Concrete

Turned out that Leon took the first classes of the new term, so Nathan and I just sat in and contributed a little. There was good participation, with Bhut and Hkawn Din even sitting in without actually choosing the classes. Well, I'm all ready for Thursday now. I hae been talking to some of the students about how I might be able to best serve their needs. Amazingly enough, it appears that the need to simplify and very clearly explain doctrinal issues to them will fit right in with the ministry plans I have for back home.

Lunch was especially good yesterday. Seng Pa does a great job in the kitchen, along with whoever is assigned to help her. Today is a national holiday- Constitution Day- so no one is here in the office.

I plan to go to Mai Rim by bicycle today to look around, and maybe pick up a few things if stores are open today. Need some batteries, or a charger, because I just fried my charger transformer. I thought I had checked everything electrical which I brought to make sure it worked on 220, but I guess not. :(

I have been noticing the extensive use of concrete here. I took a few pics.




Telephone poles are concrete. Is this cheaper than wood, or just more durable considering the semi-tropical conditions? I can remember back at Hopkins in one of my materials science classes that we split up into groups one day and argued as if before a town council the relative merits, (and even the "green-ness" although we didn't use the term then) of various light pole materials- wood, steel and concrete. I had never seen a concrete light pole. Now I have.

Even fence posts are concrete. They appear to have been poured into forms in place.

The roads in this area are concrete as well. They do this in PA, too, but they need to be replaced every so often due to freeze-thaw problems. Of course that is not an issue here, which is certainly one reason it is so widely used. Notice the wide expansion joint in the middle- I have to be careful not to let the bicycle wheels get stuck in here- it is about 1-1/2 to 2 inches wide in spots.

Not only the streets, but the curb (right) and gutter (left- to the outside of the street) are concrete also. You could not do this back home or it would crack all up unless you made it real thick and heavily reinforced.

This is a house under construction between the farm and the school. I will take pics as it progresses. Notice they begin with some footer walls and then move up using concrete columns. In this picture, they have begun to install the wooden poles that will support the forms for the ceiling/floor. I have not seen a piece of equipment on this site since I arrived.