To deet or not to deet? That is the question?

Here are some pics from this weekend:

HEre's the moment in action!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! The longtail boats

HEath, Ben, MAtthew, Amanda, me Ashley Don't push over the island sheri!!!!

Here we are in one of the caves... Phang Nga Bay



Diana and I (I'm sporting my new coca cola t-shirt) The bay

This is us at the waterfall on Thursday

So did you all survive my last blog? It was a bit brutal wasn't it? Were you all eagerly awaiting this blog to see how I've survived? Well, my arm is doing better, I still have about a 2 inch by one inch red slash mark on my forearm but it has stopped hurting. It looks like a burn mark or a bunch of little blisters. I still don't know what it was that stung me... and maybe I don't want to know!!! :) That night we just laid low and my tummy was nauseaus. (this is how it looks two days later)

Diana was worried that it might be a side effect of the sting/poison. It's funny, ever since that day, whenever we ask each other for a drink of water from the other's water bottle, or come out of the shower in a towel.... our response is always, "it doesn't matter anymore, you've already peed on me." At least we can have a good sense of humor about it huh? :) When I came back from blogging on Saturday night, I stopped to check in on JEnnifer since she wasn't feeling well. We just hung out in her room talking and processing all the things that are happening on the trip. She is SUPER cool and I really like talking with her. We talked abit about Amanda and how she drives me CRAZY!!! It was good to talk to her about it because she really helped me reframe the situation to look at it from a positive standpoint about Amanda being here to teach me something new. Yesterday I woke up at 8 and went down to spend some time by the pool. Jennifer came down and we were talking about all of the events from yesterday. She said that the whole boat ride back from the island, she was praying that I wouldn't have some sort of reaction to the sting because we were in such a secluded place... I hadn't even thought of that!!! EEEKKKK!!! Sarah came up to us at the pool... she was having a rough morning having talked to her boyfriend through skype and it didn't go so well. We left @ 11:30 to go to this restaurant on the beach. On the way there we passed this poor suffering, starving dog. It fell down halfway across the street as we were pulling up to it. When we passed it, it was so thin that it's bones stuck out and it hobbled. I've never wished for something to die before but I said a prayer asking God to take the poor animal and bring up to heaven to stop his suffering. We got out of the trucks soon after and many of us were crying and talking about the poor animal. I wasn't the only one praying that God bring that poor thing home. We ate dinner at a table on the beach right next to this ladder.

We walked along the beach for awhile and then piled back into the trucks. We next went to a Buddhist temple where we were able to go inside and pray. It was beautiful!!!

One of the monks came across the street and he sat with us. He started to chant and it was so beautiful that it made me start crying. Jen was crying too as it was really moving having this monk pray over us and douse us with holy water. He then gave us bracelets for protection. Since the monks can't touch women, he laid it on our palms and we had to put it on ourselves. When Jennifer put mine on me she said three words "clarity, understanding and peace." It was REALLY cool!!! After the temple, we went to another Tsunami museum. It reminded me of the Vietnam memorial wall. It was really sad. Afterwards, JEnnifer, Jane and I were walking along and this woman came up to us. Her friend (he didn't speak any English) was dancing around and I joined him... it was hilarious!! We were pantomiming things and dancing. Loved it!!! The woman was wearing a Christian T-shirt and she spoke pretty good english. She asked Jennifer what religion she was and Jennifer said "I'm a little bit of everything." The woman replied "you should pray more, Jesus loves you." As we were walking away, Jennifer started to cry really hard and asking "was that a sign?" Hmmmmmmmmm... anyways. People were starting to get cranky and we had a long ride back so we set off. Last night we had a "Free night" and a group of us went to Indian food. We were talking about what were our favorite part of the weekend was. Most people picked the canoeing in the caves but Jennifer picked the craziness Saturday between skinny dipping and me getting stung. Laura commented on what a cool cucumber I was when I got stung... she was like "dang, I couldn't believe how you were jumping around and laughing about it." Little does she know that I was jumping in pain!!! :) Today we headed back to the worksite. We are all a bit more refreshed than last week and ready to rock and roll. We continued to lay the bricks for the walls and the paid workers had put on the roof over the weekend. The bricks are pretty sharp and they've cut up my legs and arms pretty nicely. It's SO cool to see the walls going up!!!! We started at the fourth level of bricks and are now at the 10th. Only three more to go on the inside!! The outside walls have more to do because they have to go all the way to the ceiling. I don't know how we are going to get that far up.... it's not like they have ladders. Today I spent most of the day balancing on a two by four laying ontop of two piles of bricks. My calves are going to be sore tomorrow!!!! I think tomorrow we are going to finish laying bricks and start on the windows. I've been feeling a bit musical today and have been singing everything from Rent to humming the Sugar Plum fairy dance. I particularly like the song from Wicked titled Loathing... I allow it to waft through my head everytime I see Amanda. :) (NOW who's the one being wicked? :) tee hee hee). This morning I was feeling particularly goofy and was teaching everyone the gangsta walk... pigeon toe, drag your foot, pigeon toe, drag your foot. IT was hilarious!!!!! Laura (who's normally really quiet and sweet) was seen sporting the gangsta walk later on the jobsite... love it!!!! :) I've finally decided that the best application for sunblock and bug spray is sunblock first, bug spray later... helps cut down the oil. I wish I could skip one or the other, my poor skin is starting to suffer. Today I was working side by side with one of the workers. At first I was getting really frustrated because he wasnt letting me lay the bricks but then I asked God to give me patience and eventually I befriended him by making a fool out of myself. I started dancing around and he said something like "beck,beck" and I repeated it. He CRACKED up and started telling everyone!!!! I have NO idea what it means but for the rest of the day, he was like my new BFF. We'd look at each other and say "beck beck" and just start laughing! :) Anyway, it's time for me to sign off.. hope you all are well!!!