LIFE AS WE KNOW IT: Thailand # 2

Our team worked on several projects while we were in the village. We did medical care, worked with the agriculture project, helped finish a new water tank, and helped begin the foundation for a second school building for the upper grades, and worked on child sponsorships with the teachers - including visiting each child that is sponsored. Additionally, one of our team members installed new winches on two trucks and fixed the cement mixers. Lastly, Bryan Acosta worked along side Lanna Coffee, Thailand on roasting, marketing and other general coffee stuff as it pertains to Lanna Coffee, USA. All in all a very productive trip!

CLEAN WATER

We take so much for granted here in the states . . . like clean water thats safe to drink! In the hill tribes of northern Thailand, this is not the case. Here is a picture of clean water coming to a village for the first time . . . and a picture of a mom washing her child which is part of the water projects that ITDP does. Along with bringing clean water, they teach villagers to use squat toilets and wash themselves and their children and drink only clean water.

Filter

Digging!!

Water holding tank.

The filter has one form and the water tank has one form that they use to make 5 rings - one on top of the other. The finish you see now hides the "rings" and after it dries, it is painted white and then the teams will usually put a cross or a verse on it. Many man hours go into the water project. From the prep before teams get there, to digging trenches for the PVC pipes from the spring to the filter to the tank and finally into the village. Villagers and teams work side by side to accomplish this goal!

Water flowing into the filter for the first time!

SCHOOL

This is the second school house being built and will house the upper grades. The SDCC team and our team along with the villagers dug holes for the footings, bent rebar and tied together the rebar foundations. By now, they have probably built the forms around the rebar and are ready to start pouring cement. I've also included some pictures of the school children!

Every morning we watched the children line up, raise the flag, say a prayer and then march into school. In the lower picture, you can see the beginnings of the foundation for the building we worked on. It will house the upper grades and they eventually hope to go all the way through high school. You can also see the village of Debusillica in the background.

The children are very respectful and orderly and the teachers seem to be doing a great job. All of the classes are taught in Thai so that the children will be able to speak their country's language as well as their village language.

The villagers always help with the work. To the left are a couple of Karen ladies helping to dig the holes. These will serve as the footings and both The Well and SDCC teams helped to dig these holes. It is hard work to do by hand as you can imagine.

I cannot remember how many holes, but there were quite a few!! After the holes were dug the rebar posts were tied and put into the holes and they used empty water jugs as forms to cement the footing posts in place. (I am not sure if I am using the correct names for these footing/post things - so for any of our architect friends - sorry!!) Below, you can see the footings taking shape and you can see the rings on the rebar that we spent hours bending and tying on.

All of the rings that held the rebar into position had to be hand bent. We spent many man-hours bending cut rebar into three different sizes. This is all done by hand with a crow-bar looking tool with a notch to grab the rebar and nails placed on a board. If you did it in the right order, and bent it to 90 degrees, you could make a perfect ring.

A couple of years ago we had the chance to buy a cement mixer which helps the work go so much faster, still, you must pour the initial slurry into a pit and then mix buckets of rock into it by hand. Many long hours mixing cement by hoes and shovels made for sore backs and arms and tired workers!!