We are winding down our many things to do in Mukdahan, Thailand this week. King has arrived and he's on the jobsite training to take over some of the responsibilities after Ron leaves at the end of this week.
King is tired but O.K. He got his passport in Nanning on Friday and took a bullet train to Kunming. When he arrived in Kunming, China to get a flight to Bangkok, he said they would not let him stay overnight in a hotel even though he had traveled from another city in China. They are still trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus. He flew the next day to Bangkok and took an overnight bus from Bangkok to Mukdahan. He arrived about 7 a.m. this morning. He is young and more able to deal with the travel than we are at our age.
The construction team has a 7 a.m. meeting each morning to go over the day's work. Each person is given their assignment for the day and what the superintendent hopes to accomplish is laid out in the scope of the plans for the day. Last week, they wanted Ron to post for a picture with them.
You can see three women in front who are laborers. Ron says they work just has hard as the men. The superintendent and his wife are on the right and left of Ron. The superintendent's wife keeps track of purchases and payroll so she will work closely with King to provide invoices and all the information to list on each petty cash report to account for all monies given and expended.
King will have to work with his phone translating just as Ron has done for months. King is studying Thai but it will take years to be proficient. His English is excellent. He is not easily intimidated and he is very smart. He will probably enjoy this work except for the excessive heat. It has been cold in China and today he faced weather in the high 90's so it is very hard to re-adjust. Ron said today is the start of summer but the rainy season in a few months will make it feel like a sauna with the steam.
Ron went to a nursery the other day and found many small fruit trees and vegetable plants so they will soon prepare the garden area. King will enjoy being involved in that project. Ron will install an irrigation line to water the garden during the dry season. They recently dug a second well and will have storage tanks to hold water. A fish pond has been excavated and after a liner has been installed, it will be ready for the monsoon rains that will start in May. Ron is not yet sure where they can buy small tilapia fish to stock the pond because there are no fish ponds near here. Tilapia grows very fast and is the best fish to grow.
We have no word from American Airlines yet about the flight from South Korea to Dallas that we hope to take on March 20. So far, the South Korea outbreak of the virus has been contained in a southern city and Seoul is not yet affected. We hope that flight will be in operation so we can return to the U.S. as planned. I will continue to post about our trip to the Philippines and the availability of our flight back to Texas.
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