Oh the places you go.

I orginally intended this blog to be a part journal/informative place for me to express my ideas and share my experiences with friends and family. Although I have done a poor job at keeping up with it, I will do my best to give you a run down of my most recent activity.

Library outside of town:

I had mentioned in my previous blog about my opportunity to volunteer building mud houses in the central part of Thailand. Having gotten experience building I decided I wanted to find a way to do a mini project involving a mud house. I got this very oppurtunity when my host dad mentioned their was a school nearby that was lacking the funding to build a library. Rotary said they would be willing to find the project if I did the other end of things. Super excited to help, I agreed imediatly and the process began. When I first arrived at the school their was nothing more than an old cement platform, cracked but useable. Speaking with the teachers at the school I soon realized that this project to build a library was very much possible if I, as well as the students were willing to put the time in. My work started immediatly and I began making plans on when we could begin making the bricks, building the foundation, building the walls, applying a top coat, and finally installing a roof. After a few weeks of planning, organising and frequent visits to the school we were able to come up with a date to test the dirt. I originally wanted to use an all natural method which involves nothing more than clay, rice husks, and water but heard mixed opinions about the method and decided to stick to the method I learned volunteering. This method involved adding cement, dirt, and rice husks.

Bricks:

First day of brick building was hot but many students, teachers, and vounteers came to help. The plan was to complete 1800 bricks in two days. Clearly I was a little too ambitious at first, but it came together. The number of students got smaller everyday but after 5 long days of filling moulds we got the number we needed.

Building:

I had called in some volunteers I knew from Bangkok who were able to come last minute and am so thankful they could come and help. We were able to finish the building process in the two days expected too leaving time to begin the top coat on the walls.

Applying a top coat:

This process is still in the making and is only half complete. The students and I will hopefully be able to finish this before the roof is installed.

The library so far:

To be continued...