Ground Breaking

Tang and Ake are building a new school in Phitsanulok.  It is set to open next May.  They recently broke ground. Before they started leveling the ground and building they wanted to have a ground breaking ceremony.  Tanner and I needed to take care of our visas so we went along and made a day of it.  Tang, Ake, Tanner and I met Tang's friend there.  Tang said he has a sixth sense of sorts, so he was there to act as an intermediary with the spirits of the land.  Tang make some food and money offerings.  She also burned some incense and prayed.

After the symbolic money was burned and the incense burned all the way down Tang's friend said the land spirits gave their approval to start building.  Tang and Ake used a shovel to move the first couple shovels of dirt.  Then when we finished the crew came right in and started to clear and level the ground.

This dog was hanging around and I was amused by his shirt.

There was a farmers market around the corner so we walked through that and bought some veggies and fruit.  Then we went to a temple in town.  It was incredibly bright which made it hard to get a good picture.  You may also notice that I am wearing a sweater.  We left at 6 in the morning and there was a slight chill in the air (this was back in January).  I could have done without the sweater, but I've only worn it 3 times in the 13 months of being here so I thought I'd take advantage of the chance to wear it.

After we checked in at the immigration office and got our visas stamped we got lunch and headed home.  At lunch I tried 6 new things!  Some of the volunteers recently reminded me that it's good to be adventurous with food.  I feel like I used to be better at that but over the years I lost that desire or started to prefer the safety of sticking to what I know I like.  Anyways, I have been making a point to say 'yes' to trying new foods.  I hated one of the things I tried (an incredibly bitter vegetable that looked like sliced green bell pepper), felt indifferent about 2 of the things and really liked 3 of them.