Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Thailand Day 17: Omkoi (Banyang Kaew School - Day 2)

I'm keeping the post short and sweet tonight. It's 7:37pm Thailand time and I'm really excited by the prospect of being asleep by 8:30. 

We had a *full* day of physically demanding work. A small group finished up applying a second coat of stain to the floor of the new Language Center, and after that, it was all hands on deck for concrete work. The school had a professional crew do the concrete mixing, framing of the driveway, and actual pouring/spreading of the concrete, but our group was responsible for shoveling and shuttling buckets of gravel and sand from one side of the grounds to the concrete truck for mixing. 

Our group worked well together. At times, it felt like there might be a few too many cooks in the kitchen (30 people is a lot!) but it was cool to see everyone find a role that was valuable to the team, and folks were happy to sub in and out for each other when someone needed a break from shoveling or bucket shuttling. We committed to getting the driveway project complete today, and it took us from 9AM to nearly 6PM tonight, but we got it done and it looks great.

During breaks today, our students were able to meet up the elementary school kids to play some pick-up soccer or teach each other dances. We all agreed that the 10-year-old Thai students were way better dancers than our group, and their songs were really fun!


The completed Language Center after we applied the second coating to the floor

About halfway done with the concrete project

Westminster students learning dances from the Thai students

Westminster students learning dances from the Thai students

Westminster students playing soccer with Thai students

Getting ready to pass 26 buckets of gravel!

Driving home from the school after a long and fulfilling day

Tomorrow is our last full day at the Banyang Kaew School. I think I'll be working with the Westminster nursing students to teach basic first aid to the teachers while the rest of the group participates in a rice planting demonstration, among some other activities. With that, I'm off to bed. Cheers!

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