Sunday, February 10, 2013
Missive 4 – 2013
I thought a word picture of a typical day might give you some of the flavour of our stay here. I wrote earlier that the day seemed to start at 5.15am when Jai starts rattling the pans, but I must confess that it is 7.45am before I, and all the others appear for breakfast. Most of us live in the “yellow house” (very creatively named as you will see from the photo). It is a rented property to cater for teams on the site just 50 metres down the narrow street. It has several bedrooms upstairs and a large living area downstairs which has beds for 3 people. This is where I sleep with my mosquito net (my princess bed according to the others) and Trevor, my travelling bear in pride of place on the pillow. There is a lounge area where we sit and eat or read at nights, and over a serving bench there is a fridge, cupboards and a sink. The kitchen is attached at the back and is typically Thai with slatted walls – Thais hate cooking smells in their houses.
Back to breakfast. I usually have a bowl of cornflakes and toast with vegemite and cheese. The toaster is a high-tech looking thing but makes the slowest toast in the world – it’s hard to tell whether it’s cooked or just went stale waiting. Actually Thai bread never goes stale because there are enough additives to keep it going for weeks.
Before 8am it’s on with the work boots and over to the site to continue with a job or get a new one from Malc. This week I have been relieved of channelling conduit and spent the time boxing up for concrete. We have large steel frames with a timber face which we use and re-use for boxing and these have to be manoeuvred into place, pegged or fixed to a verandah post for example, the dirt levelled inside, steel mesh laid inside, steel pegs drilled into the walls to tie the slab to the building if it’s a verandah, trenches dug at the edges for a thicker edge, and level pegs put in with a laser so the screeding can be done accurately.
At 10am we take 30 minutes off for “smoko” back at the yellow house where we are served with cordial, pineapple, watermelon, papaya and some uniquely Thai little jam filled biscuits. We are then back on the job for another two hours before repairing to the yellow house for lunch. This is a highlight and we have been served some wonderful Thai dishes, prepared with minimum or no chilli. The Thai workers sit down in the kitchen and I usually go out there to get some chilli or to try out some of their spicy dishes.
The two afternoon sessions, split by afternoon smoko, are only one and a half hours which is great because the afternoons can get pretty hot. As I write this we have finished a day’s work in 37 degree heat and everyone drinks copious amounts of water to replace the copious amounts lost through sweat. We have actually been blessed with some pretty mild weather with a few weeks of temperatures in the high twenties.
We knock off at 5pm and head for the showers to wash off the grime of the day. You wouldn’t believe how nice a cold bottle of Coke Zero is at the end of the day. We then organise ourselves for our evening meal. Sometimes we go to the little local eatery for the world’s best pad thai, sometimes we drive to the steakhouse, sometimes we get food from a local market, and sometimes we go to Central Plaza, a huge shopping complex with a whole floor of food outlets like KFC, Sizzler, Maccas (expensive) and a food court (cheap).
The evening at the yellow house is made up of sitting in front of laptops (emails and writing blogs!), and in my case working through my crossword book, doing my Bible reading and devouring a number of novels. Everyone wanders off to bed at various times (they are nearly all old people here!!) and I am usually the last go at about 10.30pm unless the novel is very gripping.
Well, that’s the shape of the day for 6 days and we have Sunday off, going to church with kids at the Ban Meata centre in the morning and then lazing around for the afternoon. We have just about exhausted the tourist potential of Khon Kaen – that took up the first Sunday afternoon!
We received some sad news this past week. Some of you would remember Tim and Steph, the Irish couple, who worked with us last year and who received news while they were here that their son had contracted leukaemia. After all the usual treatment over the last 12 months he died a few days ago. There was some good news in that he had been estranged from his parents for a number of years and that situation was resolved. He also went to church with his parents in the last days and heard the gospel clearly which Tim and Steph believe had an impact on his life.
As I conclude this missive the Dutch people are leaving us so we are a much depleted workforce and our chances of finishing some things in the original plan are fading. The last event for the Dutch was to bring all the kids out from the Ban Meata centre to witness the unveiling of the marble plaque announcing that the first completed house (well, almost) is designated the “Dutch House”. I have mentioned before that they raise enormous amounts of money doing lots of normal things (eg, Thai dinners) and a few bizarre things (eg, breaking the ice and swimming in the river, 24 hour stationary bike rides).
As I conclude this missive it is a lazy Sunday afternoon and getting very warm again. The last few days have been over 35 degrees so working out in the sun getting ready for concreting tomorrow has been a hot business. A few of us went over to Tescos (large shopping centre) for lunch at their food court today and tonight we will wander over to the market on the local school grounds and pick up a few items for tea. For me that will be some chicken pieces, maybe some chopped pork, a spicy salad in a plastic bag, and some sticky rice, also in a plastic bag. Don’t you wish you were here?!
One more blog next week before I head back to Phetchabun to meet up with Colleen who is leaving Australia this Thursday and arriving at Ban Meata on Friday.
God bless
Ron
The Yellow House
My bed
Yellow house kitchen
Dining room before the next round of concreting
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Missive 3 - 2013
Let’s start with our trip to Phetchabun last weekend. It was a flying visit as we left on Saturday morning and came back on Sunday afternoon. One of our neighbours here at the building site runs a 12 seater minibus so we hired that for the journey and we did the 200km journey in about 3 hours with a stopover at a huge service station with shops and food outlets. The toilet stop was made interesting by some new signs which we have not encountered before - there are now 3 choices, Men, Women and LadyBoys!
Our arrival at Ban Meata was hugely anticipated by me as it was the first time I had seen my Whun for nearly 12 months. It was worth waiting for and we both shed a few tears over each other’s shoulder. Teams that arrive there receive a rapturous welcome and this was no exception – those who have come for the first time are always impressed, fall in love with the kids, and find it hard to leave.
