March 27:
Today's construction project was very similar to yesterday's only in a more rural area of the Mekong Delta. We took a bus part way, then a motor bike/cart followed by a short walk. The family who will be getting the house currentlylives along the river under a metal roof supported by poles. It is not protected from the weather other than the roof. They have none of the amenities we take for granted. There is no running water - they use the river to bathe, drink from, do laundry and wash dishes. They cook outside on a fire. I'm not sure what they use for a bathroom. (We were able to use a squatting toilet at a house down the road and let me tell you how far out of my comfort zone that was. We had to take our shoes off before entering the house and the bathroom floor was wet. So the choice was to get my socks wet or take my socks off. I'll let you guess what I did.)
At lunch, the Catalyst staff brought us our lunch. The family whose house we were building also made food for us. Here is a family that has nothing and yet they wanted to share what they had with us. Fortunatley some of the people in our group were brave and willing to try the food. I couldn't bring myself to do it because I had seen them washing the dishes and vegetables in the dirty river water.
Zach visited another school. They passed out stickers to the children and distributed beans and rice. After lunch they played inside for a while and then went to the park again.
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