Saturday, June 11, was my 26th birthday and I celebrated it in pain...I wish I could say I aged gracefully, but of course God, Buddha, Allah and Baba bless each threw me a curve ball this year.
It took nearly an hour for me to be able to move my arm again, and with it came the wrenching pain. I felt so nauseous I wasn't sure if I would vomit or pass out first! Luckily, neither came and friends managed to locate two traveling paramedics at the park (how convenient!)
While I couldn't lift or hold anything I was at least able to rotate my arm. The pain was blinding, produced stars behind my eyelids, but I was grateful to be able to feel it move at all. The paramedics told me it may only be muscular, considering my history of pain with this shoulder. I think the years of heavy construction projects and over-exertion with climbing and white water rafting have started to take their toll on my body.
I decided to suck it up, took a Vicadin (or 2) and trucked on with my group to the jungle to start our construction project. I couldn't lift or move any muscles in my right shoulder, so I spent the better part of the week in a self-made shoulder sling looking pretty sorry for myself. Now (one week later) I can move my arm, and while the pain is still there every day it lessens a little and my shoulder regains some strength.
Last night we came into Chiang Mai city for a weekend break and I went to the hospital for an x-ray; everything checked out OK, so no bone damage. The doctors think it might be more than muscular, maybe a torn tendon or ligament after all, so next week I'll have an MRI if it still doesn't get better.
On a lighter subject, despite the pain we had a fantastic week in the village. Ban Lao is a rural Thai village high up in the mountains, nearly a 1.5 hour's drive away from the city. The kids here are mostly Thai, with a small mix of local Hmong minority hill tribe children. We lived on the school grounds and fashioned a cozy home in one of the classrooms. Thin mattresses, mosquito nets and a small pillow each was more than enough luxury! We shared squat toilets and bucket showers with the kids who were boarding at the school, and after only a few days we molded ourselves within the community.
Our mission was to start the construction of a classroom. The school desperately needed more classrooms built since the teachers were struggling to find space for the 150+ students studying there, mixed primary and secondary levels.
The kids were incredibly well disciplined, a common feature in village schools far removed from the cities. Every morning they started their day with cleaning chores around the school grounds including: scrubbing toilets, emptying trash bins, sweeping, and refilling communal drinking water jugs. They also sang the National and Royal Family anthems, and performed 'wai' ceremonies to each other and the main Buddha image on the school grounds. This ceremony involves greeting your classmates formally (with hellos in Thai "sawatdee" and a formal bow of the head with hands raised in prayer-like fashion); this as well as paying respect to the main Buddha image and chanting in unison asking for prosperity and protection.
The kids who boarded at the school were Hmong children from nearby villages who lived on the school grounds since the commutes to their villages were too far to be done daily. Normally they spend the week at the school, supervised by teachers who live on-site, and travel home during the weekends for family time. The kids really look after each other, with the older kids being responsible for the cooking, cleaning and feeding of the younger kids each evening. They rotated chores amongst themselves and never slacked once.
Something incredible happened our second night there. I recognized one of the kids running around the school! A few years ago I helped construct water tanks for a Hmong village located the next mountain over, and we spent a lot of time playing with the local kids while their parents were away working in the fields and plantations.
These same kids were now boarding at Ban Lao, and some of them recognized me too! I searched my laptop, hunted through my old photos and showed them pictures we had taken during that project. We had laughs all around about how fortunate we were to find each other again! This was also the moment my group was invited into their tight-knit world with open arms and blind trust. From that day on, the children and our volunteers were inseparable.
(pictured: classroom foundation before and after)
With only a week, we had a big task ahead of us. We had to start the foundation for the classroom, knowing that the next group of volunteers coming through would finish the construction of walls and a roof. We had to dig 10 holes (each 80 cm deep), install heavy concrete pillars, build a frame to make sure the pillars lined up straight and evenly, and mix enough concrete manually to fill all the holes and stabilize the structure.
During our free time we taught English to the school kids; played games (soccer is the sport of choice in this village!); chatted with the local monk learning more about the religion and their daily habits; and took the time every day to enjoy the sunsets lying low in the mountains and the mysterious foggy nature of the jungle after fresh rains.
The kids had something to teach us too during our stay. Jack, our volunteer coordinator and good friend, decided to help me teach a Thai language class to the volunteers. The kids crowded around and helped our volunteers with pronunciation, by far the most difficult challenge for our foreign tongues!
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