Sarnelli House, Friendship Bridge, and Building Day 4 (Get By With A Little Help From My Friends)

Hello GV Blogiacs,

It has been a busy 2 days for the team. Yesterday was our first day off from building after finishing the walls on our primary house. We had an amazing day. First we visited an orphanage for kids with HIV/AIDS run by Catholic missionaries. You can go here for more information about the orphanage: http://www.sarnelliorphanage.org/

We arrived at the orphanage and introduced ourselves to the kids. The team brought several presents including coloring books, balls, cookies and ice cream. The children took a liking to us immediately. They were warm and full of love and laughter. Each one of the team members was "selected" by a varying number of the kids and for the rest of the morning they held your hand or rode around on your back. See here a picture of kids usual selection process as a young boy sizes up Russ to decide whether or not to be his friend...


We then played a modified version of Duck-duck-goose that involved singing a song in Thai that none of us new the words to... but we were all excellent at the clapping part. Here one of the staff at the orhpanage chases one of the kids...

We will always treasure our morning spent at the orphanage. The kids were amazing in spite of their circumstances and it was reassuring to know that they were being taken care of from both a medical perspective as well an educational/nurturing one.

We then proceeded to the Friendship Bridge which was an economic development gift to the people of Laos and Thailand from Australia. It was the first bridge to connect the two countries, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai%E2%80%93Lao_Friendship_Bridge

The team had lunch at a great local restaurant along the banks of the Mekong River.

We then proceeded to a monument park. I really don't know how to describe it. But here goes: Ginormous mostly buddhist-themed creations in a garden atmosphere.

We finished the day walking halfway across the Friendship Bridge. Here is the view...

Then today (Friday) we visited a second worksite. This was a house that was being built by a family but then they ran out of money. They approached Habitat for help finishing the house and were accepted. We poured the concrete floor today. Some got their hands dirty with the tough jobs...

Others took on more of a supervisory role...

But in the end it was a job well done and another successful day of work...