How My Day Went:

Ten year old boys put in a pipe to a sink today in the "teacher's lounge." We had a sink in there but no water and no drain. Now we have both and the kids did it. (Plumber? What plumber? All you need is a couple of ten year olds who know what they're doing!)



Ten year old plumbers at work.



Later, I saw Naughty Boy Werren-wit (remember him from the last post?) working on something he had made from a length of left over pipe. Using shards from a mirror that he inserted very strategically into the pipe, he created a periscope that works just great and is the talk of the school yard.

This kid is bright. (Just as I thought--and probably very bored with school, too.) He thought of this and did it all on his own. So maybe there's hope for him yet.

Werren-wit (back row right) instructing his buddies on what he's busy making.

Deep in concentration inserting shards of mirror into the pipe.

Close-up of the "periscope in progress.

Werren-wit (center), with two more of my Naughty Boys, showing off his creation!

Had sweet tamarinds for lunch. Much better than the sour ones!

You peel the shell and eat the center, discarding the seeds inside. They taste like dates. Sort of, anyway.

Our "cultural activity" after we got home was to make jasmine garlands. These are used as offerings to monks and to Buddha all over Thailand. They sell on the street for 20 baht each--about 60 cents. Only took us two hours to make. That's about 30 cents per hour if I ever decide to go into the garland making business. By the way, they smell divine.

Ingredients for this new craft project.

Jack responding to yet another anguished cry as someone tore a blossom or stabbed themselves in the finger with the long needle we used to make these things.

This one is mine--not too bad, if I do say so myself. Made of roses, crown flowers and jasmine blossoms. (Okay, maybe it's not perfectly even on both sides.)

Our finished masterpieces.

After that, we celebrated the birthday of one of the volunteers (she just turned 21) by going out to dinner at the big fancy hotel here in Trang. They even had wonderful live entertainment on the terrace--and it was all Western music. The English of the performers was really good as they sang "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and "Time goes by so slowly, and time can mean so much...Are you still mine?"

Very impressive!

I had prawns for dinner and they were delicious.

There were 14 of us at dinner.

Rachel, from Syracuse, New York, celebrating her 21st birthday in Thailand.