June 20th – Today is Friday, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath. As a result, our work day is shortened. We get to the work site ready to work, however, once again there is a delay in the cement process. For an hour, the principal asks us to pay the time flattening out the road with additional dirt. The process is highly haphazard without any guidance or tools.


The hour-long project is somewhat characteristic of or work, and perhaps of work projects in Thailand generally; bounded in the present, without thought about the long term. Adding more dirt to a dirt road that continually gets washed out or muddy is a solution that is unlikely to be the best solution.



Likewise, when we finally get the mixer working and running, there were general complaints about the process from the Americans, Coming from a country that is at the forefront in so many regards, Americans often presume that they have superior ideas and techniques to get things accomplished. Here, as with I think any work in another country, you have to take a step back, ask questions, and try to understand a situation before immediately applying your own solution. Despite some vocal dissatisfaction from a civil engineer in the group and a former construction-type worker, we took the passive view and followed the lead of our Thai workers.


The work seemed to progress fairly smoothly. I don't know how to compare it with another type of work I have done, but there seemed to be a general level of satisfaction.


As the day was shortened by Shabbat rules, we completed only a small portion of the total play court. We headed back to the Foundation center to shower and take some of the first free-time of the trip.


About half the group used this as an opportunity to check out the village. The other half had volunteered themselves for various Shabbat-related activities. The rabbi and two women were in charge of challah making. The civil engineer and the social justice coordinator of UW Hillel were constructing the oven to make the bread. And someone was called out to get candles, which comically were the saffron candles used by Thai Buddhist monks.


I had been invited by our Thai cook to assist her in making Pad Thai. With limited Thai I told her that Americans love Pad Thai and that I knew basically how to make it. I ended up being more of an observer and taster than anything else.


There were two neat things about the process. First, she fried large slices of garlic in the wok with a great deal of oil. She strained the garlic to top the dish later, then she used the garlic-infused oil for the rest of the dish. Second she cooked the noodles very quickly, after cooking the egg, by adding just enough water to the mix. The overall result was amazing. Perhaps the best Pad Thai I have had, especially since most Thais put small dried shrimp in their Pad Thai, which I don't enjoy.


While in the kitchen, I also got to watch the bread making process unfold. In the list of ingredients requested, the Thais shopping could not find yeast. So the three bread makers had to be creative in their process. Challah is a braided usually light, soft bread that is very absorbent in picking up soups or sauces. That kind of bread was not going to be possible. Instead the bakers concocted a sweet bread with bananas and peaches and a savory bread similar to foccacia, with garlic and basil. Both ended up looking quite good, but it would be up to the bread team to bake the stuff.


Thai people generally cook on woks fueled by hot propane. This makes for very quick food preperation. Things like bread and cookies are frequently sold at 7-11, but the average Thais shy away from such production. Given the hot climate, it is easy to see why most people are not keen to have a slow cooking, hot furnace inside or near their house. However, the oven team created a nice concrete block of insulation, under which they placed a charcoal crucible used for producing soups and stewed dishes.


Two or so hours passed. We gathered for a nice Friday evening service. In spite of having knowledgeable Hebrew speakers and a Rabbi, we lacked prayer books, so we opted for a service mostly of wordless songs and meditation on the week so far and the idea of rest. Everyone seemed to agree, even those without knowledge of Jewish practices, that the service was quite lovely.


Dinner together was quite wonderful. The Pad Thai had cooled considerably since I had first eaten it, and it was no longer the best Pad Thai I had ever tried. Miracle of miracles, the bread was delicious for both savory and sweet varieties. In fact, when I went back for a second tasting, there was none left over. We said the prayer of wine using Elephant Beer, in light of Thailand having no wine available.


After the meal, we had a study session about the cost of these short term trips and if resources could be better spent in other ways. There was the general feel that our skills as university-educated individuals were not being exploited and that we could be doing much more valuable tasks than working on a playground. My defense was that the point of the trip is not so much in the work accomplished, which given the time frame regardless of the type of work, is very minimal. The purpose is to be invigorated and enlightened. In a bizarre way, it is a form of tourism, but tourism with the intent to make things better, not some much in the short term of the trip, but in a larger context of giving purpose to future endeavors. For me that invigoration is directed at development work throughout the world, but I kow for others this trip may make them more compassionate accountants, or dentists, or actuaries.


The general consensus of the meeting was that a great deal of resources had been put into this trip and it was up to us the make the most of the personal connections along the way.