We finally returned to the village after a long break. I had to go to a certain city in Laos for a specific visa, and the trip took five days to complete. But we jumped back to the task with pertinacity.
The builders we hired have gone now, they were there to do the concrete work and they did a really good job. I regret not being there for some of it; I was hoping to pick up some new skills. But there are other projects coming up.
As for my part of the build, it is really just beginning. We got one upper floor room floored and studded, and another one will be done shortly. After that we need to get some infrastructure running. Remember we are living in this house while we are working on it. Currently we have no plumbing and electrical in only a few places. But we did bring in a gas stove this week which looks a little out of place in the kitchen with no counters and half a cable spool for a table top.
The ceiling above the kitchen is open but there is a roof further up. The open area will be my office some day. This step has been moved back because we have decided it would be nice to shower indoors. To this end, Anchalee ordered the components for a septic tank to be delivered. She also hired a guy to dig the hole, which needed to be 2.5 meters deep. It's OK he didn't do it by himself, Anchalee had her turns in the hole. Also I bought new shovels so I think it should have been easy – right?
Anyhow it took Boy (that's really his name) all day, so we decided to assemble the tank another day when it was more convenient. Wrong. At 5:30 AM another torrential downpour moved in and we realized that the plastic tarp was failing and if the hole filled with water it would collapse back in.
The way village septic tanks are made is a series of 1 x .5 meter cement rings that are stacked up in a hole. But you can't just drop them in, they are heavy and have to be placed precisely. At 6:00 AM we set out to find three more guys to man the lowering ropes. Impossible you would think; in the pouring rain at the crack of dawn. Actually, we found 4 guys and it only took about 15 minutes (villagers know they need to help each other out).
So there we were shuffling in the muck around a deep hole when I caught a mental image of myself – soaking wet and muddy, doing an Asian squat in my Superman blue rubber boots, waiting for them to sort out the ropes. And I wondered if the village wasn't changing me too much or too fast. But then it was time to drop in the rings and my introspective bubble popped. The rings were placed with skill and everyone went on with their day.
That is all for now, Thanks for following along, and thanks everyone for the comments, sorry if I don't get back to all of you. I don't have internet in the village so I don't have much time to for email these days. I will post again in a couple of weeks.
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