It was the Australia Day weekend so on Saturday night we had an Aussie BBQ Thai style at Pawinee’s house. We got out the little earthenware buckets the Thais use as a BBQ, loaded them with charcoal and a couple of us sat over them for most of the evening with hamburger patties, pork pieces, chicken legs and some prawns. It was idyllic – sitting outside on a warm evening, eating our fill as it came off the BBQ, consuming many bottles of Pepsi Max and a few of the blokes had some bottles of Leo, Thai beer. The older girls joined us (Mum Whun’s house which includes my Whun) and they sat cross-legged around the BBQ’s as they love to do and polished off any of the food we hadn’t eaten. As I said in an earlier missive, this is Thailand and I love it!
We had worship on Sunday morning and it was wonderful to be back with our Thai family. I was preaching (4 days’ notice which is pretty good) and spoke on listening to God, using the story of Samuel and Eli. I dramatized the story and they responded well. After lunch Richard and I took the big girls (13 of them) to the Than Thip waterfall for a swim and it was great to spend some more time with Whun. We were back by 4 o’clock and left for Khon Kaen ready for the working week.
A word about the Dutch. We met the Dutch team of four at Phetchabun and they came back with us. Annetta, Adelbert, Hennie and Corrie actually raise our average age. Corrie is 78 years old and is up a ladder painting, and when the concrete trucks came in she grabbed an implement to drag the concrete around! She stays with us on site and the other 3 stay in a hotel and travel out daily, much to her scorn. But they do a great job and later this week before they leave there will be an unveiling ceremony of a plaque on the “Dutch House” with all the Ban Meata kids out at the site for the occasion.
There has been great progress on the site in the past week and a panoramic view in an accompanying photo will hopefully give you an idea of where we are up to. We have a concrete road that comes from the back gate and is now nearing the dining room. The third house is beginning to go up and concrete is coming again on Tuesday for the verandah. I have spent the entire week (with time off when the concrete trucks come) chasing walls in the upstairs house for conduit. This week I will chase walls for co-axial cable and then I will chase walls for the plumbing. I have been going to bed with the taste of dust in my mouth it looks like that will be true for this week as well.
Our 2 young girls, Jade and Tori, have been putting up the ceilings in the first storey house on their own. Great progress from never having done anything like that before. They are anxiously watching for any untoward muscle growth! They will gain some notoriety through a journalist friend in Kingston who is publishing their story in the Kingston Leader and a couple of other SE papers.
Some of you who have been reading this blog for a number of years now may remember that our first impressions of chicken being BBQ’d between bamboo sticks was that it looked suspiciously like flat rats. You will be delighted to know that when we visited our local market to get our evening meal the other night we came across the genuine article. Two rats, skinned but complete with head, ears and giblets were laid out on the slab. We didn’t ask what they were worth because nobody in our group had any desire to buy them. The accompanying photo shows Richard looking a bit interested.
Right next door to the rats was a sort of porta-cot teeming with what looked like cockroaches but were obviously edible because the deep fried variety were for sale in a basket along with grasshoppers and other insects. There was a piece of hard plastic fixed around the top of the “cot” so although these bugs swarmed up the sides they couldn’t get out. Not wanting to be a latter-day John the Baptist (no honey available!) we gave all this a miss.
And to finish with some news about Murray. Those of you who know him know that he has a huge bushy beard, Ned Kelly style. On Sunday he went down to a local hairdresser and said he wanted nitnoy (little bit) off. He came back with nitnoy left on! He just looks as if he hasn’t shaved for a few days and I don’t think he even recognised himself in the mirror because it hasn’t been that short for 25 years. He thinks he’ll have stay in Thailand for a while or they won’t let him out with his current passport photo.
Enjoy the read and until next time
God bless
Ron
Richard and the flat rats
Boonsalit with the first bite out of a tortoise found on site
Panoramic view of the new Ban Meata
Ron with Giv, Why and Mum Whun at the top of Than Thip waterfall
Richard and the flat rats
Boonsalit with the first bite out of a tortoise found on site
Panoramic view of the new Ban Meata
Ron with Giv, Why and Mum Whun at the top of Than Thip waterfall
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Missive 2 - 2013
The day usually starts (or seems to) at 5.15am when Jai, our Thai cook starts chopping things and moving the pans around in the kitchen. Jai and her husband Boonme are Hmong and come from the mountains near our Petchabun children’s village. They are the parents of Somchai, a wonderful young 17 year old from Phetchabun Ban Meata who has been with us for years because of the extreme poverty of his parents. Jai and Boonme will continue to work at Khon Kaen Ban Meata when we finish. They came with us to Richard’s birthday outing described in the last missive and it was the first time that Jai had ever been to a restaurant like that.
I mentioned our Thai workers last time so I should introduce you to the rest of the team. Richard Wray from Brackenridge Baptist in Brisbane has worked with us before and has led several teams to Thailand over the years. He is a born organiser and has plumbed the mysteries of Thai hardware stores so almost daily he is off on a quest for more steel, tools, gyprock, pumps and myriad other supplies. Russell Lee, trophy shop owner in Brisbane, closes his shop each year to join us on the team. This year he brought 2 young brothers, 14 and 16, whose appearance belies their age. Jarrod, the 16 year old is a mountain of a man with a big bushy beard and is immensely strong. Our trip to the steak house, all you can eat for 139 baht ($4.50), was like an early arrival in heaven for both of them.
We have a chippy from the Sunshine Coast and an electrician from the same place. Todd, the chippy, is a young bloke with surfie blonde hair and an instant hit with the girls from Ban Meata. Josh, another young bloke from Brisbane, was with us last year and has fallen in love with Thailand so much he came back during the last year. Allan Baker, an older bloke (ie older than me!) also from the Sunshine Coast and a long-time supporter of Ban Meata completes the Queensland contingent and outnumbers the South Australians by so many that we have only a tenuous grip on the title “South Aussie Builders”.
So to the others. Malcolm needs no introduction as he has led the team for 9 years now. Most of his time is spent planning (or modifying plans as Plan A never works in Thailand!) and organising the team. We were able to hire a tractor with a bulldozer blade so Malcolm was as happy as a pig in straw shaping the 70 truckloads of soil into a play area and paths and landscaping. Malcolm brought his 18 year old grand-daughter Jade, from Kingston, and she has been a revelation tackling every task on-site and is now quite an expert in putting up ceilings. Her friend from Kingston, Tori, has also come and they have spent time in the ceiling back-boarding the gyprock sheets with glue. Jade slipped and she, like Suwan went through a sheet but fortunately straddling one of the rafters. Jade and Tori love the Thai markets and are much enticed by the cheap prices.
