We continued to work on the land for the church today. Villagers worked alongside us again today as we used hoes to chop into the land and move the dirt to make it level. I was amazed by the precision the villagers had in swinging the tools. Once the ground was loosed we put it on rice bags and dragged it to a spot needing raised. Rain came after a short time of work, so we were covered in mud. My shoes felt about 2 pounds heavier because there was two inches of mud sticking to the bottom of them. Ban Din (the village we are in) rests on the side of a hill, so it turns into one big mudslide with any rain. Despite the rain we made great progress and the land was cleared and leveled. The excitement of the day for me came when I found a leech on my ankle. I have never seen a leech before. I was disgusted, but intrigued too.
Before:
After:
This evening I was hanging out in the girls’ room and the grandmother of the house entered. She sat down right next to me and smiled. She started talking and motioning. She spoke no English and I only know one phrase in Karin. I learned that she is married and has 3 kids. She learned that I am not married and I have no kids. We talked for 45 minutes. She seemed to have a lot of good stories to tell. I did not understand any of them, but we still had quite a nice “conversation”. Hand motions and smiles were the main topics in our discussion.
