Grand Finale in Chiang Mai

Hi again,

We just got the official photo of our group, at our house, with our Canadian neighbours, and President and Mrs Carter .....

Nellie and Family !! and Home

Our first part of Day 2, was a walk of about an hour and a half from the tribal village to the Elephant camp. We saw some magnificent plants along the way, particularly the huge Ponsietta trees - lets us know that it's nearly Christmas !

The Elephant Camp was located just across the river at the end of the walk. The bridge to cross the river makes Carrick-a-Reed look like a picnic ! Some of the gaps between the step would have taken 3 of us ! We all got across without any incident and went to meet the elephants. They are truely magnificent beasts .. this was a big highlight of the trip for me, being so close to the elephants and getting the chance to ride on one.. I was delighted. Eileen and I rode ahead on 'Nellie' (just our name .. not sure what she's really called.) Behind we had Carolann and Vender and in between, there was 'Dumbo' .. a baby elephant. He came with us all the way and followed his Mum and Dad very closely, especially going through deep water. And here's Oonagh and Micheal enjoying the scene. The route took us in and out of the river repeatedly and it was really hard work hanging on when Nellie was stepping down into the water. The seat leaned forward and you had to hang on tightly to the back of the seat to avoid slipping down.

And here's baby Dumbo having a Tea Break during the trek !

When we finished the Elephant ride, we waved good bye to the Elephant family as they trundled down the river and we had lunch at another tribal village. Another very nice meal. Then it was back to the rafts for the final leg of the trek, down to the next village where the trucks were waiting to bring us to collect our luggage. The river today was full and fast moving with lots of rapids and rocks. Another tricky journey and unfotunately, the sun and heat which had caused us such problems early in the build, deserted, and we were very glad of the hot coffee at the bottom !

Our yellow taxi collected us and brought us back to Chiang Mai to our new hotel - the Montara Happy House .. a wonderful small local hotel, in a great location just by the walls of the old city. Since we couldn't get flights next day, we had a day to ourselves in Chiang Mai on Monday before we left for home on Tuesday. Having spent the day in Silk and Jewellery shops, I think we were all pleased to be going home .. to avoid bankrupcy ! We had dinner in a lovely little restaurant across the street .. an Italian (no more Thai curry !!).

Undoubtedly, a really magnificent trip. Thank You especially to Jim and Carolann for their hard work in preparation and during the trip. They were indeed a brilliant team of leaders .. And definitely 10 out of 10 to Carolann for the trek and the Happy House !!!!


Thank You too for reading the blog and if you've any comments, I'd be delighted to hear them at the email address below.

Till next time - all the best,

Kate

(catherine.docherty@tinyworld.co.uk)

Rest & Relaxation ?????

Hi again,

Most of the Habitat for Humanity Global Village trips finish with a day or two of Rest & Relaxation. We had our 2 days in the Mountains north of Chiang Mai, where we rode Elephants, stayed overnight with a tribe in their tribal village and floated for many miles on rafts down the Mi Tang river. We had a fantastic 2 days of insight into what seemed like a forgotten world of natural resources and elbow grease ! However, I'd have to say that any reference to either Rest or Relaxation is purely incidental .. it was tougher than the build !!

