Life is a grand bazaar.
Thursday was a great day at the build site and an interesting one...oh, I forgot to tell you a joke..
How many Habitat volunteers does it take to change a flat time on the bus?
Answer--quite a few.
Our bus blew a tire on Wednesday night as we were heading back to Pondicherry. No biggie, my only complaint was that we blew a tire in a spot with no stores a few more km down the road and we would have been in front of the antique stores I see every day as we drive by.
The whole tire change took about 10 minutes but what a dangerous thing for the ones changing it. Laying in the middle of the road having traffic whiz by just inches from where they were. I'm glad I was standing on the side of the road as far away from the traffic as I could get.
Thursday. We were delayed in leaving that morning due to some political tension in the village. Not over us or the build but over the election that has just finished here. After about 1/2 hour we were on our way. The drive is nice and only about 40 minutes long, at some points you can see the Bay of bENGAL.As we turned off the East Coast highway and onto the village road the bus stopped. there was a man walking towards us shaking something at us and talking about going to the police about something. \the driver turned the bus off. we sat and watched/listened. he kept walking and we started to drive down the road again. \village drunk apparently out for a rant.
we started working on a 4th house and half the team moved bricks while the other half sifted sand and passed mortar. some helped with the rebar for another home and everyone was having a great day. after our late start we took a late break which ended at 12noon and then had to stop at 1pm for lunch. Our lunch comes out in the bus with us each morning and the temperatures wouldn't be ok for eating if left longer. After lunch we had a tour of some of the rice paddies where the villagers work, some peanut fields and generally received a better understanding of what they do all day. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to work in that hot sun day after day after day, year after year.
It was a very informative session and when we finished we had time to hang out with the village kids, take some pictures and get to know the people we are building for a bit better. Then it was back to Pondicherry for the evening. We had a great night of celebrating a birthday for one team member and shared some champagne and laughs.
Today, Friday was massages and then shopping. I enjoyed both. I will write more when I get back from the trip. I am taking notes here and there...but I am finding that as the team leader I do not have a lot of free time to sit and think. The team is great but I am trying to be available to help and assist and take people places when they are unsure of where to go....so my blogging time is limited.
Tomorrow we are off to a 4th century temple, a boat ride in a mangrove and a very long 4 hours on the bus.
Hope all of you in PEI are enjoying the snow I hear you received. We got a sprinkle of rain today but overall...hot and sunny. I'm trying to get a tan but so far it isn't going very well. Maybe by the end of next week.
Thursday was a great day at the build site and an interesting one...oh, I forgot to tell you a joke..
How many Habitat volunteers does it take to change a flat time on the bus?
Answer--quite a few.
Our bus blew a tire on Wednesday night as we were heading back to Pondicherry. No biggie, my only complaint was that we blew a tire in a spot with no stores a few more km down the road and we would have been in front of the antique stores I see every day as we drive by.
The whole tire change took about 10 minutes but what a dangerous thing for the ones changing it. Laying in the middle of the road having traffic whiz by just inches from where they were. I'm glad I was standing on the side of the road as far away from the traffic as I could get.
Thursday. We were delayed in leaving that morning due to some political tension in the village. Not over us or the build but over the election that has just finished here. After about 1/2 hour we were on our way. The drive is nice and only about 40 minutes long, at some points you can see the Bay of bENGAL.As we turned off the East Coast highway and onto the village road the bus stopped. there was a man walking towards us shaking something at us and talking about going to the police about something. \the driver turned the bus off. we sat and watched/listened. he kept walking and we started to drive down the road again. \village drunk apparently out for a rant.
we started working on a 4th house and half the team moved bricks while the other half sifted sand and passed mortar. some helped with the rebar for another home and everyone was having a great day. after our late start we took a late break which ended at 12noon and then had to stop at 1pm for lunch. Our lunch comes out in the bus with us each morning and the temperatures wouldn't be ok for eating if left longer. After lunch we had a tour of some of the rice paddies where the villagers work, some peanut fields and generally received a better understanding of what they do all day. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to work in that hot sun day after day after day, year after year.
It was a very informative session and when we finished we had time to hang out with the village kids, take some pictures and get to know the people we are building for a bit better. Then it was back to Pondicherry for the evening. We had a great night of celebrating a birthday for one team member and shared some champagne and laughs.
Today, Friday was massages and then shopping. I enjoyed both. I will write more when I get back from the trip. I am taking notes here and there...but I am finding that as the team leader I do not have a lot of free time to sit and think. The team is great but I am trying to be available to help and assist and take people places when they are unsure of where to go....so my blogging time is limited.
Tomorrow we are off to a 4th century temple, a boat ride in a mangrove and a very long 4 hours on the bus.
Hope all of you in PEI are enjoying the snow I hear you received. We got a sprinkle of rain today but overall...hot and sunny. I'm trying to get a tan but so far it isn't going very well. Maybe by the end of next week.
1 comment:
Jennifer:
Thanks for fixing the blog so we can now write to you. I look forward to the updates and hearing how things are going.
It is Saturday night and Easter Vigil took just over 1 1/2 hours - not bad. Then it was time for some chocolate - 6 weeks without. Boston and Montreal are playing hockey and it is in overtime tied 1 - 1 at the end of 3 periods. Series is tied 2 -2.
The snow storm didn't amount to very much - thankfully!
Certainly am enjoying 4 days off work.
Glad to hear the build is going well.
Edith
Post a Comment