Bracelets and Balloon Races - Day 12

Hey everyone! Today is my (Andres) turn at authoring this Pulitzer prize blog, and I want to start off by thanking all the loyal blog readers who keep up with our project! Our kitchen is finally looking like an actual kitchen. I, however, am starting to look exhausted, so I'll keep the writing short and explain the day through a series of images.

We started off the morning with a 3v3 game of basketball and a some rounds of Knockout... ball is life

When we arrived at the work site, Sara and Reese glued all the pipes together

Meanwhile, Margaret swept inside of the kitchen to remove a thick layer of dust and dirt

Taylor and Kevan, on the other hand, got covered in dirt from head to toe while digging a large soakage pit for the drainage. They are definitely today's MVPs!

This led to Taylor needing a thorough bath, courtesy of Pastor Dar

Maddie was also hard at work planning and prepping community engagement activities to play with the children

During all of this, I just took pictures (oops)

The 3rd and 4th graders were super excited to partake in the Balloon Races competition

The kids showed us their strong lungs

And then taped the balloons onto a straw and raced them down a track

This led to a some celebration, some defeat, and a whole lot of hype

Afterwards, Maddie taught the kids how to make yarn bracelets

While other kids challenged us to thumb wrestling and arm wresting competitions

All in all, the students had a great time, and the team got to relive their elementary school years

For lunch, the cook surprised us with tapioca sweets colored with local flowers. This is our favorite dessert we've tried in Thailand

When we returned to work, Reese turned on the water while the rest of us prayed no leaks would arise

Turns out there were 2 small leaks, but we fixed them! The kitchen has water!

The drainage system works too!

Time to place these concrete cylinders to prevent the pit from caving in. As you can see, Reese is super strong

In case you were wondering, the pit does have a lid so no kids will fall in

We ended the day by burying the pipes

We couldn't have done it without the help of a group of volunteer 6th graders

Horns up to a productive day :-)