Malcolm also brought Sandra from his church in Broome and she accompanied Eric, an 85 year old benefactor for Ban Meata. He struggles (of course) to manage the heat and sweat on site so spends his time at Phetchabun making flying visits with Rob and Pawinee to check on the progress. Sandra has a goal to use all the power tools and has achieved that with the exception of the 9 inch grinder (a brute of an instrument) and the jack hammer (weighs nearly as much as she does!).
And that leaves Murray, one of the original team 9 years ago and over here this time initially for the marriage of his son Chris (another past team member) to Porn, one of the Thai workers at Phetchabun Ban Meata. When his wife Ruth returned to Australia he came to Khon Kaen and will be here for the whole 6 weeks.
Now here’s the problem. Nearly all the Queenslanders will be gone by next week and apart from the 2 young girls and Josh the team will be made up of old codgers! The average age won’t be helped when 2 Dutch men and 2 Dutch ladies join us next week. All on the wrong side of seventy it’s great to see them working away in the heat painting steel and painting the walls of the finished buildings. They work tirelessly through the year raising funds for Ban Meata and have contribute enough to pay for one of the houses – naturally it will be called the “Dutch House” and a plaque will be ceremonially attached sometime next week.
So where are we up to. We have poured 100 cubic metres of concrete in the past week or so – verandahs have been finished for 2 buildings and the large play area has been done. We bought a new helicopter (finishing machine) and Malcolm has spent hours standing contentedly behind that giving a nice smooth surface. Preparations are being done to put ceilings in the bottom storey of the 2 storey house, the ceilings are being flushed in the dining room, more boxing is being done for paths and roads, and our chippie has been bird-proofing the dining room and a house. Plumbing is being put into the top storey of a house and this means drilling big holes through the concrete floor.
My job for several days has been channelling the walls and putting electrical conduit into the top storey for power outlets, lights and fans. This involves a 4 inch and a 6 inch angle grinder, a router bit, hammer and cold chisel, facemasks and earmuffs and lots of noise and dust – a hot, filthy job but the dust is clean!
This weekend (last weekend by the time you read this) we are off to Phetchabun and I can’t wait to see my Whun. It’s the Australia Day weekend and we traditionally have an Aussie meal together to celebrate. More of this in the next episode.
Until then
God bless
Ron
Pic 1 - Malc flying the helicopter
Pic 2 - Jade and Tori after back-boarding
Pic 3 - Jarrod, 16 year-old man mountain
Pic 4 -
Malc flying the helicopter
Jade and Tori after back-boarding
Jarrod, 16 year-old man mountain
Conduit channelling
I mentioned our Thai workers last time so I should introduce you to the rest of the team. Richard Wray from Brackenridge Baptist in Brisbane has worked with us before and has led several teams to Thailand over the years. He is a born organiser and has plumbed the mysteries of Thai hardware stores so almost daily he is off on a quest for more steel, tools, gyprock, pumps and myriad other supplies. Russell Lee, trophy shop owner in Brisbane, closes his shop each year to join us on the team. This year he brought 2 young brothers, 14 and 16, whose appearance belies their age. Jarrod, the 16 year old is a mountain of a man with a big bushy beard and is immensely strong. Our trip to the steak house, all you can eat for 139 baht ($4.50), was like an early arrival in heaven for both of them.
We have a chippy from the Sunshine Coast and an electrician from the same place. Todd, the chippy, is a young bloke with surfie blonde hair and an instant hit with the girls from Ban Meata. Josh, another young bloke from Brisbane, was with us last year and has fallen in love with Thailand so much he came back during the last year. Allan Baker, an older bloke (ie older than me!) also from the Sunshine Coast and a long-time supporter of Ban Meata completes the Queensland contingent and outnumbers the South Australians by so many that we have only a tenuous grip on the title “South Aussie Builders”.
So to the others. Malcolm needs no introduction as he has led the team for 9 years now. Most of his time is spent planning (or modifying plans as Plan A never works in Thailand!) and organising the team. We were able to hire a tractor with a bulldozer blade so Malcolm was as happy as a pig in straw shaping the 70 truckloads of soil into a play area and paths and landscaping. Malcolm brought his 18 year old grand-daughter Jade, from Kingston, and she has been a revelation tackling every task on-site and is now quite an expert in putting up ceilings. Her friend from Kingston, Tori, has also come and they have spent time in the ceiling back-boarding the gyprock sheets with glue. Jade slipped and she, like Suwan went through a sheet but fortunately straddling one of the rafters. Jade and Tori love the Thai markets and are much enticed by the cheap prices.
Malcolm also brought Sandra from his church in Broome and she accompanied Eric, an 85 year old benefactor for Ban Meata. He struggles (of course) to manage the heat and sweat on site so spends his time at Phetchabun making flying visits with Rob and Pawinee to check on the progress. Sandra has a goal to use all the power tools and has achieved that with the exception of the 9 inch grinder (a brute of an instrument) and the jack hammer (weighs nearly as much as she does!).
And that leaves Murray, one of the original team 9 years ago and over here this time initially for the marriage of his son Chris (another past team member) to Porn, one of the Thai workers at Phetchabun Ban Meata. When his wife Ruth returned to Australia he came to Khon Kaen and will be here for the whole 6 weeks.
Now here’s the problem. Nearly all the Queenslanders will be gone by next week and apart from the 2 young girls and Josh the team will be made up of old codgers! The average age won’t be helped when 2 Dutch men and 2 Dutch ladies join us next week. All on the wrong side of seventy it’s great to see them working away in the heat painting steel and painting the walls of the finished buildings. They work tirelessly through the year raising funds for Ban Meata and have contribute enough to pay for one of the houses – naturally it will be called the “Dutch House” and a plaque will be ceremonially attached sometime next week.
