After waking up an attempt to help cook breakfast was made, it is really hard to get the Karen to let Andrew and I help with the cooking! The most we got to do today was peel garlic.
Andrew attempting to help with breakfast
We gathered at 9am today to cut some bamboo and so I could make a test brick. Since there is no rice husks in the camp, because they do not grow their own rice, and no straw it seems that using bamboo will be the best additive to the clay to give it binding qualities. I had the 2nd in Charge help to cut some bamboo for me and also make a small mold. I was hoping to try my first brick attempt in private, just in case it failed, but no such luck! The Karen are a surprising mixture of super shy and not shy at all. Certain things like singing and dancing in public hold no embarrassment for them, but getting one of them to eat dinner with you is almost impossible!
Cutting the bamboo for my test mud brick
Soon a whole crowd was watching me make a test brick. This test brick was made of bamboo pieces and soil from the chosen site. I started by mixing the soil and bamboo in a ratio close to 3:2 in a small whole that I dug in the area I was using the soil. After adding water and making the mixture as homogenous as possible it was ready for the mold. I took the mold to the river to wet it and then lined the interior with sand to enable with the release. After packing the mold with the mud mixture it was ready to shake the brick out. I hoped to god that this brick would come out of the mold or else it was going to be REALLY embarrassing! To my good fortune it came out perfectly! Phew!
Tomorrow Andrew is going back to Mae Sot and since there is no phone service in the camp, Mweh Paw had to go across the river to make the phone call. I am pretty sad that Andrew is going to be leaving me tomorrow, it’s hard to be here without another foreigner around. Since Mweh Paw was gone we decided to take a short walk around just the two of us, but a few steps into our walk Moo Wah Paw, one of Mweh Paw’s friends, steps in to join us. It seems like we were left with a babysitter while Mweh Paw was away! After telling her that we were just going on a short walk, and her joining us clearly out of duty not enjoyment, Andrew and I decided to cut our walk short. On the way we ran into an old man making a bamboo basket, since we had nothing better to do we decided to stop and watch – I figured now was as good a time as any to get my long overdue degree in basket weaving! Clearly Moo Wah Paw was not even remotely interested in watching this man make a basket and after a while Andrew and I were just watching as a way to torture her a bit for babysitting us!
Basket Weaving 101
During the night time for Karen New Years singing and traditional dancing was done up on stage for the whole camp. It was open to anyone that wanted to get up and sing. Most of the singing was a bit lack luster to say the least. At least once it got dark Andrew and I could sneak into my bamboo hut to hangout and listen to the music just the two of us. A pretty chaste last night together, but what can you do it’s the Karen way!