Breaking Ground, Breaking Bread: Day 2

Today started and I was not particularly happy to greet it, having been awoken from a dream whereby I was night skiing in Vermont, I awoke with multiple mosquito bites and feeling as though my back had been assaulted by a force equivalent to that exerted on cars by a demolition machine.  After taking a 'detour' I arrived at work where we exemplified the definition of 'backbreaking work.'  We dumped a mounds worth of sand bags onto the ground, stacked countless bricks, and moved cement and bricks with a device that I had people calling 'torahs' by the end of the day.  The carrying devices (of which I made several) consist of two bamboo sticks protruding through opposite sides of a sandbag.  There was a short break in our workday when we were offered a duck that the family had ceremoniously killed to celebrate our having broken ground.  For the contractors and other men of importance, this translated to free flowing wine and shots.

After work we were rewarded with a splendiferous meal which easily filled me.  Next, it was a dash to find spots to post our hammocks because the amount of people toting these sleep instruments had doubled from 3 to 6 (I'd like to take credit for having started this trend - which also ought to give me seniority for spot picking, as if age wasn't already enough).  Regardless, I was unable to fall asleep.

Next, we taught PE at the elementary school.  The amount of students more than quadrupled - we went from <20 students on Day 1 to >80 students today.  Amazing how quickly word gets out.

Out of the ordinary things I saw today: a shipping barge in an embankment that should not have been large enough for a shipping barge, police setting a speed trap for motor bicyclists*, and a swarm of bees feeding on the pure sugar a woman was trying to sell in a tub at the market.

*The rules of the road here are interesting.  In Quang Tri, there seemingly were no road rules, vehicles travelled wherever they pleased because the open space on the road often permitted this.  Here, there certainly are rules of the road, but nonetheless it feels more dangerous.  Slower vehicles stay to the right.  So, typically from right to left, bicyclers are on the outside then motorbikes carrying loads, then motorbikes, then cars and trucks.  However, if a vehicle is driving at you on the wrong side of the road, you give them the outside lane, thus moving a lane to the left and closer into steadier traffic. 

Can't worry about that now, going to watch 'Due Date.'