From Janet Chen, AmeriCorps Construction Assistant, who is working on the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project in the countries of Thailand, Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos

3 am, wake up.
Wait till 5 am for hotel breakfast.
Tom the HFH Disaster Relief instructor and I sign up for a zipline tour of the jungle (treetopasia.com.)
An hour out of the city, in the mountains, cooler, near streams and waterfalls, it is an eco-tourism with ziplines and platforms in the jungle. 22 platform or 30 platform courses. An eco-adventure/amusement ride, we scream in terror to unseen platforms hanging from body harnesses and almost pee our pants freefall drop from tree top to tree bottom. An interesting concept, the local people earn money from tourism: serving meals, handing towels, carrying ice to fill chests with water and beer. 10 percent is donated to preserving monkeys.  Additional industries include harvesting coffee, tea , and wild honey. Tom wanders to a vacation house under construction. Buildings are well maintained round wood timber construction with dimensional wood roof framing, steep grades, and big smooth rock boulders.

4 pm opening ceremonies
There is a faux food market set up to introduce us to Thai culture. A square with stalls on three sides and a band in the middle. Fresh sugar cane, blood and pork rice, sweet rice in bamboo, tiger balm tea.

There is also a faux craft market. No bargaining allowed.

We sit at round tables in a long wide path flanked on either side by trees in formal elaborate gardens with a temple high above a flight of stairs at the end. Big screen tvs on the sides show the speakers. Dinner is buffet style, not memorable.
We end early, advised no matter what complaint to end it with the statement "and that's how I want it." On the way out, the homeowners are standing together in a roped area. Tom runs thru them yelling his house number, a house he is leading.
 "77! Who is 77?" A man and a baby are pushed forward. He gives them a big, goofy, sloppy American hug. A warm and fuzzy moment.
Tomorrow: 3,000 volunteers.

Monday, Nov. 16, House 12
The site is an hour away. A Habitat ghetto or sorts, it is 82 house neighborhood on a grid, streets and curbcuts, located in an abandoned orchard. The King of Thailand is 82 years old.
Typical staging similar to the US:
Big container for groups of houses; Lock box for each house; Bundles of roofing material for each house; Stacks of concrete bricks in the house; Metal roof trusses behind the house; and Portapotties

Dan from Texas is our House Leader. We have Kiwis from New Zealand and some Twin Cities folks, 15 of us. Already existing, the slab and first eight courses.
We put up the next eight courses and the solid wood door and window frames.

2 pm, 200 of us leave for a VIP dinner for sponsors.
It is in another garden setting, food served in islands of different foods, live traditional music, and demo of carving melons into artwork. A special treat for us: celebrity sitings in addition to the Carters. Jet Li is one I recognize.
Christine Odom of HFHI and her assistant Ned greet and give gratitude to all the doners, even me. She pointedly wants to thanks even the small affiliates: warmly looking forward to meeting Perry, remembering Madison.

The three of us look at the sky while lanterns glowing with flames are launched into the night sky until they look like constellations. Ned has advised Christine against launching 1,000 lanterns, fearing they may cause fires. We comment how this would not be done in the US. Even with hosting thank you events, traveling to Vietnam and back, and demands for her attentions it was a moment of taking a breath to enjoy the evening with Christine.

Tuesday, Nov. 16: House 16

Jet Li was working on House 16 so I go there for the morning. It is a HFH China and Woman Build House. After taking papparazzi photos and talking to the women, I returned to House 12. We level, stack blocks and headers, move scaffolding around, prepare for roof trusses.

It has been 105 degrees F. Old trees left from the orchard give us shade. The Korean group in House 13 have no shade and huddle by our house. An American woman living in Bangkok says normally builders put up a roof first so the workers can be shaded.
Not in our case.

We return to the hotel after day two in the sun.
Dinner is 40 minutes away, buffet style, not much better than the lunches served at the worksite or the hotel food. The tired mob returns home dreaming of working under roofs.