So where are we up to. We have poured 100 cubic metres of concrete in the past week or so – verandahs have been finished for 2 buildings and the large play area has been done. We bought a new helicopter (finishing machine) and Malcolm has spent hours standing contentedly behind that giving a nice smooth surface. Preparations are being done to put ceilings in the bottom storey of the 2 storey house, the ceilings are being flushed in the dining room, more boxing is being done for paths and roads, and our chippie has been bird-proofing the dining room and a house. Plumbing is being put into the top storey of a house and this means drilling big holes through the concrete floor.
My job for several days has been channelling the walls and putting electrical conduit into the top storey for power outlets, lights and fans. This involves a 4 inch and a 6 inch angle grinder, a router bit, hammer and cold chisel, facemasks and earmuffs and lots of noise and dust – a hot, filthy job but the dust is clean!
This weekend (last weekend by the time you read this) we are off to Phetchabun and I can’t wait to see my Whun. It’s the Australia Day weekend and we traditionally have an Aussie meal together to celebrate. More of this in the next episode.
Until then
God bless
Ron
Pic 1 - Malc flying the helicopter
Pic 2 - Jade and Tori after back-boarding
Pic 3 - Jarrod, 16 year-old man mountain
Pic 4 -
Malc flying the helicopter
Jade and Tori after back-boarding
Jarrod, 16 year-old man mountain
Conduit channelling
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Missive 1 - 2013
After telling everybody about working in the heat and humidity we have just enjoyed several beautiful days in the high 20’s - most of you reading this are probably enduring a heatwave. Don’t you wish you were here?
Work started in the dining room and I have spent my time on a platform putting in ceilings. We have finished the kitchen and I’m pleased to report that some last minute cortisone injections have been very helpful and my shoulder is coping very well. It’s been great to work alongside the Thai boys again – Deo, Sun and Boonsalit have been with us for many years now and Suwan worked with us as a teenager when we first came to Thailand in 2005. Suwan had a small problem yesterday – he was “back-boarding” the gyprock up in the ceiling by gluing pieces along the edges of the sheets when he slipped and went through the ceiling. Fortunately he didn’t go all the way but we had to pull down 2 sheets before the glue dried and replace them.
One of the things I love about Thailand is the variety of smells that are typical of the country. Travelling the streets of Khon Kaen one is assailed by the smells of barbecued chicken from the roadside stalls, spicy cooking from the hundreds of tiny restaurants, fish and vegetables and meat from markets, and of course the not so welcoming drains and sewers and smoke from burning rubbish. It’s Thailand and I love it. Don’t you wish you were here?
Last night for our meal we went to a fish restaurant to celebrate the birthday of Richard, one of our team members. Typically the restaurant was open sided overlooking a lake surrounded by thatched huts and the lights reflected in the water. We ordered tom yum soup (too hot for some), several barbecued fish, plates stacked high with fried rice, plates of pork and chicken with vegetables and cashews in a beautiful sauce, deep fried prawns, and plates of curried crab. It was culinary heaven. We finished with the birthday cake that one of the Thai girls brought – mostly decorated cream and some cake underneath it all. It’s Thailand and I love it. Don’t you wish you were here?
Adding to the dinner experience we all travelled out there in a ute - some in the cab and 7 of us uncomfortably in the back with the warm air blowing through our hair and the smell of Thailand wafting past. The roadsides are festooned with neon signs and lights, and the service stations typically have 4 or 5 fluoros set up like an arrow to direct you in. Motorbikes are everywhere overtaking you on both sides and a law unto themselves. It’s Thailand and I love it. Don’t you wish you were here?
Sunday is our day off and we took the chance to do a little tourism after worship with the kids at Ban Meata. We found a lake surrounded by beautiful grounds in which people were jogging and using outdoor exercise equipment. There is a huge aviary with a number of peacocks but there were no birds that we could see using the top half which would have been 30 metres high. We then meandered back home through many small villages. Each village has its share of beautiful homes rubbing shoulders with hovels made of rusty iron sheets and greying weathered wooden planks. Dogs lie in the middle of the road and move reluctantly for the traffic and people sit at the front of dilapidated homes talking on their mobile phones. All this with a backdrop of coconut palms and green rice paddies. It’s Thailand and I love it!
Sunday is market day on the grounds of the local school and we went there to supplement our tea which Jip (Sun’s wife) was preparing for us. Markets are wonderful places of variety and colour – you can buy anything from clothes (new and used), kitchen implements, shoes, sunglasses, tools, and food. We bought a piece of pork chopped into pieces with a mean looking hatchet, chicken on a stick, an octopus salad, and some jam filled donuts. Jip had been cooking up a bowl of lap (minced chicken or pork) and sticky rice. We sat down to a sumptuous spread. As always happens, we sat in the eating area and the Thais sat on the floor in the kitchen to eat. Their lap was considerably spicier than ours but knowing I like chilli they always ask me out to have some of theirs. Sometimes it is so hot that it’s pride alone that enables me to get through it. But this is Thailand and I love it! And I wish you were here to share the delights.
But back to the building report. The dining room as mentioned has the ceiling going in, the single storey living quarters is almost finished and is being tiled, the 2 storey building almost has the walls topped and is being rendered. The Thai blokes are finishing the roof while this happening. Many truckloads of dirt are trundling in to raise the ground level for verandahs and paths around the site, and for a large play area. This week work will start on the third accommodation building the slab of which we poured last year. Malcolm has just calculated that we will spend about 3 million baht ($100,000) while we are here so thank you to all those people who have contributed and helped us on the way.
I have tried to entice you with some of the flavour of being here and give you some idea of why I love to come back. Next time I’ll introduce you to a few more of the people here and those on the team. Your continued prayers are valued and appreciated.
