Hello everyone! This is Sai coming in from Don klang after a long day of work. First off, I wanted to say: we finished casting our first module! It took days of batching, digging, creating wood forms and putting it all together to create the concrete structure for 5 sinks. Before going into the details, I shall go on a bit of a detour about myself and bring it all back together. I just graduated UT Austin with a double degree in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics and I plan on joining the MS/PhD program in the ECE graduate program here. My whole life, I liked to do a little bit of a lot of things. The “jack of all trades” archetype was always enticing because I thought it was so cool to be that guy that can do anything. I love playing basketball and an Indian percussion instrument known as the tabla. I also love getting my hands dirty building things, doing magic tricks, and beatbox/whistling to make songs. Anyway, what was so fun about this experience was how I got to be the jack of all parts of the project, especially because I knew almost nothing about structural and civil engineering coming in. I started the day off with Aleem and Trey bright and early at 7 in the morning setting up the wood form to cast the concrete. We had to make sure all the crevices in the wood that touched concrete were either covered with caulk or duck tape. Aleem also had to use a hole saw to cut the drain hole in the wood, only after placing the form in the perfect place on top of the CMU bricks. (Took a few time consuming tries but we got it!) The day before, I helped dig these large trenches for drainage and used the soil to compact the bottom of the sink. Today, I continued working on the drainage by filling it with large rocks to filter out the gray water from the sink. Oh boy did I love taking a nice well rested break from wood forms by digging a 16 ft by 1.5 ft by 1.2 ft trench! .Ahh yes, the biggest part of the day: making concrete. We all got all the batched out aggregates, cement, and water and carefully mixed it in a giant concrete mixer. We dealt with a bunch of different issues real time from balancing work load with what the mixer could handle as well as lifting giant heavy buckets in the hot sun. Overall though, we all worked real hard mixing and pouring the concrete into the form. After all that elbow grease, we successfully casted our first module and it came out pretty nicely. We’re excited to learn from our mistakes and improve upon the first form. Change 1: contractors will always cut wood better than you. Thank you Mr. Prasit Tansup ! Thanks for reading!
Sai
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Hi guys! It's Pim and Rin taking over the blog to post a bit of trivia. Things are going pretty well; we're slowly catching up on our blog posts and vlogs. Yesterday there was service at church. To welcome us, Pastor Mike and Khun Dar, representing the Don Klang community, gave the PUC team flower wreaths (we call them Malai). They smelled very sweet! Thai culture revolves a lot around flowers, so we decided to introduce you to more native flowers with significant meanings:
Usually, we call a flower by saying Dok (from the word flower - Dok Mai) followed by its name. Local flowers can also be used for herbs, medicine, aroma and cuisine in addition to just decoration.
We hope you found this interesting! Until next time! Pim & Rin
My name is Dr. Raissa Ferron and perhaps the title of this post is a misnomer because this is my first post on the blog! Actually, this is my first blogpost ever, anywhere. However, you may have seen my name around these parts a little. So who am I? I'm an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at UT Austin, the wife of a Marcus Ferron and the mom of a 7 year old daughter and a 4 year old son (shout out to my wonderful kids!!! I would post a picture of them but some members of my family will call me to complain since they are in constant fear of someone snatching my kids if they are "posted all over the internet"). I am from Brooklyn, NY (hence the reference to one of HOV's songs in the title of this blog) and I am honored to be the travel advisor of the hardest working PUC team there ever was and every shall be (sorry, that may have been too much...it's Sunday and I got a little carried away since we went to church today).
So why am I here on this blog? Why else? I'm on these interwebs today because I was assigned to blog by PUC-Thailand's fearless team leader, Trey. Hopefully, you figured out by now that we all are going to take turns blogging.
