May 1

Wow, a new month already! Time is flying by sooooo quickly.

So here's an update... construction for Bangkok Samurai is on hold. The construction crew needs to order some part and we've been waiting for it for a week now (and I have no idea what part we're waiting for - construction is one of the business partner's responsibility). So until we get that one part, construction is on hold. The hole in the ground is getting bigger and some pipes have been lined up and ready to be assembled for the greasetrap to be installed.

As for work, this new job is so different than anything I've done. I'm alittle lost but am trying to keep up. If we spoke about something in the medical field, I could understand a decent amount of terminology and definately in the food field, I can certainly hold my own in various processes, terminology and technique but this class is about refinery work. Pipes, valves, pumps, drivers, etc. Yeah, say what? I do have a better grasp on pipes and valves. Of course, we tested out on it and everyone passed. Thankfully!

Monday is our big test on pumps. Tuesday is our test on drivers... and starting next week until June, we have a test every day - and one big book per subject. Yes, everyday! Talk about in-depth training. But it's good - at least everyone starts off on the same page and understands an operator's job in detail, step by step...and we climb twice a week.

Luckily, my group only climbed once this week - yesterday. Our first climb and we went up to 100 feet. Whew! Talk about muscle fatigue. On this column, there was a landing every 25 rungs so you can take a breather. We're suppose to wait for the ladder to clear so there's only one person on the ladder at a time. In the meantime, everyone can rest on the landing but all the guys in my group wanted to race so they all ran up the ladder at their turn... me of course, was the slowest, all out of breathe and pounding heart! By the time I got to the top, the guys were all rested and ready to go back down. The other girl in the group wasn't as fast but scaled the ladder quickly.

What a view! You could see almost the whole refinery. I just didn't want to go back down... my arms and legs were very tired. My instructor kept kept yelling quit hugging the ladder because I would stop to hug the ladder for a few minutes. A brief breather on the landing just wasn't enough time to recover... so I'd go 12 rungs or so and hug. This morning he asked if I was scared but no, I wasn't scared... I was trying to rest my biceps and forearms because they were so burning tired... I thought I was going to let go so I'd hug instead. It took a few minutes to get down but I made it. If we were higher, I would have asked to base jump! But for that you have to been extremely high and have a parachute. Huge bummer.

One of the girls in another group actually let go and fell today. Luckily, it was only 8 rungs worth before she hit the landing and didn't break or sprain anything. Muscle failure... she just couldn't hang on. It certainly made the instructors nervous.

Monday will be our 4th week in training... and 4 more weeks to go. With the economy still bad, only 15 people are retiring this year so there are only 15 positions open. We're still wondering who in our class is going to be the 3 people kicked out or drop out. But the instructors said most everyone finishes the training, it's only after we get to our respective plant that people quit (mostly the women). Either it's not really what we were expecting, don't get along with co-workers or just don't like the work.

But everyone is still surprised at how big our class of women is... 8 out of 18. We've been told repeatedly, usually there are only 2-3 women in a group of 25, like in the group hired 5 years ago... out of those 3 women, only 1 stayed. The other 2 quit within the year. And a friend of mine said there were 5 women out of 19, hired 2 years ago... and luckily all 5 still work there. From what I hear, the work isn't difficult but the valves, pipes, pumps, etc are very heavy. In todays class, I went to pick up a 6 inch pump cover with one hand thinking it's small and light but I could barely lift it! It weighed almost 30 pounds and had to use both hands. I guess if anything, I'll gain some muscle endurance!