Day 7 – Build day 4

Day 7 – Build day 4

Today we were given the task of finishing the concreting of the floor, and completing the steps up to the front of the house. Ali, Brett and Phoebe showed their skill as master bricklayers, whilst the rest of us came up with more creative ways to manage the bucket brigade. The Jobs were more varied today, we moved a mountain of sand (the same mountain we had moved from another position the previous day) to fill in the bog caused by the previous days rain. We completed the floor and the verandah, and we got the steps to a point where it wont take much to finish them off, once we have gone.

Our homeowners, Supea and Ti, were told by the fortune teller that today Friday would be the a prosperous day to move into the house, so not only are we having a house dedication, where we hand over the house to the family, but we have been formally invited to attend the house warming as well. This will involve a ceremony where the house is blessed by the monks. We will also be sharing in the celebrations with the homeowners and their extended families as well as the village elders.

This is the third home to be built by Habitat in this village, as the word spreads, more families are applying for loans to upgrade or build new homes for their families and to share in the international spirit, by having an a team come and help with the building.

There is another Australian team also working in the village as we speak, they are working on a few different projects including a house, a retaining wall for a local shop owner, to help her continue trading during flooding times and also a toilet/bathroom with a septic tank, for another home. They are hand making the bricks for the building. There are 14 members in that team, however by yesterday only 11 were still in a fit state to build with the other 3 struck down by illness.

Due to our speed and determination as a team we found ourselves once again finishing up early for the day, we took the opportunity to visit the silk farm to see how silk is made, this was fascinating and gave us all a new appreciation for the process and the final product. Photos to follow.

After this we were taken to a local school for deaf and blind children, there are 143 students at the school ranging in age from 4 –19, there are 23 students who reside at the school on permanent basis. We were taken to a deaf class, where a lovely young boy was very quick to point out in sign language that our girls are very tall and very beautiful. The children were lovely and not at all shy. We then went into a blind class where the children were learning maths and English. There were kindergarten age children who have varying degrees of sight impairment,  and there were 2 older boys who are 19 years old doing grade 6 we were given a demonstration of how Braille is used and taught in the classroom. The students here will ultimately be taught a trade such as Massage or leather shadow puppet making, some will go onto university.

We had a quiet night with a group dinner, we went shopping for a housewarming gift, whilst some of the team were last seen heading off to the local Hip Hop bar (update to follow).