June 23rd – Today we returned to the worksite. In my mind, I was still working out some of the things we saw on the previous day's excursions.

Over the weekend, the principal and the village head-man were also doing some work. They had called on community members for assistance on the project. Sixty people showed up and complete twice the amount of concrete that we laid.

In addition to paying to come out to Thailand we were also financing half of the project. Unfortunately the supplies for the other half of the project – the half that was to be completed after we left – were not yet available. Thus, we found ourselves running out of materials faster than anticipated.

By about two o'clock, we were finishing off the last of the concrete and were taking a break under a tree. A new member had joined our group on Friday. A very beautiful Thai woman named Sue was volunteering with us as a form of personal vacation. With her seamless English, she was taking over as a translator and guide.

Despite working with the regular laborers for several days, this was our first opportunity to ask and receive questions. We got to find out that many of them had been doing this sort of work for many years. They didn't own most of the tools they were using. In this case the school owned the tools, including the cement mixer. Perhaps most interesting was that the young workers although they had dropped out of high school had enrolled in trade schools. After hearing many stories of relative despair, it was encouraging to hear about the non-traditional school opportunities for these men.

However, the nicest thing said that day was that the laborers actually enjoyed working with us. In fact, they enjoyed working with us over the villagers from the weekend. When we asked why, they said it was because we were always smiling, we went to work with such energy, and we didn't complain or bicker (unlike some aforementioned people).

For most of our work time, I had assumed that at best we were a harmless nuisance to the laborer's regular schedule. After all, we took most of the cues through hand gestures and we frequently ran into one another and made other small mistakes. Meanwhile, they seemed to work without obvious error. Yet, here we were hearing that we were actually welcomed as a presence and uplifted their spirits.

With any volunteer work, it is difficult to measure the benefit achieved. That is especially true with this particular project. However, the good achieved from goodwill is something that can have ripples of impact for generations.