By Lael
Waking up at 6.30 this morning getting ready for a big day ahead, we were excited to help build the floor for the house and help build the roof. Coming down at 7am for a yummy breakfast, we were delighted to know that we were going to have the amazing pancakes.
After brekky, it was a quick change of the clothes and off we went to walk to the village in which we were building the house. I don’t think anyone would ever get sick of the amazing 20 minute walk that we have to take every morning, being pleasantly surprised with the ridiculously amazing scenery that completely describes Vietnam in a nutshell.
Sooner rather than later we were at the village and once again getting smiles from the people in the village and “Xin Chao’s” from everyone, with warm greetings always. It’s always a pleasure doing the hard yards for these amazing people!
Right away we got into bringing massive leaves from one side of the road to the other, walking up the hill to the house, where great teamwork was shown. We had very good technique when it comes to teamwork. For example there where little groups half way down the long 300 meter walk where we would pass on the heavy leaves and so on. After all the leaves were taken up to the house we used an incredible method to get the leaves on the roof, and we were all gob-smacked by it. What happened was a leaf would be put on the sharp end of the piece of bamboo and with the help of your partner they help push the bamboo stick up to the top of the roof where the village workers would catch them and secure them down. It was crazy how the whole roof was done in only one and a half hours and it looked so good!!
Lunch came not too long after, and we really needed it. We had a very yummy lunch, once again in our little lunch boxes and then had an hour for a siesta.
After our nap, everyone slowly made their way to getting back into it and we were ready to nail down on getting the floor completed. Bamboo upon bamboo is basically how I would explain the floor. With the help of yesterday’s work, we nailed down those pieces and before we knew it, the whole floor was completed as well. I never knew that bamboo could be that strong and to know that it’s the Vietnamese main form of flooring, it’s incredible. The last job for the day was to bring all the timber up to the house. With the great teamwork and techniques that we used, it was done in about 20 minutes.
After we completed our work for the day we took a beautiful walk to another village in which we met the cow that we were going to buy for the family that we are building the house for. It is such a beautiful cow and it’s one year old. We were told that the family will need to wait another year and a half before the cow can have calves and go from there. We then walked back to our house where we are staying and had our showers. We are now enjoying a great dinner, being fed very nice food.
Missing everyone so much back at home and hope you are all doing well without your noisy teenagers in the house.
Much love xxxx Lael