Here we are on Saturday morning, starting out for our 2 day adventure in our yellow taxi.. and that's Carolann, Michael and me looking very happy on the journey (before we knew any better !).
We stopped for breakfast at the centre used for trekking and touring in the area. It's a magnificent haven in the mountains .. wonderful little mountain lodges and a fantastic restaurant. Check out the table and chairs .. hewn from a tree. It's like the Teddy Bears' picnic in the woods ! We had a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs and hot rolls. We left our main luggage to be delivered to the meeting point next day and set off on our adventure with just our overnight bags for our night at the tribal village. First stop was a village close to the top where there is a fantastic view across the mountians. We just stopped for a quick photo and headed on to the first leg of the trek .. rafting on the river Mi Tang. The rafts were a lot smaller than I'd envisaged, the width about the size of a 7 iron (definitely not as big as a driver ..). The main picture above shows the intrepid trio .. Carolann, Vender and Eileen on their raft. We floated, driven by our local 'Captains' on the rafts for about 2 hours. The river was calm and it was sunny and peaceful. We then stopped for lunch (lovely picnic which the guides had brought with us). After lunch we resumed on the rafts. The weather closed in a bit and the river was quite a bit less calm than it had been ! The peaceful scenario of the morning was long gone and for the afternoon we battled with rapids and rocks .. but did eventually arrive, tired and very wet ! at the tribal village where we stayed overnight.

The village is amazing - it is genuinely like going back in time. No electricity or power of any kind. The guides had brought candles - so we had some light. I don't know how the locals managed, but they didn't have candles. The bedroom was seriously basic, no beds - just bedding on the floor (with mosquito nets) and the bathroom was non-existant, so rather than shower in the river, we all decided to wait till tomorrow night to wash ! We did have a great dinner though. Our Captains (who drove the rafts) cooked dinner. It was all local produce. We had a chicken and vegetable dish with rice. All of the rice, vegetables and herbs and spices etc., were grown in the village and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. After a while around the camp fire, we retired to 'bed'. The lady at the centre at breakfast, had guaranteed us the worst night's sleep we'd ever had. She wasn't wrong !

We awoke at cock crow (that should be rooster crow - they never stopped from about 3am). I really thought my back was broken next morning and it took quite a bit of stretching before I could begin to function. After another great meal for breakfast, we set off for Day 2 of our trek.

A Wonderful Day to finish

Hi again,

Today was a wonderful day. It was the last day of our build and we completed Sarika's house.

Here's President and Mrs. Carter doing the rounds of each of the 82 homes on site and greeting Sarika and the other home owners.

Today started early as normal, and we arrived on site at about 7am, to see that the elves had been in overnight and cleaned up the roads around the development, and everything looked clean and neat. We still had some tasks to do on the house - like finishing off the roof tiles and adding the facia board. We also hung the doors and installed the windows this morning.

At mid morning, President and Mrs. Carter did a tour of the site. They visited every house, had pictures taken with the team and greeted the new home owners. We were delighted to see Sarika shake hands with President Carter and officially receive title to her new home. It was very much a celebratory day. Here's our team as we waited for the official photo with President and Mrs. Carter. The tour of the site was, as always, meticulously planned and we could not move from our posts until the President's party had left our block.

And here's Sarika and her daughter outside her new home.

We continued to work on the outstanding tasks on the house throughout the morning and after lunch, finished off the clean up before we had a lovely intimate dedication ceremony at the house with Sarika and her family.

We joined with our neighbours at Number 17, as the House Leader, Linda, was supervising the build of both houses, and the dedication was a joint session for both teams and sets of home owners.

It was impossible not to feel the huge emotion and sense of overwhelming significance of the day. Everyone who spoke was in tears or close to it, and this afternoon's session really brought home to us all, what this week is all about. For me it was the focal point of the week.

We've come as teams from the 4 corners of the world and worked together with old friends and new and with the family who will live in Number 18. None of us are skilled builders, but under the expert direction of Jim, Spencer and Linda, between us, we've provided a new home for Sarika and her family to live in. It's a fantastic feeling of collective achievement and it was indeed a Wonderful Day.

In the afternon before the dedcation, we helped Sarika to decorate her home with flowers and balloons, and there were more cameras and photos than you've ever seen. Everyone wanted to take home some images of the day. Here's Sarika at the door of her new house, and our Team Leaders, Carolann and Jim pausing to reflect on the moment after the dedication ceremony.

Before leaving today, we went to visit Gina at Number 25, where a few of us had dome some work. It was great to see our new friend before we went - here she is (second right) with Eileen, Caitriona and me.