Until next time
God bless
Ron
Pictures:
Pic 1 - A healthy walk in the Health Park
Pic 2 -
Pic 3 - Some of the food stalls at the market
Pic 4 - Ron putting up channel for the gyprock
A healthy walk in the Health Park
A typical village street
Some of the food stalls at the market
Ron putting up channel for the gyprock
Work started in the dining room and I have spent my time on a platform putting in ceilings. We have finished the kitchen and I’m pleased to report that some last minute cortisone injections have been very helpful and my shoulder is coping very well. It’s been great to work alongside the Thai boys again – Deo, Sun and Boonsalit have been with us for many years now and Suwan worked with us as a teenager when we first came to Thailand in 2005. Suwan had a small problem yesterday – he was “back-boarding” the gyprock up in the ceiling by gluing pieces along the edges of the sheets when he slipped and went through the ceiling. Fortunately he didn’t go all the way but we had to pull down 2 sheets before the glue dried and replace them.
One of the things I love about Thailand is the variety of smells that are typical of the country. Travelling the streets of Khon Kaen one is assailed by the smells of barbecued chicken from the roadside stalls, spicy cooking from the hundreds of tiny restaurants, fish and vegetables and meat from markets, and of course the not so welcoming drains and sewers and smoke from burning rubbish. It’s Thailand and I love it. Don’t you wish you were here?
Last night for our meal we went to a fish restaurant to celebrate the birthday of Richard, one of our team members. Typically the restaurant was open sided overlooking a lake surrounded by thatched huts and the lights reflected in the water. We ordered tom yum soup (too hot for some), several barbecued fish, plates stacked high with fried rice, plates of pork and chicken with vegetables and cashews in a beautiful sauce, deep fried prawns, and plates of curried crab. It was culinary heaven. We finished with the birthday cake that one of the Thai girls brought – mostly decorated cream and some cake underneath it all. It’s Thailand and I love it. Don’t you wish you were here?
Adding to the dinner experience we all travelled out there in a ute - some in the cab and 7 of us uncomfortably in the back with the warm air blowing through our hair and the smell of Thailand wafting past. The roadsides are festooned with neon signs and lights, and the service stations typically have 4 or 5 fluoros set up like an arrow to direct you in. Motorbikes are everywhere overtaking you on both sides and a law unto themselves. It’s Thailand and I love it. Don’t you wish you were here?
Sunday is our day off and we took the chance to do a little tourism after worship with the kids at Ban Meata. We found a lake surrounded by beautiful grounds in which people were jogging and using outdoor exercise equipment. There is a huge aviary with a number of peacocks but there were no birds that we could see using the top half which would have been 30 metres high. We then meandered back home through many small villages. Each village has its share of beautiful homes rubbing shoulders with hovels made of rusty iron sheets and greying weathered wooden planks. Dogs lie in the middle of the road and move reluctantly for the traffic and people sit at the front of dilapidated homes talking on their mobile phones. All this with a backdrop of coconut palms and green rice paddies. It’s Thailand and I love it!
Sunday is market day on the grounds of the local school and we went there to supplement our tea which Jip (Sun’s wife) was preparing for us. Markets are wonderful places of variety and colour – you can buy anything from clothes (new and used), kitchen implements, shoes, sunglasses, tools, and food. We bought a piece of pork chopped into pieces with a mean looking hatchet, chicken on a stick, an octopus salad, and some jam filled donuts. Jip had been cooking up a bowl of lap (minced chicken or pork) and sticky rice. We sat down to a sumptuous spread. As always happens, we sat in the eating area and the Thais sat on the floor in the kitchen to eat. Their lap was considerably spicier than ours but knowing I like chilli they always ask me out to have some of theirs. Sometimes it is so hot that it’s pride alone that enables me to get through it. But this is Thailand and I love it! And I wish you were here to share the delights.
But back to the building report. The dining room as mentioned has the ceiling going in, the single storey living quarters is almost finished and is being tiled, the 2 storey building almost has the walls topped and is being rendered. The Thai blokes are finishing the roof while this happening. Many truckloads of dirt are trundling in to raise the ground level for verandahs and paths around the site, and for a large play area. This week work will start on the third accommodation building the slab of which we poured last year. Malcolm has just calculated that we will spend about 3 million baht ($100,000) while we are here so thank you to all those people who have contributed and helped us on the way.
I have tried to entice you with some of the flavour of being here and give you some idea of why I love to come back. Next time I’ll introduce you to a few more of the people here and those on the team. Your continued prayers are valued and appreciated.
Until next time
God bless
Ron
Pictures:
Pic 1 - A healthy walk in the Health Park
Pic 2 -
Pic 3 - Some of the food stalls at the market
Pic 4 - Ron putting up channel for the gyprock
Monday, February 27, 2012
Missive 6 - 2012
It’s a quiet afternoon at Phetchabun and I have put aside the dozens of policies, reports and proposals that I have been churning out for the last couple of weeks to catch you up with events and finish what will be the last blog. I’ve been flat out like a lizard drinking ever since I arrived at Phetchabun although I have managed to keep most evenings (well, late evenings anyway) free to relax in our house here. I’m getting through a few books and crossword puzzles and have just about worn out the 2 or 3 CD’s I’ve got.
We finished our time in Khon Kaen with a party on one of the slabs and we invited the kids from the orphanage, all the neighbours who have been looking curiously over the fence for the last 6 weeks, and the local businesses that we have been dealing with. We didn’t get very many neighbours but we had a good time and the kids danced the night away with the ever present music and amplifier. I spent the night with Pam curled up on my lap. She is recovering from her kidney infection but is still feeling poorly and soaked up the attention anyway.
We got most of the roof steel up and we had a team of Thais working on the blockwork of the first house, and the skeleton team left will get the roof on, see the walls topped and have the windows and doors in before they leave in March. As I was sitting back in the air-conditioned comfort of Rob and Pawinee’s car on the return to Phetchabun I reflected on which of the building jobs would be good material for that TV show “Dirty Jobs”. Would it be digging holes by hand (not enough power for the jackhammer) out in the sun for 3 days straight and struggling to get my shirt off to hang over a bush during smoko because it was so wet? Or would it be squatting in the sun with scream of the dropsaw and the stream of sparks cutting hundreds of lengths of steel to be welded into trusses? Or perhaps it would be bending over in the sun weaving 15 km of 6 metre lengths of 6mm steel into mesh and then squatting and tying the edges with tie wire? Whichever one wins they were all instrumental in giving us pretty impressive suntans and the Thais are greatly amused by our sock tans.
