Day 1:
Ok, so my first day in Thailand was all fun and games, but today we got down and dirty and started our first day of work. It is a 45 minute drive from our hotel to the work site. There are 13 of us that travel there - (our group, and our contact who works with Habitat here in Thailand - Melini) and we all sqeeze into this little red bus (as shown in the picture). Its a tight squeeze, but hey, it gets us all there.
So we started working around 9am, and we worked until 4. We got to meet the family that we are building the house for, and they couldn't be more grateful.
When I say we worked, I mean we WORKED!! The day consisted of bending barbed wire for the frame, shoveling dirt from the dirt piles into the house (and that took hours, and was quite painful after a while). We topped the day off by mixing and pouring concrete And that consisted of hauling more buckets of dirt, water, and gravel for the mixture, and that was quite a task as well. We were so busy working that the day went by surprisingly fast. We were able to take breaks, and we had lunch and snacks provided for us. The food is quite amazing. It is a good thing I am doing hard labor while I am here, or else I guaruntee I would be gaining a TON of weight. But believe me, I will be working off all of my food for sure.
It was very hot today, and we all were working up a pretty good sweat. But from what I hear, we are here at the right time because this is not even their hot season.
Day 2:
So, day two is in the books! Another day of hard work has been completed successfully. We were ahead of schedule, so we got to end a little early today, which was nice, because it was very hot. We spend the bulk of it mixing and pouring concrete, and that stuff aint light. We also finished filling in one of the rooms with dirt, and again, being in an assembly line of passing buckets filled with dirt is not an easy job. and as shown in the picture, there was A LOT of dirt to be passed. The family we are building for also helps us quite a bit with everything.
So, just to give you a feeling of what its like on the job site...there is a lot of bending, lifting, digging, and carrying. Its about 80 degrees outside, and you get pretty sweaty. At the end of the day, your back is sore, you stink, your arms are tired, and the 45 minute taxi drive home is almost unbearable. However, with all of that being said, we all still feel a little guilty about how well we are being treated here. Our contact Melini takes us to these wonderful places for food. People in the village we work in cook our food for us for our meals on the site, and they are like, gourmet. Everything here is open ridiculously late, so even after all our work is done, we have so much time to just explore the city, get a massage, or do whatever. Thailand is so awesome, after about 4 days here, I am convinced that I do not want to leave.