Saturday, a day with the elephants

Finally, the building is over and we had a day of touring. So this post is just for fun.

The elephant is the symbol of the monarchy in Thailand and is highly respected for its intelligence, grace and majesty. There are a number of elephant camps nearby Chiang Mai and we chose one with a humane environment and respect for these beautiful creatures. Trainer (called a mahout) and elephant usually work together for many years and definitely relate easily to each other. For instance, Nancy's mahout had been working with the same, now 20-year-old, elephant for 10 years. Baby elephants of two years are well taken care of and follow along with their mothers even on the visitor rides. Our day included elephant riding, elephant show, and rafting on bamboo rafts in the Maetong River.

Ellie Hall, a cousin of Nancy's, who has been living in Chiang Mai and studying at Payap University for the past 3-1/2 years, joined us for the day.

On the return trip to Chiang Mai we stopped at "tiger kingdom". Here, visitors can interact with tigers of various ages, ie., a baby of 2 months, 7 months, 14 months or an adult animal. For 10 minutes, Nancy and Ellie chose to play with a baby girl tiger. What a hoot.

This day was bittersweet as Craig and Bill leave tomorrow morning (Sunday) on their journey home. Our time together has been memorable and created a strong circle of friendship. Not only between the five of us, and all the Georgia folks on our house #75 team, and the homeowners, but with the many other Habitat friends we have made from both the U.S. and other countries.

We thank everyone for this wonderful opportunity to have been here, to have participated in this work of helping to provide a family with a good home, and, to have received the blessings from the giving of our hearts and ourselves.

NANCY  DEVRIES

NANCY WITH 2-MONTH OLD TIGER

Friday: finish ... finish ... finish

This was the day to pull out all the stops and get as much work completed as possible. Cutting into our time were two very special moments: the arrival of the Carters and the house dedication.

Once again, early to breakfast, early to the site, early to work. There was still, after hours of mortaring, more to finish. Craig had long since found other more inspiring projects and for the last two days, Nancy has been at the mixing post. Recipe: equal parts sand and cement, add water, mix well and then portion out using a putty knife or a scoop.

Pam was a wiz at installing a beautiful stoop design for the front door.

CARTER PRESENTATION:

President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter personally met each homeowner, stood with them and the volunteer team at each house for the official photo and then presented a Thai/English bible to each homeowner.

HOUSE DEDICATION:

The house dedication in the afternoon was particularly moving. As volunteers we worked with the homeowners for the week and our friendship with them grew, even with the language barrier. A devotion was given, the front door key presented to Tatiya and her husband Wirat, our Paterson group gave a photo album, and more words were spoken by the volunteers and Tatiya as well and finally small gifts were exchanged. It was emotional with tears of joy and appreciation.

GOODBYE, GOOD LUCK

Bill, who had been busy doing photos during the week was able to join us for the very touching moments of the closing ceremony. Goodbye Tatiya and good luck and wishes in your new home.

Green roofs sprout on Thursday

Today's big success story is completion of our green roof and also those of most of the other houses. Everything was on fast-track to finish the roof, front of house, hang front door and windows in preparation for the morning photo with the Carters tomorrow and the house dedication in the afternoon.

Our North Central Georgia partners on this house are always easy to find in their bright green shirts. Now that we have given them our great "Wat" tee shirts (a Wat is a Thai temple) designed by McBride's son, they often wear our shirts.

As I write this and post my photos, it is now the end of another satisfying day. I read a quote from President Carter this week and it sums up what we are all feeling about our work here. In this piece Carter talked about the meaning of a simple, decent house in the life of a family. “It doesn’t matter how large a house is,” he said. “What matters is the love that goes into it, and then later, the love that comes out of it.”

It's late now, following an interesting evening at the affiliate recognition dinner. It is after 11 p.m. and the morning gets going very early, so more on that later. For now, here's some stuff I shot recently.

Just invite a few friends over for lunch!

It's lunchtime. With lunch servings at 11:30, 12:00 and 12:30, there is still hundreds of meals to be served to each of the three noontime crowds. A large tent has been set up. There are numerous fans overhead, keeping the air moving and blowing the continuous misting provided. The food is very good with hot buffet type choices, local noodle soups, trays of fresh fruit, salads and plenty of drinks.

Give me shelter....

