Speaking of losing sleep we have to contend with a bit of noise most nights and for that matter many of the days. Somewhere a couple of blocks away there is a loudspeaker that has long sessions of what are apparently community announcements and they turn the volume up to reach most of the community. I think there are some Council by-laws in Australia that prevent you from starting your lawnmower too early in the morning, but there is obviously no equivalent legislation in Thailand because at 6.30am most mornings there is a ute driving past in the street with a bank of heavy duty speakers announcing or advertising something. Fortunately it’s about time to get up anyway although they are no respecters of Sunday morning sleep-ins.
And then there are the monks. We were treated to several hours of the most awful caterwauling for about 4 hours on Saturday morning. When they excelled themselves with a particular ululation even the Thai blokes would mimic them. I’m not sure whether taking the mickey out of monks is culturally sensitive but we were all guilty of it that morning.
All of this pales into insignificance against last Saturday night. The local temple hosted a Thai kick-boxing tournament and a big stage production of dancing, singing and comedy routines. These are very popular with Thais and we have attended some in the past and they are quite entertaining. The stage is a huge affair set up like a rock concert in Australia – huge banks of speakers and enormous lighting systems. They usually have a singing and dancing male host and 18 or 20 dancing girls. The girls literally need a special truck to carry their costumes. They come onto stage with the most elaborate, gaudy, exotic costumes and do a routine. When they finish they go off and re-costume for the next routine. They may do this 12 or 15 times a show and each costume is as extravagant as the last. In between dances the host has a number of characters come onto stage and they perform all sorts of slapstick comedy routines which the Thais think is uproariously funny (even without the language it is pretty funny sometimes). They deliver an endless number of “one-liners”, each with a “kaboom” on the drums, and the Thais literally roll in the aisles at such witticisms.
All of this is great, but unfortunately it goes all night! Our Thai guys and our youngest volunteer (Josh Denison, 17, Brackenridge Baptist) went to enjoy the festivities. Those of us of more advanced years (the rest!) went to bed. We may as well have gone with them. The music and the singing was so loud it pounded away all night and you could tell when the comedy routines were on because of the “kaboom”. Josh gave it away at 2am, and the music finally stopped at 6.30am! – just in time for the ute! That was some concert!
So what’s happening on the building front. One of the houses is taking shape with all roof trusses up and Malcolm hopes to have the roof structure finished to be a pattern for the other houses. The internal walls will also be a couple of blocks high. We spent a lot of our time last week putting in 8 big septic tanks and plumbing each of the buildings we are working on into them. We have used perhaps 300 metres of 4” PVC pipe and goodness knows how many litres of pipe glue. One of my tasks in the next few days will be to put all the power, water and septic lines onto a map so we don’t lose track of them over the years.
Tim (Ireland) is an electrician and he has been connecting up the wiring for the whole site (over a kilometre of cable and conduit) so we have distribution boxes up at all buildings even before we have a building to attach them to. We have water to all parts of the site (maybe 500 metres of 2” PVC) and young Josh has served his apprenticeship as a plumber putting taps on the ends of all the lines. We are very grateful that we were able to hire an excavator and didn’t have to do all that trenching by hand!
I’ve mentioned before that we go into the Ban Meata centre a couple of times a week to have a meal with the kids. We have been concerned about a little girl (11 but the size of an 8 year old) called Pam who is struggling with a kidney infection and is quite sick at the moment. I have been sitting with her each time I’m there and tonight I fed her for a while. She has to eat so that her anti-retroviral drugs work, but she gags at every mouthful and is getting thinner and thinner. The hospital is apparently not keen to take her but she really needs to be there. After trying to feed her I sat her on my lap and she cuddled up looking as miserable as can be. At the evening prayer time we all prayed for her and hope that the hospital will respond appropriately at her next visit tomorrow. Please pray for her.
This must go or I will find more things to add. Next week I’ll be at Phetchabun and may well get another missive under way.
God bless
Ron
Plumbing
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Preaching
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