It is much less dramatic here at Phetchabun although today provided something out of the ordinary. We got word yesterday that a neighbour of Jip’s, aged 45, and in extreme circumstances of poverty (not helped by her husband’s love of the grog) was having a baby. She can’t care for it and asked us to take it. Last night she was waiting in Ban Klang (nearby village) for transport to hospital and although some people waited with her they eventually drifted off when nobody came after a couple of hours. Whilst on her own she had the baby, was losing blood, and passed out. Jip’s sister in law found her with the baby born but still attached. We were grateful that she found her before the ever-present dogs did.
This morning Glom got together some baby things and she, Jip and I drove into Lomsak to see the Mum and baby and have the baby signed over. When we arrived we found that the little girl was born with a cleft palate and had 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each foot. The extra digits are a minor problem but the cleft palate means a lengthy stay in a larger hospital at Phitsanoulok (same hospital in which Gedt was cared for until she died). We are currently trying to organize daily care for her while she is there. Please pray for this little girl – she should have a name by tomorrow! [Stop Press: Her name is Hope because we believe she has a future and a hope in Jesus with us – she will go to the Phrae orphanage]
A wonderful sideline to this is that Pawinee, 2 weeks ago, shared a dream she had with Glom and Jip. She dreamt that someone put a baby in her arms and said that it was a baby from Ban Klang. The baby had something wrong with its hands but responded to Pawinee’s touch by closing its hand on hers. The baby also responded with its eyes but could not speak because something was wrong with its mouth. Pawinee is usually reluctant to accept disabled kids here because we don’t have the capacity to manage them, but she felt that God was saying in the dream that she should accept this child as He was giving it to her. For 2 weeks she wondered what all that was about and today she found out. One of God’s miracles!
Less exciting than all that but wonderful anyway is the time I can spend with our Whun and pi-sou (big sister) Why. Last weekend I took them into Phetchabun and after lunch set them to choosing some clothes as a belated Christmas present. After waiting for some time with my shopping trolley and still nothing chosen I said I would go and do my other shopping and come back. 20 minutes later I returned with my trolley full but Why still hadn’t found anything that she liked or fitted. She did make a choice within the next 10 minutes but then they needed a few health food supplies, like chips and stuff. It was their turn to suffer then as I went for a haircut and the lady who does it took an hour – she gave every one of my remaining hairs her individual attention – even though it was just a number 2 on top and number 1 for the beard.
We have enjoyed a string of parties with the big girls and boys where we get out the BBQ buckets and cook all sorts of meatballs and bits and pieces. One party was at Pawinee’s and the girls made little shrimp traps out of plastic drink bottles and put them in the dam. They collected hundreds of little shrimps which they put in a chili batter mix and fried. The shrimps kept leaping out of the batter so they had to pour hot water into their bucket to hasten their demise. I’m hoping there isn’t a horde of animal liberationists in my readership who will descend in wrath on Thailand to avenge this practice!
Richard Wray who came back to Phetchabun with us spent 10 days here and left for home a few days ago. He spent time fixing some plumbing for Kerry (long term volunteer) and installing a new water tank at Porn’s new house (Porn is one of the original workers here – some of you may remember the story of “hit it with the Word” and Porn is the hitter!). I helped Richard with some of this and we had a good time together.
Only 10 days to go myself now. I’ll be back on the morning of March 8th. As usual I’m looking forward to getting back home to Colleen, family and the rest of you, but I’m not looking forward to leaving my Thai family here. I may be repeating myself here but the Thais have a saying “song jai” (literally 2 hearts) which means you have your heart in two places. Colleen and I have found this to be so true and there will be a few tears when I leave.
Till I see you
God bless
Ron
Progress to the day I left
Pam snuggling up at the slab party
One of my exciting rows of holes
Hope - a precious little tyke
We finished our time in Khon Kaen with a party on one of the slabs and we invited the kids from the orphanage, all the neighbours who have been looking curiously over the fence for the last 6 weeks, and the local businesses that we have been dealing with. We didn’t get very many neighbours but we had a good time and the kids danced the night away with the ever present music and amplifier. I spent the night with Pam curled up on my lap. She is recovering from her kidney infection but is still feeling poorly and soaked up the attention anyway.
We got most of the roof steel up and we had a team of Thais working on the blockwork of the first house, and the skeleton team left will get the roof on, see the walls topped and have the windows and doors in before they leave in March. As I was sitting back in the air-conditioned comfort of Rob and Pawinee’s car on the return to Phetchabun I reflected on which of the building jobs would be good material for that TV show “Dirty Jobs”. Would it be digging holes by hand (not enough power for the jackhammer) out in the sun for 3 days straight and struggling to get my shirt off to hang over a bush during smoko because it was so wet? Or would it be squatting in the sun with scream of the dropsaw and the stream of sparks cutting hundreds of lengths of steel to be welded into trusses? Or perhaps it would be bending over in the sun weaving 15 km of 6 metre lengths of 6mm steel into mesh and then squatting and tying the edges with tie wire? Whichever one wins they were all instrumental in giving us pretty impressive suntans and the Thais are greatly amused by our sock tans.
It is much less dramatic here at Phetchabun although today provided something out of the ordinary. We got word yesterday that a neighbour of Jip’s, aged 45, and in extreme circumstances of poverty (not helped by her husband’s love of the grog) was having a baby. She can’t care for it and asked us to take it. Last night she was waiting in Ban Klang (nearby village) for transport to hospital and although some people waited with her they eventually drifted off when nobody came after a couple of hours. Whilst on her own she had the baby, was losing blood, and passed out. Jip’s sister in law found her with the baby born but still attached. We were grateful that she found her before the ever-present dogs did.
