Straw gathering in Sector 6
Who knew there was so much straw around? Only Thala Lili!
I can’t believe that by 7am everyday people are on the field playing soccer, volleyball, and caneball! These games generally go through the morning until around 10am where they stop and are picked up again at 3pm until around 5pm. After the Clinic in Charge was finished with his morning volleyball game off he went with the rest of the TB team to gather straw in Sector 6. Sector 6 is a boat ride away from the rest of the camp and I was not able to go with them for fear that if I left the camp I wouldn’t be allowed back in. So sadly, I had to wait for everyone to return.
Bring back our precious straw
After a few hours they all returned with large amounts of already dry straw so all we simply had to go was cut it into smaller pieces for the mud bricks. Happily, cutting straw took about ¼ of the time that cutting the bamboo did, so by 3pm we were already done with the huge pile of straw that they had brought back. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that the 2nd in Charge of the Camp asked various households to each cut a small amount of bamboo for the mud brick making tutorial that was going to happen on the 14th! I was very impressed by the amount of initiative and interest the 2nd in Charge was taking in this project, especially since I am sure he has many other duties to attend to. So it looks like by the 14th we will have lots of straw and bamboo to make bricks with!
Cutting straw at a MUCH faster rate than we were when making the bamboo pieces
Also, the small handmade test bricks were coming along really well and drying nicely. There didn’t seem to be any amount of shrinkage at all when they were drying, which makes me very happy.
Baby mud bricks happily being dried by the sun
After 3pm it was all relaxing until dinner time, where a terrible realization hit me: I had finally come to the point of no return with fish paste. After eating one bite at dinner I realized that I could eat no more, so that pretty much means a diet of white rice and a few little bits of vegetables from here on out! That however did not spoil the meal since now that Andrew has gone I have been able to really spent time getting to know Mweh Paw and what a diverse and intelligent woman she is. Having grown up in Thailand and being Karen has given her a rare opportunity to be both part of her culture and also able to see it as an outsider would, and has made conversing with her about Karen issues extremely insightful. I am more than lucky to have someone who is so smart and eager to learn on my team!