After the dedication, we had the closing ceremony for the whole development. President Carter address all of the home owners and volunteers and thanked everyone for their efforts. He was then off to Cambodia to address the volunteers who had worked there during the week. We were then treated to some spectacular Thai music and dancing and another lovely meal.

A very significant day and one that those of us privileged enough to attend will never forget.

A fitting end to a magnficent week.

Tomorrow, we have a lie in .. till about 6m. Then we go off on our 2 days Rest and Relaxation. We're going on a trek which includes an Elephant ride, some (gentle) water rafting and trekking through the mountains to the North of Chiang Mai. We will stay over night tomorrow with one of the tribes in the hills and come back to Chiang Mai on Sunday. I'm not sure what sort of facilities we'll have but I wouldn't bet on there being an internet connection ! So I probably won't be able to report on the trek until I get home to Belfast.

Thanks for reading !

Kate

(catherine.docherty@tinyworld.co.uk)

Almost There ....

Hi again,

We're almost there - completed Day 4 of the build. Today was about building the roof (That's Michael getting on with it and Jim with Spencer), and finishing the pointing and door and window frames.

The sun was a bit more merciful today and it wasn't so hot early on, so it was a bit less exhausting this morning. We worked on completing the pointing and grouting in the morning and the roofers made good progress. After lunch, we concentrated on clean up with Sarika, in particular, supervising the cleaning of her new house.

It's really hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day building and that we won't be back to the site after that. Tomorrow we will have a dedication ceremony for all of the new houses and owners and the Closing Ceremony of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project for 2009. We look forward to celebrating with Sarika and wish her and her family every blessing in her new home.

Will check in tomorrow to report on the closing.

Raising the Roof !!!

Hi again,

Another excellent day's work on House Number 18.

We had our usual 5.45 breakfast and were off on the bus and on site by 7am. Number 18 was looking well after our day yesterday. Here's the house before we started today, and our erstwhile leaders getting started on the day's mixing ! The morning was spent preparing for the roof. We poured concrete into the final channel layer of blocks and completed all the per-requisites by lunch time. That's Ciara and me working on the roof preparations. We had early lunch and afterwards examined the roof mock up that had been prepared for us to work from (great idea !). Raising the roof was a very meticulous task needing the greatest planning and precision, but with perseverence (and the help of a few strong men from the next house !) we managed. We reckon the crew next door are ringers ... professional builders. They are local Thai and seem very well versed in building and roofing. So we watched and learned and borrowed !

Here we are having a well earned break when the roof trusses were in place. Although we didn't finish the roof today, it was a very significant moment in the build when the front roof truss was installed and we all celebrated with Sarika, our home owner. Here she is with our Northern Ireland Habitat emblem - the famous green T Shirt. It's great to have our Green Tee Shirts here, as we really stand out and every now knows the Irish Team in the green shirts !!

The aim for today was the roof trusses and to finish all the pointing inside the house as we need to paint tomorrow. We didn't quite manage to finish all the pointing before we left, but it's almost there and we look forward to another great day tomorrow at Number 18. It's hard to believe that we're passed the half way mark and there are only 2 days building left.

We found a lovely motto on one of the houses (pctured), which I've decided to adopt. It says 'May the Roof above never fall in . .and the Friends gathered below never fall out'.

Now there's a thought to end the day on ...

Good Night !

Kate

Dog Tired - Day 2 !!!

Hi again,

Well, we've survived another very hot, very tough day building.

