Project: Habitat for Humanity Thailand (Korat)

Hi all, if you can still remember, there was some hype last month about the cute mouse shirts and box shirts that I was selling. The result of your contribution has gone a long way - a house has been built in Korat, Thailand! Thank you for your support: a bigger thank you to those who bought the shirts from me :) I think I owe you this entry on how the trip went.

Day 1 (10 July, Thursday)
Nothing happened during the first day, except for shopping. This was not because we were slacking! But it was because the whole group was arriving in Bangkok in 3 parts: a third of us arrived in the morning, a third of us arrived 2 hours later, and the last third of us arrived in the evening. We left Bangkok for Korat at around 830pm. We reached Korat, quite exhausted, at 12 midnight. We were due for construction work the next day, so we prayed and hoped that we could sleep off the traveling fatigue with 6 hours of sleep. The hotel staff went quite far to welcome us - they actually created a banner bearing our team name and the date of our stay, and hung it conspicuously at the hotel entrance! We appreciated the gesture, but were embarrassed nonetheless.

Day 2 (11 July, Friday)
First official day! We piled into the tuktuk van and took a 20 minute ride from the hotel to the village. Along the way we passed some waterways that emitted strange smells - apparently Thailand has a open-air sewage system. There was nothing extraordinary about the village - small houses dotted the roadside, and cassava and sugar cane farms stretched for miles at one point. It was a very green sight.
We were introduced to our worksite. The basic frame of the house we were building was already in place; and 2 hired workers were already fixing on the roof. Our job was essentially to provide menial labour, i.e. level the house floor with sand, mix cement and pour cement . But before we embarked on the backbreaking work, we greeted the homeowner and visited her old house.
The homeowner was Mrs Sukvong and she has 3 children. Biat was 12, Boh 9, and little Baeng was 3. Her husband works at a factory nearby and only comes home on Sundays.
Mrs Sukvong's house wasn't a house at all. It was all dark inside; and if you stood at the centre, the bathroom, kitchen, living room and bedroom would only be half an arm's length away. Mrs Sukvong lamented (in Thai) that sometimes, snakes and wild animals visit their home and she is worried about the snakes attacking her children.
The house was quite an unbearable sight, and it made us realise how immensely fortunate we are.
Next to their house was a shed of pigs. Our guess was that the family was paid to help someone take care of the animals. Hens, chicks, and dogs were also running around the compound. The dogs eyed us curiously. We were amused at how huge the mother pig was, and how the chicks followed their mum so closely, as if there was some magnetic force surrounding her.
Back to our main task. Building is seriously, very very very backbreaking. I cannot emphasise this more. Hacking at the hard soil, bending down repeatedly to pick up the buckets of soil, passing the buckets down the human chain under the hot sun (hotter than Singapore, I assure you)...I have never perspired that much in my entire life. I have now acquired a new level of respect, and even empathy, for the construction workers I see at building sites nowadays. Besides loads of cold water, the vision of a decent house for the Sukvong family spurred us on. For me, it was the sight of the old house that kept me going as well.
So, this was how work started out on the first day. By 430pm, we had filled and evened out the floor of the house with sand. Cement was to be laid on it the next day. We went back to the hotel at 430pm; and by the evening, our muscles were aching. Thank goodness for the hotel's complimentary Thai massage and spa :)

Day 3 (12 July, Saturday)
Even as we set the pace of work the day before, the second day of building was more of a challenge because we had to exert our aching muscles (we didn't start off with aches on the first day). The sun was as hot as ever; and the only thing I remember very clearly is that I was sweating a lot and thirsting a lot. We learnt how to make proper cement mixture that day. The recipe went something like this: take a huge tub, dig sand and pour it into the tub. Pour 25kg of cement powder into the mixture, and mix well using shovel and hoe. Add water until cement is of the right consistency. Lastly, add bits of rock to the mixture and mix well.
Sounds easy? Well, it was far from that, because we had no form of mechanized help at all - we had no cement mixer! So we had to make do with our good old biological muscles. It was really really tiring; it was also a bit embarrassing to see the hired workers mix the concoction 5 times faster and more efficiently than ourselves o.o
So the day passed as half of us helped make the cement, and the other half of us helped to pass the cement down a human chain to the people inside the house, who would then smoothen out the cement on the floor of the house. Though the house was quite small, we still did not manage to cover the whole floor area by 430pm - it was that tiring. Cement is really quite heavy; especially after you've carried and passed down hundreds of buckets of it.
And did I mention that we did all this with aching muscles? Haha. But I must add that every day of work felt very meaningful.

