Back to project work this morning, although once again I was restricted to water bottle duty. I asked Dave if I was allowed to take part, but this was met with a very firm no! However, today I had more than water bottles to fill, as I was also in charge of filling up buckets of water to use to make the concrete - we needed an almost constant supply so it was easier for me to be there in charge of the water and dishing it out to everyone than for them to all have to keep running backwards and forwards.
Today we were working on something a little bit different. Whilst it was still more of the same task (mixing concrete), it was for a different purpose. This time we were helping to build a pathway near the school for the children to walk along rather than, as they currently do, walking actually in the road.
Although it was really hot (not that that was anything new), I coped really well and we all worked really efficiently as a group, managing to reach our target for the morning earlier than expected, which meant that we got to come back to camp early for an extended lunch.
In the afternoon, we were back up to the kindergarten. Being the first day in what seemed like forever that I was taking part in both the morning and afternoon building sessions, I was a little nervous and thought that just the trek up to the kindergarten alone might be enough to wear me out. But - slowly but surely - I got there! The afternoon was so, so hot, but we got on with it (albeit with a little grumbling and reluctance) and together with a lot more water buckets filled by me, and a lot more concrete mixed by the others, after a couple of hours we were soon heading back to camp once more. I'd completed a whole day!!
We returned to camp to the delight of banana fritters waiting for us, which was reward enough for us! Unfortunately, there wasn't enough water left for the showers to work, as the whole village has been having a bit of a water shortage at the minute, and this camp has to cope with a lot of people, but there was still just about enough coming from the taps to be able to fill up a bucket to share between a few of us. So with a scoop to ladle some of the water out we made do, and it actually wasn't too bad at all. There's something weirdly invigorating about pouring freezing cold water all over yourself...
8:14pm
We all tucked into bolognese for dinner, with most of us digging into seconds too, and now we're all just sitting in the cabin together as outside it begins to thunder once more. The amount of rain we get here is definitely one thing I didn't expect from this expedition. I don't think there's been a single day - maybe one at the most - where it hasn't chucked it down with rain, and often developed into a full blown thunderstorm, at some point during the day or night. It's not like English rain though; it's all warm and refreshing, so we all welcome it with open arms (except from when you've just laid concrete, as we had this afternoon, or when your washing is hanging outside and you have to do the mad dash across camp to bring it in). And the thunder is so loud!!
A few minutes ago, all the lights were suddenly switched off and two big cakes with candles were brought out as there are two people with birthdays in the other groups here. Luckily there was some left over so we got a piece too - chocolate fudge cake definitely ends the day on a good note!!
9:05pm
I was about to go to bed earlier but we were all called together because today is the last night one of the other groups here will be spending in Camp Bongkud, so they said their goodbyes and performed their farewell dance, followed by the local dancers singing a couple of songs with actions which we all watched and then joined in with.
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