So yes it's Sunday, and I know inquiring minds want to know if we worked today. The answer is no! So now you may be scratching your head wondering "well if they are not in the sweltering heat trying to construct forms, or batching out heavy buckets of aggregates for the concrete mix, or digging for pipe work. What did they do today?" Did we relax all day like this --------------------------------------> The answer to that is also no! We actually did a lot! A synopsis is provided below:
Here is a picture of the entire PUC team with Khem and two Mahidol students who are also working with us on the project. The pastor of the church is the lady next to Sofia and she is located on the far left. Two of Khem's friends, Pastor Mike (standing next to Khem) and Pastor Dar (standing between Sofia and me) are also in the photo and they have been helping out the PUC team by serving as translators and chauffeuring us back and forth from the church (which is our lodging) to the school (which is our worksite).
Here's a little snippet from the service. Now you can't say I never shared anything with you. ;-)
Cheers!!!
~Dr. Ferron
PS: Special shout out to my hubby! It's only through him that I am able to do this. Thank you babe for your willingness to watch the kids for 1 month while I am across the globe from you.
PPS: My kids are truly the ones that display undeniable compassionate. If you see them, please give them hugs and kisses for me. I told my kids that I am here to help little kids like them and they were happy because they wanted me to help the kids. But, I know it's not easy for them. Today when I spoke to my 4 year old, he said "Mommy, I want you to help the kids, but I miss you. When are you coming home?" So while I'm happy to be doing the work of PUC, my heart broke a little (okay maybe a lot) in that moment. I told him we are not finished yet and then I reminded him of the cool sword I bought him and he became happy again. If my bags are over the weight limit, it's because they are laden with gifts for my kids. PPPS: If you said HomePro to the question in third bullet, pat yourself on the back! Here's a view of the entrance of HomePro. Sawasdee ka from Thailand! Today the team had a day filled with highs and lows as we prepared our sinks for the first concrete pour. Throughout the day we discovered two things. First, we realized that the "Have a Great Day!" spotify playlist significantly improves your work day (we highly recommend you try it). Second, we all discovered that Khem is a rockstar at trenching!! Our first trench is finished, shout out to Sai and Julie for their mad trenching skills. The concrete team successfully batched out the first sinks concrete ingredients. It took a lot of heavy lifting, Aleesha is definitely going to be ripped when these three weeks are over. The formwork team learned that no matter how straight you think your piece of wood is or how many times you measured that piece, it’s ALWAYS crooked and a couple centimeters off (yeah, we use metric over here). Trey, Aleem, Pooja, and Sai kept their cool all day as this 2 hour scheduled task turned into a 1 day+ task. Hopefully formwork will come together Monday, with some new tools to help us out! We ended our day back at the church which was filled with music played by Pastor Mike and children in the neighborhood playing outside. These last two days in Don Kang have been amazing, filled with great food, hosts, and life lessons. Today Sai learned that as time goes on we still make mistakes, but our mistakes are much more experienced. I learned that even a six year old girl in rural Thai can beat me at soccer. Finally, Trey learned a very applicable lesson for the entire team. The life of a carpenter is not for us.
Lots of Love, Sofia Having acquired most of our supplies yesterday, the team groggily began manual labor around 8:30am this morning. Everyone initially split into one of three teams: formwork, concrete, and pump, but once things got rolling, Julie and Sai kept themselves busy by digging trenches. To stay on schedule, we need to pour the concrete for our first sink tomorrow before taking some time off during the weekend, so most of today's labor was in preparation for that. In the picture below, Dr. Ferron is stirring either our third or fourth concrete test mix trying to find just the right concoction for the environment and our particular setup. As was to be expected, the work came with numerous challenges. Wood cutting was often finicky or inconsistent, tools sometimes broke or failed, or pipe fittings weren't deemed up to standards by the pump technician. The heat added to everyone's frustrations so to help alleviate things, Khem fetched a special delivery of ice cream and we spent some time playing with the school kids after classes let out. In the following picture, Sai, Trey, Aleem, Khem, and Pastor Mike marvel at a board that somehow took three tries to fit properly. One of the ironies that we've noticed during our stay is that despite the oppressive heat and humidity in Thailand (heat index of 102 today), they still choose to flavor most of their food with a variety of peppers and chilies. The green chicken curry at lunch wasn't a problem for most people, but the sweet and spicy fried fish for dinner left everyone except for Aleem panting and sweating.
