We dropped the kids off, then met up with Fred to put the truck in for a service. This poor truck has seen better days, but it still keeps on going. One day we hope to have enough funding to purchase a second hand songthaew so the truck can go into retirement, but that will require more funds than we have at the moment. One day….

The morning without the truck has meant that we’ve had time to review notes, fix computers, discuss future planning and generally get our heads around all the proposed changes. There’s lots planned in and around the dump, but as always you never know if all the plans will come to fruition. Fingers crossed they do as it will mean a much brighter and better future for the community.

This is one of the better parts of our time here – seeing the community embrace new ideas and opportunities. From where we were 4 years ago (although this has been running for 8 years in total now), to now is truly inspiring. We have no doubt that some of these kids will become leaders in their chosen career paths.

We’re about to head out to pick the kids up from school, then will finish the day off checking that everyone is ok. It was so exciting yesterday when we finished off one of the pipes bringing water directly into the dump for the community to use. You cannot imagine the looks on their faces when they realised that they had access to ‘magic water’ – a never ending supply from the tap. This is something that we’ve hoped for and it’s finally come to fruition thanks to the new owners of the dump site. We had to laugh though, one diligent family has already stockpiled 20 buckets of water – just in case the ‘magic water’ supply runs out. It makes you realise just how much we take for granted. These families never expected to be able to access unlimited water whenever they wanted – just by turning on a tap. Brings a smile to your face.

Well, the afternoon was manic! From the time we arrived back @ the dump after the school pick up until about 20 minutes ago, we’ve been running! We are so lucky to have 3 doctors working @ the Mae Tao Clinic who are also volunteering their afternoons @ the dump. Geoff spent the afternoon with 2 of the doctors & one of the kids who can translate really well making ‘house calls’ around the site whilst Fred & I split up & attended to various other tasks. It was as usual a great learning experience.

Tomorrow promises to be another interesting day ….. stay tuned!

PS: the photos might not look like much, but they’re pics of the new fences, water tower & pipework – super exciting!