Does it look like I care?

Longest Saturday of my life. And probably also the wettest.

God forbid we sleep in here, we left for our field trip at the normal time, 845. Most of the group had stayed up way late having a few drinks the night before (which we refer to here as "bible study") and were exhausted. I skipped bible study and went to bed nice and early, but was still just as exhausted. And guess what was for breakfast today. Phad see ew and tom ka gai, two of my three favorite Thai dishes. Too bad I wasn't all that hungry, having what I normally eat as dinner for breakfast is too weird still.

Hannah, a half British/half Thai administrator for DEPDC, and Caterina, an Irish volunteer, led us on a walk around the back roads of our area. They took us to a cave temple which we had to hike some major stairs to get to. We were huffing and puffing real quick, very reminiscent of the Table Mountain hike. But once we got in the cave it was pretty unique. There were all sorts of huge Buddhist statues inside and the cave went on and on. There were even a few monks inside praying and meditating. We walked through all of it barefoot, which I normally don't like (we take our shoes off ALL THE TIME here) but in the cave it felt really grounded, really natural to walk through and feel the stone underfoot. Added to the awe.

After the first hike/temple we walked over to another temple on a nearby hill. I see this temple every day walking home from DEPDC and I was really hoping to go see it. It's just a pointy gold dome off in the distance. But up close it is much smaller. We did another set of stairs up this mountain, this time it was much more curvy and jungley so the climb was easier. And once at the top the view was incredible.

We climbed back down to eat our sack lunches provided by DEPDC, then went back to the school to work on the infernal wall. We took an hour rest before heading out to pour cement, and as soon as we got outside the rain came. And I mean real, monsoon rain. We grabbed our rain gear and proceeded to pour cement into the bricks in the downpour. The rain coats didn't help at all as the entire rest of your body got soaked. I thought we might do this for an hour or so and call it a day, but no such luck. We were out there, soaking and muddy, for the whole 3 hours. I wore some crock knock-offs I'd bought on the street that were better for the rain/cement than tennis shoes, but it was disgusting trudging through the 4 inches of muddy water that collected around the wall every time I needed more cement. As I got more and more pissed off my cement pouring got more sloppy, as pictured below. At one point Lee looked observed my less than pristine pours, and all I said was "don't say it, does it look like I care?"

Does it look like I care??

While we were still smiling about it. That didn't last long.

I sassed Ava the entire 3 hours about leaving early and about being out there with lightning while surrounded by rebarb. Nothing worked, this woman is a task master. I was trying to think back to a time when I have been either that wet, that dirty, or that miserable. Couldn't think of anything. But at least we were all hating life together. And it made for one of the best hot showers of my life.

Standing on the bricks to avoid the flood and ants

Now we're off to the bar after dinner for some Saturday night drinks with Ava, Hannah and Caterina. No wall tomorrow, it's our one and only free day, so I'm sure we'll all enjoy ourselves. We earned it.