This morning Glom got together some baby things and she, Jip and I drove into Lomsak to see the Mum and baby and have the baby signed over. When we arrived we found that the little girl was born with a cleft palate and had 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each foot. The extra digits are a minor problem but the cleft palate means a lengthy stay in a larger hospital at Phitsanoulok (same hospital in which Gedt was cared for until she died). We are currently trying to organize daily care for her while she is there. Please pray for this little girl – she should have a name by tomorrow! [Stop Press: Her name is Hope because we believe she has a future and a hope in Jesus with us – she will go to the Phrae orphanage]
A wonderful sideline to this is that Pawinee, 2 weeks ago, shared a dream she had with Glom and Jip. She dreamt that someone put a baby in her arms and said that it was a baby from Ban Klang. The baby had something wrong with its hands but responded to Pawinee’s touch by closing its hand on hers. The baby also responded with its eyes but could not speak because something was wrong with its mouth. Pawinee is usually reluctant to accept disabled kids here because we don’t have the capacity to manage them, but she felt that God was saying in the dream that she should accept this child as He was giving it to her. For 2 weeks she wondered what all that was about and today she found out. One of God’s miracles!
Less exciting than all that but wonderful anyway is the time I can spend with our Whun and pi-sou (big sister) Why. Last weekend I took them into Phetchabun and after lunch set them to choosing some clothes as a belated Christmas present. After waiting for some time with my shopping trolley and still nothing chosen I said I would go and do my other shopping and come back. 20 minutes later I returned with my trolley full but Why still hadn’t found anything that she liked or fitted. She did make a choice within the next 10 minutes but then they needed a few health food supplies, like chips and stuff. It was their turn to suffer then as I went for a haircut and the lady who does it took an hour – she gave every one of my remaining hairs her individual attention – even though it was just a number 2 on top and number 1 for the beard.
We have enjoyed a string of parties with the big girls and boys where we get out the BBQ buckets and cook all sorts of meatballs and bits and pieces. One party was at Pawinee’s and the girls made little shrimp traps out of plastic drink bottles and put them in the dam. They collected hundreds of little shrimps which they put in a chili batter mix and fried. The shrimps kept leaping out of the batter so they had to pour hot water into their bucket to hasten their demise. I’m hoping there isn’t a horde of animal liberationists in my readership who will descend in wrath on Thailand to avenge this practice!
Richard Wray who came back to Phetchabun with us spent 10 days here and left for home a few days ago. He spent time fixing some plumbing for Kerry (long term volunteer) and installing a new water tank at Porn’s new house (Porn is one of the original workers here – some of you may remember the story of “hit it with the Word” and Porn is the hitter!). I helped Richard with some of this and we had a good time together.
Only 10 days to go myself now. I’ll be back on the morning of March 8th. As usual I’m looking forward to getting back home to Colleen, family and the rest of you, but I’m not looking forward to leaving my Thai family here. I may be repeating myself here but the Thais have a saying “song jai” (literally 2 hearts) which means you have your heart in two places. Colleen and I have found this to be so true and there will be a few tears when I leave.
Till I see you
God bless
Ron
Progress to the day I left
Pam snuggling up at the slab party
One of my exciting rows of holes
Hope - a precious little tyke
Friday, February 10, 2012
Missive 5 – 2012
Well, this may be the last one – at least from the building site. 5 working days and another 4 of us leave. There will be a small number staying on and of course our Thai blokes. Deo, Boonsilit and Sun have all left their families in Phetchabun and have been working here for 6 weeks or so. They have been back home for a few weekends but will continue to work here for several more months with a week or two off here and there. They have been sleeping outside in a tent and occasionally cooking over an open fire. They have their lunch sitting on the floor in the laundry and usually have a dish of som-tum (grated green paw-paw, tomato, fish sauce and chili) and sticky rice so sometimes I go and have a bit of theirs if the som-tum is not too hot. Next week when the “ferengues” leave they will move into the house. We invited them in this week with all the spare beds but Deo reckons the ferengues snore too much.
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
Keep an eye out on YouTube
Preaching
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
Keep an eye out on YouTube
Preaching
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Missive 4 – 2012
What a week - and where to start! The highlight of last week was the pouring of the slab for the dining room/kitchen/laundry. It was a huge job with 28 truckloads of concrete and to get it done we had the first 4 trucks come through the gate at 6am. The whole pour was in jeopardy the night before because Malcolm had demanded chutes to get the concrete into the middle (the building is 16metres wide and 41 metres long), but they brought a tiny little one for inspection, and then a contraption made of cut down oil drums. Malcolm finally said “Find something or we cancel the order.” Then things really started to hum. They ordered a huge crane and a skip and that duly arrived at 6am. The pour went very well and everybody was suitably exhausted by the end of the day – so much so that the next day was almost a write-off!
The weekend was also a great highlight. The team decamped to Phetchabun in 2 buses for Pawinee’s birthday and housewarming. The buses we hire for these purposes are worthy of mention. They are a Toyota 12 seater and the drivers “pimp their ride” like you wouldn’t believe. They are pretty spectacular off the production line with intricately patterned upholstery on the roof, sometimes a TV, including one for the driver which pops out of the dashboard, lots of chrome outside and aggressive looking front-ends. Illegal in Australia, but popular in Thailand are lots of coloured LED lights in various places over the bodywork, including underneath and in the wheels. Most drivers have a multitude of stuff hanging from their rear-vision mirror, always including a garland of intricately woven white flower petals. These are sold, by vendors taking their life in their hands at many traffic light controlled intersections, for just 20 baht, and are a Buddhist tradition meant to add a blessing to the journey. The drivers also toot their horn as they pass the various temples to remind the spirits that they are passing by and to toss a blessing their way if they feel so inclined.
We received the usual warm welcome at Phetchabun and we dressed in our finery for the big party. Long trousers are expected for the men so a few of our blokes had to buy some especially. Some of our women also took the opportunity to go shopping with the good excuse of “not having a thing to wear”. Pawinee’s house was absolutely stunningly spectacular. The excruciatingly long time it has taken to get things right and to buy furnishings that suit has paid off. The end result is an elegance that befits a magazine showpiece. In fact, the Thai equivalent of “House and Garden” has asked to do a feature on it but I don’t think she’s happy with the garden bit yet so I’m not sure if that will happen soon.