Anyways, work starts at 6:30am tomorrow to catch up on what we weren't able to finish today, so it's probably time for bed. Thanks for reading! -Trey Today was the first time our team got to travel to the project site (Ban thap laung school). When we arrived, all the school children were in their courtyard dressed in their uniforms equally eager to meet us as we were to meet them. After a quick introduction from the team the students were dismissed back to their classes. They made a grand exit with the eldest students playing drums and melodians. After which, we evaluated the contractor work and figured out which materials we needed. Then it was divide and conquer, one team handled concrete and the other pipes. Each team drove out about an hour while the concrete team was doing calculations with Dr.Ferron and evaluating aggregates, the pipe team was struggling through the intense heat trying to find the perfect materials (shout-out to our local Home Depot’s for having AC)!!! After completing our shopping, the team convened together at the church for some pick up basketball and to eat another delicious dinner. Although we were not able to acquire all the materials we planned for, we were excited to finally meet the project site and the adorable kids that attend the school! Thanks for reading!!
- Pooja Hi friends and family!! It has been a long trek, but we are officially blogging live from Bangkok, Thailand. Please bear with me because a lot has happened throughout the past two days and so this post may be slightly longer than usual! The team convened yesterday morning at the Bangkok airport where we were met by our NGO, Khem with big smiles and beautiful Thai garlands. After loading up our luggage, we drove to our hotel where we had just enough time to settle in before leaving to explore the local market right across from our hotel. The market was a new experience for the team, and we were able to experience countless new sights and smells…. Some more pleasant than others(: I think it’s safe to say the fan favorites were definitely the sticky rice and the fresh mango! After eating as much as our stomachs could handle, we decided to really immerse ourselves in Thai culture by getting Thai massages. Overall it was a very relaxing experience that left most of the team feeling rejuvenated and ready to get to work. Later that evening Dr. Ferron arrived, and we finished the night eating at a local fish restaurant. Because the menu was written entirely in Thai, Khem ordered for the table. This meant two things: first, there was enough food to feed a small country, and second, we were able to try ALOT of new food. We stuffed our faces and called it a night relatively early. Day 2 began with a presentation at Mahidol University. We met with the students and professors from the ICT department of Mahidol. They introduced us to the tremendous things the university is doing all over the country! Mahidol’s motto is “wisdom of the land,” this could be seen through all the incredible advances that the university has been making in all fields such as technology, medicine, and engineering! We have the fortune or working with two Mahidol students on site for our project. Their names are Pim and Rin! They’re both first year students and are so excited to be spending the next few weeks with us! We stopped over at Home Pro to gather some materials for our project and some community engagement supplies, such as soccer balls and jump ropes!
We were welcomed at the church by many members of the Don Klang community, including Pastor Mike, Khun Dar, Teacher Jummy, the principal of the school, and a few other teachers! It was great to finally put faces to names! We had a delicious traditional Thai dinner at the church with the community! We feasted on curry, pad thai, fish, chicken wings, cake, and a huge variety of local fruits like mangosteen and rambutan. At the church we have three separate bedrooms: one for the girls, one for the boys, and one for Dr. Ferron. Day 2 has been incredible despite the fact that there are a lot of bugs in Thailand! Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow, Julie and Aleesha On Friday the team had the opportunity to participate in some more hands on experience and practice building the same structure that we will be using in Thailand!!! More specifically, we built a wooden framework in the shape of our sink to create a rigid mold for the subsequent concrete pour. I have included a summary of our day so that y’all can feel as if you were with us the entire time! A little after one in the afternoon Trey, Aleem, and I head out to go shopping at North Austin Home Depot. I will have everyone know Aleem was a great driver and even let me aux on the way there (10/10)! When we got to Home Depot, we shopped around for some of the essentials (lots of wood and nails). We had planned on renting a truck to fit all the supplies in, but upon checking out we realized that they had already rented them all out for the weekend…. so, we had to improvise! Luckily it was a very short drive to Pickle, the off-campus research site where we would be building our module. Around 2:30 we arrived at Pickle, unloaded the car, and began working. After Trey and Marty talked some of the technical details, we started cutting the wood. I watched tentatively at first, but eventually worked up the courage to try and cut a piece of wood (don’t worry mom- I included a picture in case you don’t believe me)! A little later in the day Sai and Pooja arrived to lend their help, and from there we were off to the races. We spent the rest of the day measuring, cutting, drilling, and assembling like maniacs until we achieved the master piece y’all see below! The day was very long, and I think it’s a safe bet to say we left with our stomach’s growling and clothes covered in saw dust, but we also left with a sense of pride and reassurance in our ability to build this same module in country. As we continue to approach our departure date I become more and more excited every day to arrive in Thailand and work with my teammates and the community of Don Khang!! 55 days!!!!
