I signed up for this?

Today had it's ups and downs, so give me a little latitude while I bitch. Late morning half of us, myself included, moved on from making metal framing to moving and laying bricks for the actual wall. This was only made more difficult by 90 degree weather and 90% humidity. We all wore the hats we brought for sun protection, and thinking back this is probably the first time I've worn a hat in maybe 10 years. I don't enjoy it but it keeps the sweat out of my eyes. Yes, it is that bad. As Joey so aptly put it, we have been "Shang Hai'd into hard manual labor."

Thankfully I only had to lay brick for about an hour before lunch, after which I was scheduled to lead "activity," AKA play with random kiddos. Kind of like recess. We took them downstairs to a big open area and let them play red light-green light, hokey pokey, bingo (when they win they just yell "GO!!"), soccer and catch. Not to toot my own horn, but even without communication abilities I felt like a natural. All of us girls did great, the kids loved us. Some of the kindergarteners who we've taught once even found us and followed us around. After a ball got caught in the ceiling and the older boys shook it down, I got a couple of kindergarten boys to help me sweep the floor. Eventually they took over and I could have died from the cute. I really hope I get to play with them again.

At lunch and shortly before activity Ava informed us that there's a scheduling issue. Apparently there is a teacher training next week that all of the teachers need to go out of town for, and therefore there is no school next week......... That means our 2 weeks of teaching and working with kids is now 1 week, this week. It's Wednesday. Sufficient to say we were pissed. We signed up to work with kids, that's what we put as our preference and this is the assignment we got because of it. I could have signed up to work at an elephant sanctuary, but I wanted to work with a children's organization. And now we're primarily building a wall. Now I can't learn names, I can't teach any real English, I just get to lay bricks and pour cement. When I get home I'm writing ISV an email about the level of organization/coordination in Thailand, this is ridiculous. I just feel sorry for Ava, now she has to deal with the fallout.

Moving on, after having fun with the kiddos it was back to bricks. And that's when someone found the BIGGEST SPIDER EVER in a brick. I ran, I didn't even look. People were taking pictures, trying to get it out of the brick. It ended up JUMPING away. I still haven't looked at any of the pictures, but others are openly nervous now about finding another spider because of how huge this one was. Words cannot describe how I feel right now, as if I wasn't already paranoid/twitchy enough.

I ended a draining day with an intense headache, probably from the sun, and a shower. One bright moment was that dinner was good, finally saw some noodles and curry! No heads this time. Then, since we'd all earned it after the day we'd had, we went back for Thai massages. The first one was better but I motioned to my masseuse that my shoulders hurt so she concentrated on those. She even cracked my hips and back for me, it was like going to a chiropractor. I finished the night with a Singha and a game of kings with the group. Tomorrow morning Molly and I have volunteered to DJ the DEPDC's English hour on their radio station, but we have yet to figure out what we're doing for it. In the most literal sense, doing it live.