Thailand Journals: Day 6

Thursday, April 13, 2006

“Sawateememy” (Happy New Year)! Today we got to sleep in until 7:15 a.m. After breakfast, we went to work. Today we continued our “pavers” project and barely got all the pavers laid before we had to go. While about six to eight of us worked on this—everyone else moved furniture, moved dirt piles, put shelves together and recatalogued books in the library, or cleaned.

Due to New Year celebrations, we stopped working after lunch in order to get to the Chiang Mai where the main fight around the moat was going on. We went to our hotels to quickly put on swimsuits under our clothes and prepared to “play” . To play (participate in the New Year celebrations), you put huge barrels in the back of your truck and fill them with water. Then you load up go have fun. Though the main festivities were in Chiang Mai, we were soaked long before we got there, because there is playing going on everywhere. All day, people throw water on each other…and it’s a must to throw ice water. We bought huge chucks of ice to put in our barrels and ice chests.

We were supposed to leave the hotel at 2:00 for reach Chiang Mai for the peak of the festivities, but due to “Thai” mentality we did not leave until closer to 3:30. Though we missed the peak of activity…it was still blast.

We did however have an injury. As Casey was helping to refill our water supply, he kicked some rebar in the ground. Thankfully he did this right outside of a hospital and right where a Thai who know English was standing. God takes such good care of us. They got Casey on the back of a scooter and took him to the E.R. Stone and myself, walked behind them (Steve went with Casey on the scooter—actually it was a different scooter). Casey ended up needing six stitches, a tetanus shot, and some meds. All this only cost 410 bot (about $10.00). CRAZY! He is doing well, but bummed about not being able to play soccer for a week or two.

A little after 7:00 p.m. we headed for dinner, then home. We put Casey in a grocery cart to get him to the food court. He cannot walk on his foot, but he has no crutches. We actually made it home by 10:30 p.m. We have one more half day of work ahead of us. We will finish the flower bed and cement in the pavers. It is amazing how quickly this week has gone. It is about 11:30 p.m….so I am going to go to bed for the night…hasta luego!