All Project Slab Castings Completed

This past Saturday the final major slab casting was completed. This is a monumental milestone for the project as it was the 14th major pour over the past 15 months and the completion of 162,000 sq feet of slabs. With this work completed the remaining phase 1 interior work can be concentrated on.  The contractor and our team are all excited about this next step in construction.

South view of project after completion of all slab castings

Holly & Jon reviewing work during this last slab casting

 

Ongoing casting on the final slab

 

 The final few square feet. Big cheers by the crew went up when finished.

We setup a game with the contractor supervisors to celebrate the last casting

Thankfully I was not the only one a bit out of shape

Jon
 

Phuket, Thailand

I attended a 3 day retreat offered by Thrive Ministry in Phuket, Thailand in February.  They are held in various places around the world for North American Women working overseas in a context similar to ours.  I highly recommend it.  Here is the link to their website:

http://thriveministry.org/

The event was held at the Centara Karon Resort in Karon Beach, Phuket.  The resort was wonderful and close to a lovely beach.  

I stayed an extra day and was able to visit the Ko Phi Phi islands with several of the volunteers.  We took a speed boat to Ko Phi Phi Don for lunch and then moved on to Ko Phi Phi Leh for snorkeling and exploring.  Beautiful shear cliffs and turquoise water:)

Ko Phi Phi Don

Phaya Naak Cave

 A lookout on Ko Phi Phi Leh not far from a sandy beach

Holly

Harvest Season

Bangladesh has many seasons (even now after 2 years I still don't know all the seasons - up to 8 some people say) and every season seems to be a good time to plant some crop, especially rice, however the most common season for planting vegetables is the winter season when the air is cooler and dry. This is when we are able to grow our gardens and enjoy the many vegetables not commonly available in the markets here (sweet corn, broccoli, sweet peppers, lettuce, French beans, Brussels sprouts, garden beets, Swiss char, cherry tomatoes, peas, and so on). It is always exciting when the first crops come in and we can enjoy fresh salads and freshly steamed garden vegetables.  We are now almost at the end of our personal garden season, yesterday afternoon I collected a few of the remaining veggies, however the market is still full of other good produce (carrots, tomatoes, pumpkin and other local veggies) Watermelon is the favorite fruit of this season as the weather is starting to get hot and they are easily available for about two months.

House #2 - Barrett Garden

 

Bananas from our garden

Taking pumpkin blossoms and eggplant to market

Peanut harvest

Potato harvest

Straw from rice harvest

 

Pinapples starting to grow in our garden

Tobacco harvest - unfortunately a cash crop in the hills that takes up a lot of good agricultural land from the locals

Jon