Rain, Rain Go Away!
The weather was bleak when we left for work but we had no idea it would get so bad. The morning was spent mixing yet more cement, this time to fill in the pillars in the four corners of the house. The work is much more demanding and constant on this project but with that we are being given a lot more responsibility. I really feel we are really building this house from scratch as apposed to our small contribution on the previous project. The relationship we have with the family we are building for this time is starting to grow also. The son who is about 14 helps us some afternoons when he is not in school and his father is one of the builders. Some of the others are dubious of him but I think that may just be because he works us so hard, it is clear he is a really nice bloke but just under pressure to provide for his family. His wife is all smiles and brings us various tropical fruits throughout the day which come as welcome relief from the hard work. On this day however our hard work was only needed for the morning as when the ran came about 12pm it was relentless and there was soon too much water on the site to think of doing anything.
This came as a welcome break for bernie who spent the afternoon ill in bed and so left only 4 of us to teach. I had been working with some the older more competent kids for the past few lessons but today it was back to the little ones. Thanks to Emma's animal crosswords that went down a storm it was a pretty enjoyable lesson. It was also Simon & Adam's last lesson so that had brought some sweets along much to the delight of the kids. The rest of our evening was again stolen by the future Vietnamese dictators, Phuc & Harre. It was dinner at the later this time and what a feast it was. The table was covered with fresh meats, salads & fruits and the view from the balcony was exemplified by the rain lashing down into the pool in front of us. It came as no surprise when the playing cards followed dinner but the fact we played till almost 12 was. In their defence it was Simon & Adam's farewell and it is a public holiday in Vietnam tomorrow.
