What is up guys, it's your boy, Reese. It's Monday, the 27th of May, and also our official first work day.
It started out a innocuously enough. We woke up at 5:15 which is never pleasant, but after a hearty breakfast we were out on site with Khem and the contractors, ready to go. First thing we see is....our own faces, but about four times bigger than normal. The school had mounted a wall sized poster of our team, all of us beaming out at the school cafeteria. Despite the some typos on our names, it was a very sweet gesture.
After laughing about the absurd size of our pixelly likenesses, we quizzed the cook, a plump, jolly woman who drives her own motorcycle/side cart vehicle, about her preferences for sink height and counter space. Then we talked to the contractor about some future tasks: prepping for mounting the countertops, repairing the roof, and creating a serving tray. We assembled about half a shelf before our productivity was halted by an introduction ceremony to the students of the Ban Thap Ta Taen School. It wasn't long before we were sprinting in our steel-toed boots and head butting the soccer ball under the Thai sun. Even though we had the size advantage on the 6th graders of the school, they had quite the home-court advantage. I had to stop the game after three goals because I literally could not continue. I was drenched in sweat and dirt, my cheeks were sunburnt, and blisters were about to form on my heels (I now believe these cowboy boots weren't designed for soccer in mind). Oh, and we were getting our butt handed to us 0-3. The kids on the other hand, were playing barefoot and hadn't broken a sweat.
We went back to work for a while, ate lunch, and went on some errands. It was quite the experience buying PVC without speaking the language. We had to pour out and re-count the dozens of fittings we bought about four times before walking out the store. I think the person who drew the shortest end of the stick was the guy helping us get each piece. He had to understand our rudimentary sign language and make a trip to the back room every time he slightly misunderstood. He was a good sport about it though.
Upon our return, we assembled the rest of the shelves and started our water supply trench. I'm pleasantly surprised on the utility of these trench spades they supplied us with. Five minutes into trench digging, a crowd of about twenty kids had formed with an ultimatum: they either help us dig, or we play some more soccer. So back on the soccer field in our boots, we ran it back, but this time I joined the good team (the one without PUC kids). Don't call me completely backstabbing though: I threw my old team a bone by giving them Ta Taen's best player, "Q." We still won though.
I ended the game again as I could not continue, and we dug some more trench. See below:
And there you have it folks, our first "work" day. I must end this post now. As I'm writing, the soccer fatigue is hitting me again. Goodnight!