Day 7: Little Surprises

Today we had breakfast with a group from the United States who are here with the YMCA building rooms in a school.  A much different vibe when the room goes from eight people to 26 people for breakfast....and Jennifer's hot water for her tea mysteriously went missing to the other end of the room.

We headed off to the work site at 7:30am as usual...this time with a new driver and van...and we actually made it through the market in record time.  Not sure if we are just getting better at this or they are more prepared for our arrival.  I asked Ngan if they were upset with us driving through the market and she said the first day we drove through someone asked where we were going and she told them we were volunteering to build homes...needless to say they were not upset with us intruding on their day.

Today I decided to stick with the same build site and work on the rebar.  It was definitely a test of my trying skills.  In fact at some point I'm pretty sure I started getting worse instead of better...still on my list of things I have no real interest to do again.  It did however become a joint effort with the local community, as several people joined our line of  rebar tiers...sure does make things go a lot fast.  We finished all four lengths by early afternoon.

Our final little helper was the cutest of all.  The homeowner's little boy...who is beyond shy...he sat up on the chair in front of the bending machine and was very intent on trying to figure out how that thing worked.  Liz and I tried to snap a few photos before he noticed...otherwise he'd be off hiding or looking for his mother.

We also took photos today with both families.  This was the first time we actually saw the homeowner's daughter get out of bed.  She had to be helped down for the picture as she has difficulty walking and then she spent the majority of the day on the hammock watching us and playing the local kids.  With the second family I wasn't sure we'd ever get the shot...every few seconds more of the extended family wanted to join in.  What a huge family!!

We had a great lunch again today...even had purple soup made with taro...and instead of a nap, Liz and I decided to have our toenails painted by the nephew of the head of the Women's Union....all for a whopping $1!!!  Jennifer had her toenails painted green the day before, Liz went with hot pink and I opted for purple.  All spruced up for another afternoon of sweat and dirt...isn't that what everyone does right after they have a pedicure?!?!!?  When our nails finally dried, we got to work finishing off the rebar, only to hear the ringing of bells on a motorbike.  Now last time we saw this they were selling liquid soap, but this time it was ice cream!!!  Mixed flavours...including durian, Liz's favourite... with condensed milk...this is used all the time in Vietnam...plus crushed peanuts.  And yes....we bought seven little cups.  Loved it!!!

Once the rebar was complete it was time to mix more concrete...god help me.  I think we are all getting a bit exhausted, so the thought of doing more concrete is a bit daunting.  I've found this build to be very tiring and what I found out today is that this house changed the type of foundation they wanted only last week and it was not supposed to include all the rebar and cement.  Since the foundation was going to be simple, they put us on two houses...this would have been OK if the plan didn't change...but now it's a bit much to have us split up in two small groups with so much mixing.  Today however, the homeowners and a few of the people in the community were able to help out and this made things go a lot faster...but we were still pretty sweaty by the end.

We finished up...the other half of our group did some concrete beams and also seven rows of bricks on one of the walls they are replacing...cleaned up, grabbed some water for the trip home and hopped on our boat and jumped on the bus...not before Jennifer almost fell in the river trying to get into the boat!!!  On the way back to the hotel, we arrived at the market only to find they were setting up for some type of carnival with a stage...just what we need, more things to maneuver around...tomorrow should be interesting.  We drove through the city just as school was letting out...the amount of people on the road at this time of day still amazes me.  In fact, the way people drive here amazes me...I'm not sure why they have lines on the roads, half of our drive is on the other side of the road as we squeeze and weave through the multitude of motorbikes, vehicles and bikes on the road...all while honking our horn to let people know we want by.  You wouldn't want to have bad nerves driving here...and back seat drivers would not fair well either.

Tonight we went to a local restaurant for dinner and it was fantastic.  Yummy chicken with some hot spices...with the head on the plate of course...vegetables with noodles, shrimp...most of the heads removed....the best strawberry smoothie ever and delicious pommello (a type of grapefruit that I love).  After dinner we headed back to the hotel...the evenings are so beautiful out here...and then headed to Matt and Steve's room for an evening beer.  Another great day...hard to believe tomorrow is our final build day.  Looking forward to tomorrow when we visit a local kindergarten.

Until then...
Lisa

market carnival