My trip over was uneventful and all transfers went smoothly. My extra 12kgs of shovels made it onto the flight from Bangkok to KK without so much as a comment. On this flight I sat next to an Australian bloke who works at a gold mine in PNG but flies back to KK to see his wife and child every 2 weeks. He had bought his child a trampoline for Christmas so he had marched up to check-in with 50kgs and they didn’t turn a hair at that either.
My first day here was a Sunday so we had no work but went to the orphanage for church. They normally attend a church in KK but the pastor was away so we had it at the Centre. It was delightful to see that the service was run entirely by the kids. They had a couple on guitars and one on the inevitable drums and 2 girls were the lead singers and kept the worship rolling. The music was not broadcast standard but they certainly made a joyful noise! They had some prayers and a Bible reading and although there was no preaching it was a great worship experience.
And now to the building. As most of you know we have a huge project this year with a 2 storey living quarters for the kids, 2 single storey quarters and a huge dining room/kitchen/laundry building. In the last couple of days an excavator has prepared the slabs ready for the concrete pours, the first of which will be Tuesday (Week 2). Our first jobs have been all to do with steel. Part of the team have been painting steel non-stop for days – 900 six metre lengths so far. I have been helping the Thai welders put together 10 metre lengths of steel rod in a frame of 4 to use as reinforcement for concrete beams in the floor. And then for the last 2 days it has been work on a jackhammer preparing the holes and trenches in the pads for the floor slabs.
Malcolm has been flat out like a lizard drinking redrawing plans to cater for some changes of mind about design, trying to organize excavators and backhoes so we don’t have to dig them by hand. And he is coordinating the large team so he has hardly swung a shovel yet but is doing some long hours regardless. It’s hard to believe that we’ll achieve our goal of all buildings with a roof on, but once we get out of the ground things should change rapidly.
Chris and Murray, our other genuine South Aussie builders, are currently working on a new toilet block at the back of our rented volunteer house and Chris has been in Thailand for so long now he is enjoying the status of knowing where everything is in KK, shopping for hardware supplies and being the “on the ground” expert.
One thing we can’t help noticing about our accommodation is the mosquitoes. And they hunt in packs of hundreds. We have spray which fixes them but it is so strong when we use it inside we have to go and brave the outside mosquitoes before returning to sweep the dead bodies off our beds. After one night of hearing them fly in formation past my ear I got out my mosquito net and now sleep without fear. All I have to put up with is the jibes of my “mates” who call it my “princess bed” and wonder when I’m going to get my embroidered flowers put on it!
Malcolm hasn’t missed out on the chiacking. He finds the beds too hard so he hunted around to find several soft mattresses to put on top. Of course we reminded him that you can’t have that many mattresses without putting a pea underneath them to check whether he is a real princess. (As a matter of interest that comment was completely lost on some of our younger team members who had never heard the story of the princess and the pea – what is the education system coming to!!)
At the close of this missive we have just returned from our trip back to Phetchabun. Later this week I’ll get to sharing some of that visit – it was great.
Until then
God bless
Ron
Malc & Ron in a hole
Lunch in the house next door where we sleep
The end of a day on the jackhammer
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