When houses are constructed in Paterson, the exciting time for all the volunteers is usually when the first wall goes up. Very familiar construction: a frame wall of two by fours, nailed together. Everyone, with hands on the wall, walk it into position and on cue, raise it to vertical. Cheers all around.

Today, in Chiang Mai, we had cheers when the first roof truss was positioned atop of our cement block walls. This isn't so simple...the trusses weigh over 200 pounds each (maybe even 300, but we don't know for certain), have to be cleaned before moving and then because of their width which is more than the house is wide, have to be maneuvered around existing construction and then raised high. Not just one, but three in total to set in place. Cheers all around when the first one was placed.





THE WORK TEAM--NEW JERSEY AND GEORGIA FOLKS



By day's end, with all of the trusses, ridges and even some of the roof pieces in place, Bill rounded us up for this photo. We have a great team working on this house: our NJ group plus a team of 13 from Central Georgia who have traveled together for the last decade working on builds such as this. An incredible amount of talent, drive and energy and wonderful folks as well.

Tuesday highlights

Our day begins once again as we stumble down to breakfast at 5:30 a.m. and begin that routine: bus to the worksite, gather the tools and begin working. this is one of those "key" days with specific goal of finishing the walls and getting the mortar in place to set-up overnight. We're happy to report....mission accomplished.

Views include:
1. Homeowner Tatiya with Habitat's Doug and the Paterson crew.

2. Peter and Pam assigned to the block and mortar detail at which they have indeed become proficient. In fact, there is a rumor that they will soon be opening a shop in northern NJ.

3. Craig has been busy these two days mixing mortar and learning the recipe and technique from "Supermanny" one of the Central Georgia team working on our house. Craig is getting good at this and aspires to become a "Supercraig". When not at the mortar station, he can be found walking around the site.

4. Bill is busy doing the photog stuff and stops by our house regularly to check on its progress.

5. And, Nancy when not busy doing the block and mortar, can be found off capturing the celebrity couple. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, along with a contingent of secret service and other security personnel, are on the site every day, even in this hot weather. A security officer allowed me to take long distance zoom photos of them wearing their trademark red neckerchiefs as they work together on the outside kitchen of house #41.

Yes, volunteers really do work!

Monday worksite photos from Bill. The group below includes homeowners Wirat and Tatiya Sapithak who operate a small noodle cart. With their two daughters ages 10 and 5, they live in a small temporary house they built out of wood and metal sheets. The roof leaks and the wooden supports have been eaten hollow by termites. DDT was sprayed to control the termites, making it a toxic environment.

In the past months they have worked on site, hauling everything from blocks, roof tiles and roof trusses to doors and window frames. Tatiya says "We're so excited to live with new friends in our new neighborhood."

This morning on site there's the beginning of their new house: foundation, slab, and partial walls.

And so, the work week begins.

Worksite Monday -- first day

Breakfast at 5:30 a.m. Bus to work site at 6:30 a.m. Arrive site parking lot (room for all of the 70 buses) at 7:15 a.m. Ten minute walk to build area and our house #75. House leader gives instruction and what he expects we will complete today. Work begins at 8:00 a.m. Very hot day: 100+.

Cinderblock, interleaving constuction, with mortar, rebar and more mortar. Bill was doing some official photographs for Habitat as well as many pix of our work on this house #75 of the 82 being built. His pix will be posted separately. In the meantime:

1. Handsome entrance sign.

2. Pam at the site map pointing to our house.

3. Craig and Peter begin moving block.

Sunday in Chiang Mai

The first thing we noticed on our arrival last evening just before midnight, was the friendliness and welcome offered us. The airport was decorated with banners and signs for the Carter Work Project and volunteer greeters were on hand, even at that late hour.

By now, we have met many new friends, every one of whom has been grand, nice folks. Our hotel, the Lotus, is one of several housing the 2500+ volunteers from 42 countries, here for the week. Construction begins on site at 8 every morning and ends at 5 ... so a long day. The temps here are in the 90s and we can expect it to be very hot. We'll definitely keep drinking water throughout the day.

Sunday evening there was a opening ceremony with many celebs, Thai performers and Jimmy Carter, who arrived to a standing ovation and then bowed in the traditional Thai manner to the volunteers present. He welcomed the 2500+ volunteers present from 42 countries.

PS...thanks for all the comments. It is nice to know that someone is actually reading this stuff!