The party had about 150 attending, including the big girls and big boys from Ban Meata. Our girls looked very beautiful all dressed up in their best and looked very much the young ladies they have become. We had some very professional Thai dancing by 5 girls from the school, one of whom was a Ban Meata girl, Brung, from the big girls’ house. Mum Whun was bursting with pride to see one her girls perform so well. Rob made a speech as did Thanakorn her brother. I wrote her a couple of songs and sang those and Malcolm followed up with a few words. Pawinee rounded out the speech making with testimony to how much God has blessed her and we all shared some of the huge cake. The food was typically Thai and just beautiful. We all sat outside at tables and the cooking team was stationed under the teak trees and presented the food, and the eating utensils, in cleverly patterned arrangements. For me it was quintessential Thailand and reminiscent of the hospitality we have enjoyed at weddings, funerals, parties and community events. Just wonderful – and by now I’m hoping you are all wishing you were here!
I should tell you about the wonderful group of women who are on the team here. Stephanie Wade (from Ireland), Jenni Hamilton (from the MI office in Queensland and now planning to stay long term), Katie Walacavage (a Queenslander known to the Hamiltons), Claire Ng (from Singapore) and Punee (from Ban Meata) have done a fantastic job preparing meals, doing our washing, mopping the floors and keeping the houses spic and span. Others like Jenny Joseph (Kiwi), Alex Fox (Aussie lady living permanently in Thailand), and often Jenni Hamilton and Katie Walacavage, spend their days on the building site pulling their weight marvelously.
This week has been significant for a couple of reasons. After being here 4 or 5 weeks we finally have something up out of the ground. In the last couple of days we have put up steel posts on the slab and now have 3 trusses up. Alex Fox and I have become bricklayers and Alex at least has become very proficient. We have started the walls on 3 sides of the first house and in between lifting up the trusses we are a couple of layers high and to the point of writing nothing has fallen over!
The other significant thing is the reduction in the size of the team. Katie Walacavage has gone, Graham Wray left on Sunday, Josh De Gee today, Dallas and Jenny tomorrow and our 2 Dutchmen the day after. And of course by the end of next week the last of the team will go home, although 3 or 4, including Chris Stolte will stay on and progress the work a bit more for a few months.
Despite all this there will be time for one more of these. Keep on keeping up with the news.
God bless
Ron
Dancing with my girl
Pawinee's house
My first block
Brung in Thai dancing costume
The weekend was also a great highlight. The team decamped to Phetchabun in 2 buses for Pawinee’s birthday and housewarming. The buses we hire for these purposes are worthy of mention. They are a Toyota 12 seater and the drivers “pimp their ride” like you wouldn’t believe. They are pretty spectacular off the production line with intricately patterned upholstery on the roof, sometimes a TV, including one for the driver which pops out of the dashboard, lots of chrome outside and aggressive looking front-ends. Illegal in Australia, but popular in Thailand are lots of coloured LED lights in various places over the bodywork, including underneath and in the wheels. Most drivers have a multitude of stuff hanging from their rear-vision mirror, always including a garland of intricately woven white flower petals. These are sold, by vendors taking their life in their hands at many traffic light controlled intersections, for just 20 baht, and are a Buddhist tradition meant to add a blessing to the journey. The drivers also toot their horn as they pass the various temples to remind the spirits that they are passing by and to toss a blessing their way if they feel so inclined.
We received the usual warm welcome at Phetchabun and we dressed in our finery for the big party. Long trousers are expected for the men so a few of our blokes had to buy some especially. Some of our women also took the opportunity to go shopping with the good excuse of “not having a thing to wear”. Pawinee’s house was absolutely stunningly spectacular. The excruciatingly long time it has taken to get things right and to buy furnishings that suit has paid off. The end result is an elegance that befits a magazine showpiece. In fact, the Thai equivalent of “House and Garden” has asked to do a feature on it but I don’t think she’s happy with the garden bit yet so I’m not sure if that will happen soon.
The party had about 150 attending, including the big girls and big boys from Ban Meata. Our girls looked very beautiful all dressed up in their best and looked very much the young ladies they have become. We had some very professional Thai dancing by 5 girls from the school, one of whom was a Ban Meata girl, Brung, from the big girls’ house. Mum Whun was bursting with pride to see one her girls perform so well. Rob made a speech as did Thanakorn her brother. I wrote her a couple of songs and sang those and Malcolm followed up with a few words. Pawinee rounded out the speech making with testimony to how much God has blessed her and we all shared some of the huge cake. The food was typically Thai and just beautiful. We all sat outside at tables and the cooking team was stationed under the teak trees and presented the food, and the eating utensils, in cleverly patterned arrangements. For me it was quintessential Thailand and reminiscent of the hospitality we have enjoyed at weddings, funerals, parties and community events. Just wonderful – and by now I’m hoping you are all wishing you were here!
I should tell you about the wonderful group of women who are on the team here. Stephanie Wade (from Ireland), Jenni Hamilton (from the MI office in Queensland and now planning to stay long term), Katie Walacavage (a Queenslander known to the Hamiltons), Claire Ng (from Singapore) and Punee (from Ban Meata) have done a fantastic job preparing meals, doing our washing, mopping the floors and keeping the houses spic and span. Others like Jenny Joseph (Kiwi), Alex Fox (Aussie lady living permanently in Thailand), and often Jenni Hamilton and Katie Walacavage, spend their days on the building site pulling their weight marvelously.
This week has been significant for a couple of reasons. After being here 4 or 5 weeks we finally have something up out of the ground. In the last couple of days we have put up steel posts on the slab and now have 3 trusses up. Alex Fox and I have become bricklayers and Alex at least has become very proficient. We have started the walls on 3 sides of the first house and in between lifting up the trusses we are a couple of layers high and to the point of writing nothing has fallen over!
The other significant thing is the reduction in the size of the team. Katie Walacavage has gone, Graham Wray left on Sunday, Josh De Gee today, Dallas and Jenny tomorrow and our 2 Dutchmen the day after. And of course by the end of next week the last of the team will go home, although 3 or 4, including Chris Stolte will stay on and progress the work a bit more for a few months.
Despite all this there will be time for one more of these. Keep on keeping up with the news.
God bless
Ron
Dancing with my girl
Pawinee's house
My first block
Brung in Thai dancing costume
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