A bit of a looksy at Huey Sai.......

So finally you get to have a bit of a looksy at Huey Sai and what us crazy kiwis are up to.  

So far the pipe work from the source to the water filter tank is competed.  The pipe back to the main tank and part way into the village has been laid.  The water tank has only one more layer of concrete to pour and the filter tank is poured.  Two ablution blocks have been built - they include a 2.5m soak tank and a small concrete floored, bamboo walled shed with a squat toilet.

We have also run 3 kids club sessions that they call Vacation Bible School ... with way more laughing and fun than school!  About 30 kids each day are discovering that they a great loved by God and also precious to us.

Tomorrow is Sunday and our first rest day.  We are going to the little local church than laxing out with a chance to hang with the locals.  We plan to intro them to cricket and also will be meeting the local Shaman.
Then Monday to Wednesday is hard out finishing the tanks ... 3 more ablution blocks and the final pipe and tap work through the village.

Today it felt as though we were all of a sudden accepted as being more than just very strange looking visitors.  More and more contact with the villages each day and many more smiles and even laughs coming our way.

This place is so poor and yet there is a richness here in each of these beautiful people.  It's so amazing for us all to be a small part of bringing hope, health and friendship to these humble, shy, quiet, needy people.  Hope you enjoy the pics!

Even in Thailand the blokes can be blokes ... and the Thai blokes have been teaching us a thing or two ... too.



Geoff's in project prep mode at a daily monitoring meeting



Mike Mann is the man.  Before we came he was the only European person many of these villages had meet. He leads ITDP and this is the 226 water project over the last 20 years

Layer  3 of 5 concrete pours on the main storage tank

More bucket passing than you can poke a stick at.

Kiwi's, the ITDP team and our local host VooLee enjoy a kiwi version of
pig on a spit and baked potatoes

Julz hacking out a trench for water pipe while Chris supervises

Robert foccused on re-barring the main storage tank.

Thousands of metres of blue pipe are a sign that clean water is on it's
way.

The boys are back in town ... kid magnets!

The first of many ablution blocks to be constructed over the next month

...thats all folks - only a week to go!!!!





Mike and Campbell went off fishing to catch lunch but...

Another early morning woken by they roosters.  Mike & Campbell went off fishing to catch lunch but came back with bread instead, while the rest of us poured the 3rd out of 5 concert rings on the water tank!

All finding it a bit hard sleeping on the hard floor and all our muscles are aching but still manage to find the energy to dig trenches, make & pour concert, & build a bathroom.

Breakfast time over now back to work!

ITS ABOUT TIME - PART B

Campbell here with part B.........

Our hosts at Huey Sai are Wool-Lee and Dee-Cee. They shifted here from a village near the Burmese border 4 years ago. They came to bring the goodness of Jesus and now Pastor a little church of about 40.
Now they are helping bring not only the love of Jesus but also health through the ITDP water and sanitation project.

Up on the hill next door is a very run-down Buddhist school that we used yesterday for our first kids club. About 40 kids came full of energy to be entertained by "Simon says" by ... Simon! For the first time many of them heard the amazing story of God's creation and their preciousness in being wonderfully made. We had a
crack at "he's got the whole world in his hands" in Thai.

Each day we discover more about these quiet yet colourful people. We realise a little more our need to slowdown to their pace of life. We learn that our diversity is beautiful and similarities many... Longing to love and be loved.

And lastly some practical stuff:  team is healthy, Meryn is a machine, food is great and rice in plenty, the boys are kinda behaving, there's plenty of rice, first ablution block underway, rice for lunch, cool evenings and hot days, I think rice for dinner tonite ... That's all folks. Hope to get you some pics on Sunday.

Campbell.

"IT'S ABOUT TIME....."

IT'S ABOUT TIME, IT'S ABOUT TIME, iTs AbOuT TiMe, it's About time, I mean cock a doodle doo!

So after two nights of waking up at 2 in the morning, after 200,000 cock a doodle doos, we learnt to speak chicken! Is about time to wake up and they don't shut up till the sun comes up!

After bumper surfing at 100 up and over the hills, having the kiss of death with on coming vehicles we are at the village making great progress. We have mixed over 8cube of concrete by hand with gap 40, and now we have a floor and first ring of the tank poured.

The serenity is just tip top, and the kids have way to much energy! 1kz's are tip top for here and it seems like over 5/4s of the Hilux production line live over here.

Signing off from the "special"ists on the team, Chris and Simon

We are here!

Exciting but lil apprehensive. Village area great, ITDP team good set up. Our room in bamboo hut compact, but comfy. Toilet n shower a "treat" but all good. We straight into work, pipes from 3.5kms and we actually got water thru .. Yeah! Now just to dig into ground. Night surprisingly COLD.

Off to the hills we go!

Well today's the day we came here for. Time to grab our bags, jump on the utes n make a track to the mountains. Eager yet nervous, the team is ready to hang with the locals n pick up the spades. Not sure what awaits us at the Huey Sai village but we do know they need access to clean water, they need to be able to safely deal with waste and as a marginalised hilltribe they need to know that they matter and are loved. We can't wait to serve and love them. As Jesus put it to "love our neighbour as ourselves".

This water project is number 226 for ITDP. Amazing... We get to help with 226! Our small part in something much bigger. Wirisak is the ITDP project manager going with us and he's been working at this for 21 years ... What a legend. Witchit (Richard) is our translator, an ex-English teacher... A fun guy. And Nob, one of our other drivers is a passionate fisherman (Mike and Campbell are his new best mates).

Well we are on the way. Please keep praying for us and the village. update you if we can. Bye.

Number 13 of the team :)

Hi I'm Gwenna Taylor, from Waipukurau, currently unemployed and mother of 5.
Loving Thailand so far, specially the orchids, they have some amazing colours.
I think the rest of the group is amazing and really getting on with everyone!