Day 4 (13 July, Sunday)
It was a special day because one of the Habitat staff brought us to his church! His church is called the Nakhon Ratchashima Church - Nakhon Ratchashima is another name for Korat. The church was located on the ground floor of a building, and the setup was simple: plastic chairs served as pews, and there was a small stage in front. But they were pretty modern! We took part in a contemporary worship session with drums, guitar, keyboard, and even a pair of violins. Though most of the congregation sang in Thai, there were television screens showing English translations. It was a wonderful moment of worship, because we experienced how praise for God, sung in different languages, all weaved into one single message. It was also very encouraging to see such a united and caring church - the moment the pastor announced that visitors from Singapore were here this morning, a whole string of ushers greeted us with sweets and chocolates! And when the pastor announced the prayer requests of members of the congregation, people would personally go up to the person in question, place their hand on his/her shoulder, and say a short prayer for him/her. Yes, the service was quite charismatic, and yes, we were all singing Hillsongs; but I could tell that the members really cared and loved each other.
After church, we went straightaway to continue the good work. This time, after completing the cement floor of the house, we went on to lay bricks! The bricks we used were made out of concrete; and after a tutorial conducted by a Habitat staff, half of us climbed up the scaffolding and started to lay bricks. It is really more difficult than it seems! Getting the cement to stick to the brick, aligning the bricks in as straight a position as possible, and filling up all the holes and gaps with red brick and cement is all very hard work; not in terms of physical strength, but pure skill. Since we were all newbies at it, we made some mistakes occasionally and the workers had to knock out some bricks and replace them again. There was a tendency to feel discouraged then, because it felt as if we were being a hindrance instead. But we persevered. At least God sent the rain that afternoon to cool everyone down.

Day 5 (14 July, Monday)
The last day! We were all spurred on by that thought. By the end of today, we would have the house opening ceremony, and we would have laid all the bricks of the house.
But the last day involved one of the most laborious tasks of all - the digging of the toilet! Or manhole. haha. Basically, we had to dig a 1 metre deep hole behind the house, that was to be the toilet. One metre does not sound very deep; but when we started digging into the hard, crusty soil, we realised that some real hard work was laid in front of us. The soil was almost impossible to dig! After digging a mere depression into the ground, we were confronted with another almost impossible scenario - we had to dig through a whole layer of rubbish! The layer of rubbish consisted of many broken tiles, plastic bags, plant roots, etc. Someone must have buried the village's rubbish there a few years back. Anyway, we had to dig through it; and that layer alone took us almost half the day. But once we got through that layer, the soil was much softer.
So the day passed with half of us hacking away at the manhole; and the other half of us were laying the finishing bricks.
Soon, the bricks were done and we were clearing up the scaffolding and sweeping the floor of the house. One of the Habitat staff passed us markers, so that we could draw on the pillar that stood in the centre of the house. We drew a picture of the family (and the animals), wrote "God Bless This Home", and even drew a giraffe height chart so that Biat, Boh, and Baeng could mark their heights as they grew up!
Last but not least, we ended the day of work with a house opening ceremony! The Habitat staff tied a red ribbon across the door frame of the house (as the door wasn't up yet), and invited one of us to cut the ribbon. We were also presented with certificates (that we really didn't deserve, haha). As the translator translated the thanksgiving that Mrs Sukvong addressed to us, people started tearing. It was very touching and heartwarming. It was then that you know all the sweat was worth it.
Finally, on the same night, we ended the project with a dinner at a restaurant, with the Sukvong family. And after thanking us for the dinner and inviting us back for another visit, the family left.
That may or may not have been the last I would see of them, but even as all of us move on with our own lives, these are the times that I will always remember.

On another note, my friends and I were thinking of organising another Habitat trip soon! All of you should go; it is very meaningful - muscle-achingly meaningful.