We made it safely to Malasya today, more on that later here is a few blogs I haven’t been able to post untilnow
Philippines
Dan, one of the guys on our squad makes
some really great videos. He finished the ones from our times
together in the Philippines. So if you want a closer look at our time
there check them out here.
http://danieldurick.theworldrace.org/?category=11%20The%20Philippines
China
On one of our days off in China, Jon,
Tara, and I set off to climb the mountain on the other side of town.
We hopped on the bus and embarked on the 30 minute journey through
town. One interesting thing about Chinese parks is that they all
have paved paths and concrete steps up hills. I suppose its
something they did to create jobs, but it really gives their parks a
weird vibe.
After about 700 steps, we reached the
top and found out that the crescent moon thing we had been staring at
the whole time was a statue of a sewing needle. The fence
surrounding it was missing the gate, so we decided that was an
invitation to eat lunch on top of it.
While we were finishing up a Chinese
girl came up and introduced herself. Turns out Sunny was an English
student at the university and was heading to a temple on the
mountain. She asked if we could become friends and walk to the
temple together.
We headed out not knowing where or how
far away we had just agreed to hike. After about 30 minutes, we got
to a huge compound. We walked around to the front and found the
temple.
It was kind of weird to be in a
Buddhist Temple, but it gave us a great chance to see what most
Chinese people believe and it was a great chance to talk about our
personal beliefs.
The buildings were beautiful, but
inside were all kinds of different statues to pray to for different
things. Sunny even got a fortune from some machine that said she
would have bad luck with marriage. She didn’t want that to happen so
she said some extra prayers to another statue to avoid that. I am so
glad I serve a simple God who wants nothing but the best for me and
asks nothing more than a humble and willing heart.
We ended up back in town and she showed
us her university and some street food. We met up with some of her
friends who were also English majors and they took us out to dinner.
We ended the night with some KTV, or Karaoke.
It was really a great day. What a
great opportunity we were presented with to get to experience a new
culture and meet with people our age.
Thailand
Most of our time here has been spent
working in the tapioca fields either fertilizing, planting, or
harvesting. One day while we were spreading out goat poop we had
collected from the bottom of the barn, Arun said he need a few guys
to come with him.
I was right near so I was one of the
first volunteers to join him. Turns out he was selling about 40 goats
from his flock and needed them loaded into the truck of the men who
had just bought them.
It sounds simple enough, but we had to
pick out the ones he sold, catch them, weigh them, then carry them
down this rickety ramp and lift them into the truck.
Arun would point to one and two or
three of us would try to corner it and grab its horns. Goats are
pretty quick, but most were not too much of an issue to catch. One
though proved to be another story. We had him cornered but he
charged a chain link fence at full speed and broke through it. He
dropped down to the level below. We eventually got a hold of him,
but goats are crazy.
Most goats give up when you get their
horns, but sometimes I would have to grab the ears of an unruly goat
to subdue it. A few would keep fighting despite my best efforts and
they would all scream bloody murder. The worst part is that a goat
scream and a child’s scream are identical. I’m kind of surprised
no one had nightmares from them.
As I was leading one of the last goats
down the ramp, he was able to get a little momentum and I managed to
break my foot through one of the planks on the ramp. Tumbled down
the last 6 feet of the ramp, but the goat managed to get loose. I was
fortunate enough to barely avoid smashing my head on one of the
posts, and everyone got a good laugh out of it after we corralled the
goat.
On another day, after a long day
working in the fields, we stopped at the store to buy a few snacks.
The lady from across the street came over and though our translator
asked if we could help her. We agreed before we found out what was
in store for us. A Thai man pulled a cage out of his
truck and lead us to the pig cages.
Colby, who has lots of experience on a
farm jumped in and with the Thai man managed to get the first huge
pig into the cage. The rest of us carried the pig to the truck and
came back to get the others. The rest of the pigs were not as keen
as the first to climb in and one even jumped over a 3 or 4 foot wall.
Pigs are not very athletic so it was more like a jump to get his
front legs over then a shimmy to get himself to flip the rest of the
way over.
Pigs, like goats, make a lot of noise
when you try to catch them. The expression squealing like a stuck
pig now has a very real meaning for me. This lead to a pretty good
debate about which animal has a worse scream. I’d probably go with
goats because they sound so much like people its kind of haunting.
