Day 4: Green shirt and eating critters day

Susanne:
Day 4 of the build and green shirt day which meant that everyone had to wear their green Habitat shirts for a more picture friendly day than the usual...not sure how that is possible

Also: the heat is on...in more than one way. We are hoping to finish the walls today so that we can put the roof on tomorrow and finish by around lunchtime to have lunch with everyone and then to have the dedication ceremony. Crazy fast. To thinkwe can finish close to 3 homes in 5 days...some teams apparently only got one home done in a week, so we are pretty proud of ourselves.

The days are flying by and the brick rows are going up pretty quickly. After being ``assigned`` to an overseeing skilled worker before, we seem to now do the brick laying on our own. Nice :) Everyone once in a while we ask a question, but overall we know which bricks to sue, what thickness the cement has to be, when a piece of rebar has to be added and when a corner requires help from someone more skilled than we are.
We know the basic words needed to get someone’s attention and thumbs up will go a long way with everyone here. The day flew by and it was pretty quiet actually as we were trying hard to get the walls up. Out of the 14, we were down to 13 with Nick being under the weather.

All week, I had promised Eric and Raymond, the fabulous Habitat staff here, that I would try some local critters. Others were also interested in giving them a try, so we separated the 2 vans into cricket/frog people and those not as interested in that kind of cuisine. We stopped at a stand at the side of the road which was famous for frying them and got psyched up on the ride there. All cameras came out and Eric bought two bags: one with a bunch of crickets and one with a bunch of fried little shriveled up red frogs. Not sure what color they are to start. I have to say that once I held the cricket in my hand, I decided on the frog first...the cricket looked like it could have walked across my hand...the frog looked 100% dead to me :) Michelle, Brian and I decided to take a bite at the same time so that no one could wimp out. The frog actually tasted like some kind of BBQd crunchy snack and was quite good. The cricket: not so much. The texture was not so great and I think that maybe I had my fill of crickets....the frogs: we bought a second bag and finished all of them on the way home. Yum! The frogs are quite prevalent in rice fields, are caught and put into salt water. The crickets, according to Eric, are pretty easy to catch: turn on a light, make sure an opening is there they climb into and you will have tons in just a little while. Easy money on the side and easy snack to catch. hmmmm .....
We finished the day and went to dinner at FCC, a ex-pat place on the promenade which really is the most touristy and happening spot in the evening. The group is beat. The heat takes so much out of everyone that after dinner and a couple of beer, we tend to go back to the hotel to either have another drink, hot the hay, do internet stuff etc.

Sayings or comments to remember as different accents make for some good giggles (their English is very, very good compared to any wordsw we may try to pronounce in Cambodian):
• the children calling Nick ``Snick`` as he said on the worksite: My name is Nick...so you can easily interpret it as Snick
• Brian wondering who Steve Walker is....people at the site often refer to ``Skilled worker``....you can figure it out :)
• Snart: a sneeze + a fart
• Eric explaining why people eat crickets but not grasshoppers. ``They are too fast``
• Us asking Eric if people here eat elephant. The answer was No. when we asked why, the answer was ``Too hard``...besides that, they are actually somewhat of a sacred animal here and very strictly protected by government

Other notables:
• kids taking your hand all the time at the site to go anywhere
• When it rains here, it pours....comes out of nowhere. Been lucky so far, but had some rain today over lunch.
• Fruit punch Fanta..Carbonated: not my favorite.... :)
• Mango sticky rice: awesome
• Toilet paper is pink, and toilets are NOT like they are at home. Let`s leave it at that :)
• Watched a 1997 episode of Larry King Live with Mel Gibson this week re. movie: Conspiracy Theory....hmmm
• no cats (have seen two so far) versus a ton of dogs
• little pagodas looking almost like ornate bird houses on people`s front lawns for protection and good luck
• close to 25 or 30 degrees at 6:30 a.m.
• bug bites seem super itchy here!