a series of 6m by 1.6m trusses and they form what looks like a second storey. We have nearly finished putting in the rafters from the bottom of the trusses to the top of the beams. We have also started to put in the clearspans on top of the trusses and they are a very long way up - the ridge is over 7 metres from the ground and looks even further when you are clambering around up there, especially when it is a bit wavy before the rafters are welded on! Deo, one of the Thai workers, walks along the top of the beams as though he is on an afternoon stroll, welds up there all day without a ladder and slides down a post when he is finished!
Yesterday and today were hard yakka for most of the blokes as we are putting in trenches for underfloor beams to support the walls and the floor. This is pick and shovel work and today it was a bit warm so everybody lost a bit of weight. We have been very fortunate with the weather and it has been quite cool for the last week or so with heavy falls of rain over several days (mostly at night so we haven't lost any work time). I think Gordon was wondering what we were talking about when we spoke of the heat and the fact that it never rains at this time of the year.
Anyway, the structure is beginning to look quite spectacular as it rises from the ground - it is a huge building. On the top of this blogging page there is a thing called "Add Image" so I'll get organised and show you all some pictures soon.
Some of you know that Colleen and I will be coming over here for an extended period in the middle of the year and one of our "little" extra jobs will be to start a house for us. Malc has been busy designing and has come up with a delightful bed-sitter although the other blokes have been having a lot of fun choosing "suitable" accommodation from some of the more rustic examples we see in the villages.
Last Sunday Gordon and I had an opportunity to see some of the villages around Ban Meata when we went with Rob and Pawinee on an excursion to buy some cows. The "buying a cow for your child" scheme has taken off amazingly and more are needed for sponsors who have sent their money. The villages we went through in search of cows were stunningly beautiful. Rich soil with crops of garlic, sweet corn, tobacco, rice and many others. Houses set into deep green jungle and tall coconut palms against a backdrop of the nearby mountain range completed an extremely picturesque part of Thailand.
We also found some cows. Those we bought were from a bloke who slaughters cows and sells the meat to traders in the markets. We arrived when he had just finished one and his ute was stacked with plastic baskets of meat to take and sell. The work all happens on a concrete floor under an open sided shelter and the skins are laid out under salt in a square concrete tank. We ended up buying 7 cows, 4 of them pregnant and the other 3 quite young and not yet ready to be joined. Pawinee drove a hard bargain and pushed the price down and down with us egging her on and giving lots of "expert" advice about which ones we thought were the best.
We discovered a couple of things which escaped us so called experts. The cows of course are of the cebu/brahmin breed and usually white. They also usually have a black tip to the tail - and if they don't they are practically worthless(except to butchers) because no-one will buy them. You can buy them at bargain basement prices, but if you want to buy an animal of value for a child you have to steer clear of them. There was also another very good looking cow with a bit of tan on the body, but it had a white blaze on the forehead - same story, no-one will buy such a cow so we had to leave it (to an obvious fate considering who we were buying from!).
While travelling around we often come across utes with huge speakers on them blaring out political messages urging the locals to vote for particular candidates. You will no doubt be aware that Thailand has recently had a general election and the government has recently been formed by dint of some coalition arrangements. Corruption and voting irregularities are rife in polotics however and the electoral commission has just finished reviewing the results and many winning candidates have been "red carded" or "yellow carded", so new elections in those seats are being held (yellow card means you can stand again).
Local mayoral elections are also being held and these too are not quite like we have come to accept in Australia. The past mayor of Phrae had been very good to Mercy International and was well known to Sharon and John as well as Rob. This election he decided to change parties and campaigned with another group. Somebody was not happy (no doubt the deserted party although the investigation turned up no evidence) and he was shot in the back of the head. This is not an isolated incident in Thai politics so it is little wonder Pawinee suggested her brother Thanagorn (Principal of the Mercy school and Mayor of the newly proclaimed Ban Meata village) not stand for the leadership of the local council of mayors!
There have been some difficulties at Ban Meata as well with some of the older boys in particular and only tonight Rob and Pawinee had to tell one of the boys he had to leave because of some unacceptable behaviour which was influencing the other boys. This is heartrending for the village because they invest so much time and love into the kids here and the dream is to send them off into adulthood with a Christian faith and values. Making a breakthrough with faith in Thai men is extremely difficult and something we pray for constantly.
A lad called Yai is a case in point. He came to Ban Meata with his twin brother when he was 12 and had never been to school. He struggled with his schoolwork (obviously because he couldn't read) and got into trouble with truancy and glue-sniffing. Last year he left school and spent time working with us. He has given trouble in his house all year, hasn't worked well, and has been giving the glue a bit of a hiding as well. The day before we arrived this year he was fiddling with the electricity in his room and set it alight. The room was blackened and it went within an ace of getting into the roof and burning the whole building down. You can imagine that he is not all that popular at the moment. He has been "sentenced" to work with us again and Malc has had him right under his nose and kept him on the hop. This has worked really well as he relates well to Malc and he has got more work out of him than he has produced in the last year.
At the other end of the scale is the arrival of new babies. Just tonight a hotel owner rang up to say that a woman staying at her hotel had just given birth to a baby and because her new husband did not want it she was going to leave it at the hotel. Pawinee and Glom went in and picked up the mother and baby and the hotel owner and we were party to the sad sight of seeing a mother distraught at giving up her child but with no alternative. Afterwards I took the mother and the hotel owner back into Lomsak. It was very sad but at the same time the child has the chance of a wonderful future. Rob says that children are abandoned daily and many end up being "sold" overseas.
I have been "rabbiting" on and it is time to close. Please continue to pray for us. We are in good health at the moment and only suffering the aches and pains that come as a consequence of age!!
Till next time
God bless
Ron
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