UHDP Site Visit and Volunteer Experience: Our Adobe Construction Experiment: In the photos above, you can see 1) me and Apat preparing the mud, 2) my wife, Leslie, with Apat, treading the mud, 3) Banchai inspecting the partially constructed adobe house, and 4) the nearly completed adobe house with thatched roof.

During our first several days at the Thailand UHDP, my wife Leslie and I worked on two construction projects. The first was mixing, pouring, and finishing concrete to serve as foundations for two new water tanks which are located on a hill above the UHDP site to facilitate water flow to the UHDP's various buildings and residences. The project that we spent the most time on, however, was the mixing of mud to make bricks for a small adobe house. Constructing the small adobe house gives the UHDP staff an opportunity to experiment in adobe construction techniques on a small scale in anticipation of the construction of a full-size adobe guesthouse later on this year. To build the small adobe house, we spent several hours mixing and preparing the mud, pouring the mud into molds to make bricks, and using the finished brick to construct the adobe house. As organizer and leader of the University System of Georgia's 2009 Faculty Seminar to Thailand, I will be bringing a group of 12 faculty to the UHDP to learn about the UHDP, do a service project, and spend a night in a hilltribe village.