We had thought that the talk of a 4.30 am wake up call was a joke. Unfortunately, we were wrong !! So a leisurely rise again at 5am, breakfast and off to the site for about 7am. Today our Patron, President Carter was on site and was actually building. Here's one of his minders !! We came across him fitting the kitchen sink at Number 40 (pictured above) ...
Back to Number 18 for us, and it's looking good after a hard day 's work. Here's Jim and Michael getting started on mixing the concrete for the blocks. I was on the brickie team today and did some block laying and pouring concrete. It was that bit more tricky as we were working higher up on the walls and needed the scaffolding for most of it. Our team as a whole is not the tallest, so I was in good company scrambling up and down scaffolding with blocks and buckets of concrete. Sarika, our new home owner was with us again today. That's her in the foreground of the photo. She's a really hard worker and matched everyone with the block laying and concreting. She's delighted to be working on her new house and we are all excited by the fact that she will shortly have a nice new home, thanks in part to our efforts.

The temperature again was probably about 90 degrees, not quite as hot was yesterday, but nevertheless exhausting to work in. We managed better today with looking after ourselves and each other - taking more frequent shade breaks and more water.

Our gaffer, Spencer, from Southern Calfornia, pictured here with Ciara and Catriona, put us through our paces well today. He's very demanding and keen that we get everything right, but very hardworkng himself and we get on like a house on fire. Today was a bit of a rush to the finish, as we needed to get the top layer layed and poured, so that they will dry overnight and allow us to continue in the morning. It was tight and we almost missed the last bus back, but just made it. It was a very tough but satisfying day, and Spencer assigned an A+ to the Irish Team for a great day's work.

We got back to the hotel at 6.50, to hear that the buses for dinner left at 7 ! But we managed an extension to the time and enjoyed dinner at a nice Thai restaurant (I use to like Thai curry !).

So it's off to bed now and up again at 5 (we've cancelled the 4.30 calls !) for another day trying to perfect Number 18 for Sarika and her family.

Will check in again tomorrw,
Kate

What a first day building !!!!

Hi again,

Monday dawned and we were up bright and early (5am !!) to prepare or our blitz build. It's a very strange sensation loading up with sun cream at 5am in the dark ! but we were very glad of it as the day wore on. We left the hotel (under Police escort !) at about 6.15 and arrived at the site at about 7.15 am. The site is huge. We will build 82 houses on the site in the next week. The 82 commorates the King of Thailand's 82nd birthday, on December 5th 2009. Team Belfast, along with 3 new friends, Catriona, Ciara and Sonia from Habitat in Dublin were assigned to house Number 18, where we gathered to meet up with our House Leader and some other volunteers who joined us. We also met Sarika, who will live at Number 18 with her son and daughter. Sarika worked along with us all day.

The initial layers of blocks had already been layed and our task was to mix the sand and cement to 2 different consistencies, one for the pointing / grouting (the toothpaste !) and another (the New England Chowder or porridge) to pour on the next layers of blocks. We set about our tasks and were soon grouting and pointing, as well as laying the next layers of blocks. This was a tricky job, needing spirit levels and plumb bobs to ensure a perfect wall every time.

Some vounteers from Sri Lanka and Napal joined us and our neighbours on the next house are from Canada. The site is an absolute hive of activity from very early on and the whole operation is run with military precision. However the most striking aspect of today, apart from the sheer scale of the build, was the heat. It was phenominal. One of our American volunteers, who seems to be regarded as something of an expert by his colleagues, estimated that it hit 93 degrees this morning. I certainly wouldn't argue. I don't think I've ever been as hot.

In the afternoon, some of us moved to a different house across the street, number 25, to even out the labour a bit ! And we continued grouting - now that we are experts ! The Leader of house 25 is Gina from Miami, who was very welcoming and the crew were mostly Americans.

We worked very hard today and the heat made it that bit more interesting !!! However, we did very well. We completed as much as we needed to, to keep the houses on track and most importantly we survived the heat to build another day !!

Here's the rest of the 'Island of Ireland' team at dinner, Sonia from Dublin, Ciara, originaly from Newry and Catriona from Waterford. Tonight was very quiet ! Dinner at the hotel and an early night ready for more of the same tomorrow - 5am will come around very quickly !!

Will check in again tomorrow - connections permitting,

Kate.