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