Build Day 3: 37 degrees in the shade

Susanne:
Seems we are dropping like flies....well, temporarily at least. Chelsea and Erin were missing from the build today, so we were down to 12 again. Then Kevin pulled something in his back and Nancy was having a rough day with the sun, too.
Our team has been sooo good. not the easiest conditions and everyone is hanging in there, helping eachother when tired backs or arms are setting in and very adaptable.

We started our day early with a 7 a.m. departure versus the usual 7:30 am as we had plans this evening and had to be ready and showered by 5:30 pm. The work day was pretty well the usual, with work, playing with the kids, applying sun screen and learning a word or two in eachother`s language (we work along side the skilled workers as Chelsea mentioned).

It is incredibly hot, though. 37 degrees in the shade at some point this morning. For those that know me: I love the sun, but had to wear a long sleeved shirt this afternoon just to keep the rays off after a mini morning-burn on my arms which have already seen a bit of sun this summer...CRAZY hot!

The drive to and from the work site is always interesting. I added a pic from the front seat in the van out the windshield so that you can see the traffic on the street. Motos (mopeds) everywhere, sometimes these kind of wagons which are pulled by motos with about 20-30 people on them. saw something funny today: a moto driver`s cell phone must have been ringing and he took it out of his pocket when driving. Then opened up his helmet and stuck it inside, closed the helmet and again and proceeded on with this phone call when on his moto....a whole new kind of Bluetooth perhaps :)
You can see up to 4 people per moto, many Toyotas. there are a number of Lexus`, too and funny enough: they have huge Lexus logos on the side...hmmm. we saw the famous wandering elephant on the street today when driving home. Marianne had read about him being kind of like a stray dog wandering around town and here he was in the ``bar district``. Smart elephant. Talk about wandering: yesterday at lunch, we went for the stroll Chelsea wrote about and Michelle, Marianne and I also wandered a bit further when Michelle noticed a family of monkeys hanging around. I took some pics...will post later.
Other things we see on our drives:
-plants or trees being transported on the back of motos.
-stands with Pepsi bottles filled with gasoline which is quite expensive here considering the cost of everything else (about $1.15 US).
-dried fish on sticks
-stray dogs everywhere. they all look related with pointy noses. they are very street smart and know traffic well
-skinny cows tied under houses, next to roads or randomly in people`s yards
-fish farms next to Mekong river
-houses on stilts. not because of water but the space below provides shade, is a good spot to hang hammocks (very popular here)
-tourists all seem to hang around on one area of town we drive through. So we see them at restaurants sometimes or along this little strip, but otherwise we are fortunate to have been invited to get to know this country from a different angle. Spending time with the families we are building for, having locals volunteer as interpreters and answering all of our silly questions at the work site or in the van
-smiles, smiles, smiles....amazing how friendly and smiley people are here.

Chelsea will write about our evening later and will put some pictures up...was awesome!