Thailand Journal 2011 #8

Another full day at the farm. We arrived at the same time as the morning’s first load of gravel. As soon as the truck dumped its load the team set about to level the huge pile out. It’s a bit frustrating that our best stones end up off on the sides where they’re not needed while the center of the road gets mostly sand. So a lot of the work is just trying to scrape the stones up from the sides and get them into the center where the ground is very soft and full of sink holes.

The crew worked very hard and got the first pile leveled just enough so that when the truck arrived with its second load it was able to drive back farther with it before dumping the stones. We were taking a much needed water break while the truck unloaded the rock when we looked up and our eyes beheld the most beautiful site coming down the road. It was like a knight on a white horse – except in this case it was a gentleman driving a tractor with a bucket on the front. As soon as the dump truck left this angel of mercy set about leveling the pile of stone. We cheered and applauded. But think not that we now had nothing to do. Au contraire! While he had done a beautiful job of leveling out the large pile, our best stones were still all off on the sides where they weren’t needed thus wasting precious rock. So we started using our shovels, hoes, buckets, and hands to try and bring the stones up from the side into the center. Back-breaking work, but this team is wonderful and never complains.

About noon, just after the third load was delivered the thunderstorm came. Many of you are familiar with tropical rainstorms – it poured. Some of the students were thrilled and got out of the pickup and danced and jumped in the rain – other team members were not so amused. Some of their pictures speak more than words possibly could.

With the heavy rains the team was unable to return to the farm this afternoon, but everyone was so tired from the morning’s work that perhaps that was for the best. This evening we returned to the nighttime English camp and spent time helping the students with their English through a variety of activities. We notice that the group of children grows every night so the kids must be spreading the news through word of mouth. It’s great to see the children so excited to see the team members arrive each night. It’s really going well.