Fifth Epistle

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