Toilet Building

Hm...

We are staying in a 5 star hotel here in the villages.  Actually it has a frowny face and a C rating which we all agree is a bit high.  It's luxury.  It is a bed and an occasional hot shower and that part we are thankful for!  This was my view from the room for the first week.  I'm in a different room now.

We've been here for a week now and we're exhausted.  Building toilets is hard work.  Mixing concrete for days, putting it into buckets, carrying it to the drop off place, plastering septic chambers, moving lids, washing it all off.  It's a lot more work than you'd think just for a giant poop hole (that's what we all call it so get used to me referring to it as such).

So... poop holes.  We're in these straight up Chinese villages and they are beautiful.  Most of the people here are minority and therefore don't all speak Mandarin.  They are the sweetest people ever.  Part of the deal for them getting a toilet is that they have to make lunch for us.  We move to a new house every few days so multiple people have cooked for us and it's incredible!  I love Chinese food!  There were 3 dogs at the last house we were at.  We named them Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.  Lunch was this cute little puppy and we were all so in love with him, but the last day we had some strange meat at lunch and that whole day we never saw Lunch.  We keep joking that we had Lunch for lunch, but I think we're all a bit scared that we actually did.

Lids for the poop hole.

The people in the villages love saying hi to us and I've even heard them refer to us as the people who build toilets as we walk by them!  Haha.  There have been groups coming in for the last 4 months and we are the last group.  The villagers are starting to take over and do it.

Random house in the village that makes their own alcohol! YUP!

Today we were helping a local contractor and his way of doing things is different, but very effective and fast.  Today was our easiest day so far and I think our tiredness caught up to all of us because it's only 7 and we are all wanting to just fall asleep.

Dumping bricks from a Chinese tractor.  That was fun to watch.

Poop hole foundation.

On the weekends we get to go into the larger city near us.  I went there around Thanksgiving and I loved it so I'm very happy about getting to go there 2 more times before I leave China.  Last weekend we helped the owner set up a Tibetan tent.  It was a strange event, but I enjoyed it.  They are pretty cool.  They have cheesecake and a large pizza oven and old town is fun and pretty.  It's just dandy.

We went to a temple in town and snuck some pictures.

An entire park filled with people playing cards & mahjong.

We only have 2 more days out in the villages before we spend out last weekend at our cute little lodge and then we actually make our way back to LC because some other plans fell through.  The rest of the group (all 3 of them) will be going with us and we'll be doing some sort of work there until the rest arrive for English camp.

One month and 3 days and I'll be on US soil again.  Sushi here I come!!!

-Hails