A special shoutout to our professor, Marty Rumbaugh for sacrificing his entire day Friday to help our team, we are extremely grateful for his time and support! Thanks for reading, Julie Hello Hello!! Odds are if you are reading this blog, then you are a family or friend who has heard a lot about the WHAT of our project, so we thought we would give y’all some information on the WHERE of our project! We will be working at the Tup Louang School in Don Khang, which is in the central/western part of Thailand. I have included some basic information about the country of Thailand below: National Language: Thai Religion: 93% Buddhist Per Capita GDP: $5,901 Rural Population: 55% Access to Clean Water: 98% Don Khang is located in the Suphan Buri Province of Thailand. During the summer the weather is dry and hot, so definitely catch us stocking up on the sunscreen and staying hydrated! As I was researching information about Thailand, I happened upon some fun facts and I have included some of my favorite:
Tune in next week for a project update!!(: - Julie P.S. 60 days until we arrive in Thailand!!! Hi Everyone!! We are officially back from spring break, feeling rejuvenated, and ready to kick it into high gear once again. Because it has been a little while since you have heard from us, we thought we would let y'all know what we have been up to. Two weeks before spring break the team participated in a two-day concrete lab where we put our skills to the test by mixing concrete, laying it, and finally laying cinder blocks to form our structure. We started out by measuring out the correct amounts of cement, water, fine aggregate, and course aggregate… and let me be the first to say it is A LOT heavier than it looks. After weighing all the materials to make sure it was the exact amount, we added them to the mixer. First went the course aggregate, fine aggregate, and half the water. Then after some mixing, we added the cement. Finally, we poured the concrete into the mold and poked and prodded it in many different ways to ensure that it was even and didn't have any air pockets. We let it dry for the next two days and then came back ready for round two! Now that we had laid the foundation, it was time to add some height to our structure. The next order of business would be mixing the mortar that would hold the cinder blocks together. Since we were doing it by hand this time, I gladly let Trey and Sai take the lead! The last step was to set the cinder blocks and place the mortar so they would stay in place. We were told that it was like icing a cake, which is not one of my strengths (just ask my mom) so I gladly let Pooja and the boys takeover after a few failed attempts on my part. Overall the workshop was extremely successful for our team! It was a great team building experience, and a great opportunity for some hands-on experience. Since I know y’all are probably wondering… yes, of course we would be willing to build a custom wall for each and everyone one of y’all!! The next week, on the Wednesday before spring break, the team presented our milestone 3 project. This involved many late nights and the occasional trip to taco bell (shout out to Aleem for knowing the best things to order)!
Ultimately all of our hard work paid off because… drumroll please… WE WERE CLEARED FOR TRAVEL!!!! This is exciting because it means we can finally start buying our flights and preparing all of our travel accommodations and logistics!! Lastly, I would just like to give my wonderful team a shout out. They have been absolutely amazing and blow me away everyday! For the past few months, I have witnessed how difficult engineering can be, but they have yet to step down from any challenge thrown our way. They are absolute rockstars and I am ecstatic to travel to Don Kang with them in just 67 days!! Bye for now, Julie |
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