Hi all. I'll try to jam as much in as quickly as possible. It's after 5:00 and I have to do this, get to breakfast and catch a bus before 6:30.
The big news on Tuesday was that Jet Li was working on our house. For those of you who don't know, he's a huge martial arts star from China, and has been in many movies. Okay, full confession: I didn't know who he was and had to Google him when I got back to the hotel.
But that didn't stop me from getting my picture taken with him.
It was almost as hot on day two, but we were getting better at pacing ourselves and getting in the shade when we needed to. Apparently on the first day over 40 people ended up in the first aid tent needing IV because of the heat.
Our House Leader, Vasjra had to leave us jut after lunch because she wasn't feeling well - a combination of heat and jet lag - she just flew in on Sunday evening and started the build on Monday morning.
So other, more experienced people had to jump in and take the lead - Jackie, Liz, Amy - all of whom have built other HforH homes. We have a pretty small crew and people keep coming and going, but we've been able to keep up with the rest, and our work is pretty good. As we walk through the community on our way to lunch, we compare our house to the others we see. There are some pretty wonky looking rows of blocks - clearly not everyone is as diligent about using a level as Vajra is.
By lunchtime, we had finished laying blocks up to the tops of the windows and by the end of the day, the walls were done!
The appreciation and generosity continues. In the afternoon, the Governor of Chiang Mai came through with an entourage and the handed out a single red rose to all the women!
We put ours in a water bottle, you can see the beautiful arrangement here inside our house.
Running out of time, so I'll just fi
nish off with this shot of me with our "partner family". Sriwilai Tuejenta is to my left. She's the wife. Her husband Manop has worked with us a little but he has a job at the hospital. So a relative of hers (whose name I don't know) has been working alongside up the whole time. It must be so incredible for them to see all these people helping to build their house.I still haven't seen Jimmy and Rosalynn up close. They've been driven by in litle golf carts a couple of times, and I always seem to be looking in the other direction. But he's apparently going to stop by each of the homes on Friday.
Go a great stroy to tell you tomorrow. Stay tuned.
