Jeff's Log ~ Monday, December 12th, 2007

After resting and recovering from the hard race on Saturday, it’s time to get to work again. Today is a holiday here, so banks and government offices are closed. I went to the dingy repair shop and met with the owner, and he is sending a man to look at the poor dink tomorrow morning. The regatta was fun. We were anchored right next to a boat named “Yo Mo”. At the fire plug, we have No- Mow. I’ll send a picture of her. I’ll try to remember to take pictures of some of the yards for you Mike.

Most people don’t have yards fixed up. The wealthier people do, the working people may not even have a yard. Some of the living areas border right on the street with barely enough room to park a car. Some people put up a corrugated steel shack and pay no rent, and have whatever happens to be there for landscaping. This is a relatively poor area. The minimum wage was just increased to 193baht per day. That is about six bucks! The length of the day is not specified either. Some workers put in twelve hour days for that. Very often, there are families of five or six living in one room with a hot plate. A lot of the cooking gets done outdoors under make shift canopies to keep the rain off of the fire. The dirt seems to be a reddish color, but not really clay-like, it seems a little looser in consistency. The sand on the beaches is very fine and smooth and covers everything that it contacts. I remove about a pound of it every day from the dingy when I bail it in the morning. Later this week, I will go back to pulling it out of the water at night again, and then a lot of that will drain when I pull the plug.