This morning after breakfast we got in the back of a truck with 4 other volunteers (2 german girls (Hannah is talkative, the other girl must not know English well), Callum from New York & Andrew from New Jersey), along with 2 volunteer coordinators and our driver). We drove 45 minutes through rural Thailand until we reached a school (not before we all literally flew out of our seats going over a bump!)
Our coordinators barely speak English and gave zero instructions, but thankfully Callum has been here for 4 weeks already so he showed us where the supplies were and what to get started on.
The front side of the wall is mostly done being painted blue and the german girls are working on painting pictures on it. Callum is working on the dark blue trim on the front side (I helped finish that this afternoon). The coordinators are working on the Thai school sign.
The back side of the wall is in 3 sections – to the right of the main gate has been primed (about 50 feet of wall), the middle section hasn’t been touched yet (maybe 120 feet), and the section on the left past the second gate hasn’t been touched either.
We got right to work with Andrew on the middle section using wire brushes and putty knives to scrape off paint, dirt & mold. We hauled buckets of water from the hose and used sponges to scrub the wall down. We would have LOVED to have a pressure washer!! Or even if the hose would have stretched all the way over… Instead we used elbow grease and sheer determination.
We stopped for a lunch break & had fried rice with a fried egg on top, mandarin oranges & water. Note, the coordinator, asked us all what we wanted to drink- he was going down the road to a convenience store. Most of us asked for water. Superman asked for juice – pineapple, mango, orange, etc. or if they didn’t have that, maybe Sprite. Note came back with Black Sesame Seed juice & a coke. The sesame juice is gray and tastes just like it sounds. Blech. We all drank water instead.
Some of the school kids walked past us as they were heading back to their classrooms after lunch and waved and said “Hello, hello!” Cute kids. The school buildings are open air. We didn’t see inside the older elementary classrooms, but the kindergarten has no chairs or desks. They use little lap tables for writing etc. and did a lot of singing and dancing with videos. They have a separate building for lunch. There is also a large chicken coop, a dry field of grass with soccer goals, and a little playground.
An elementary boy came out and started kicking around a soccer ball. We sent Spud to play with him and before too long there was a whole game going on with more than a dozen kids. Spud kept up with them well but had a hard time figuring out who was on his team sometimes. They had him play goalie for a bit and he blocked a bunch of goals. He was in heaven!
After lunch we were ready to start priming the first half of the middle section of wall. By the time we had to clean up at 12:45, we had all of the first half primed, and half of the section on the right with the first coat of light blue. Go team! Note walked around with a grin on his face taking pictures and showing a friend on the phone and kept saying “I am so happy!” We got a TON done today. This family knows how to work!
Super proud of all the kids – they helped the whole time and worked hard, even Littlest girl who loved filling the buckets of water and painting.
We washed out all of the brushes and rollers using the trickle from the hose as we squated behind the school. I would love a big dumpster and leather gloves to clean up all of the trash back there…
We left as the cute little kindergartners (maybe 12 in the class) were taking their afternoon nap. Adorable.
We rode back to the Sunshine Center in the truck (Littlest fell asleep), did our lunch dishes, and then caught a ride to Hua Hin beach.
We spent the afternoon playing in the warm water, catching crabs, watching grumpy horses walk down the beach, and enjoying the sunshine. We noticed that no one on the beach was blasting annoying music, so aside from some intermittent second hand smoke, the beach was very peaceful and pleasant!
After the beach we walked to the Hua Hin Night Market and found delicious fruit smoothies (the pineapple one tasted like Dole Whip from Disneyland), and Kebab wraps for dinner. Miss A wasn’t in the mood for that, so she got some Roti – thin folded dough fried with bananas in the middle, slathered with nutella, and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. Dessert for dinner? Sure, why not.
We got a Grab car back to our room, took turns showering, and crashed early- we are beat!!
