when it is done but not over yet

22/5/2010


Finally we’re done with our construction, the timber structure was eventually ‘baby-smooth’ as quoted from Jeremy who enjoyed touching and ‘molesting’ the timber poles, checking the smoothness, and possibly finding excuses for us to sand the poles over and over again. It took us 3 to 4 days just to do sanding and vanishing of the structure for at least 3 times, mundane and exhausting, especially under the super hot and humid weather with still air. It was like 38 degree Celsius for the past few days we had been working under the sun that we felt cooler wrapping ourselves up with jumper than wearing singlet.

We held an opening ceremony in front of the structure with the construction titos and titas, using a big cutter and a flower ball made of tissue paper. It was fulfilling looking at the structure and the kids running eagerly around it (possibly because the site was closed down for the whole week during construction, and for those kids who trespassed the site were all chased out).

Of that moment, I thought I need an air-con; I need my bed to be in an air-con room for me to lie on. Yeah right, I had been sleeping on the floor for nearly 2 weeks, together with all the cockroaches that crawled over my body and neck at night. It was a fun, new, exciting, memorable yet scary experience I had in the village, not forgetting stepping on a huge earthworm throughout my shower, getting electrocuted by a bare wire in the toilet, and hit by the bucket falling from the sky on my head, thanks to Zuraidah’s ‘steward’ the day before.

chu hwai