Somebody Lost Their "Man Card"

Hey everyone,

Today I desire to tell you all that this week I discovered that I am completely unprepared to take care of manly jobs like little fix-ups around the house. I can paint. I know that much. We aren't teaching Mae Sombat and An anymore, but we still check up on them now and then and last Tuesday we helped them repaint the three rooms in their housing complex that Mae Sombat rents out to people. That was fine. I can work the brush. The hammer, on the other hand, I've forgotten how to make do my will. Our Relief Society is doing a fantastic job reaching out to those in need, and one of the sisters recently met this really old lady at the hospital and had us go check it out. And here is where it all began.
We got there late one night. It's dark, and we get led back behind all the real houses to these shacks on stilts. There is this ancient lady named Yay Nuan (Grandma Nuan), and this four year old boy named Beer (yeah, pretty common nickname). They live together in this shack. Beer doesn't go to school, and Yay Nuan is generally always sick. Beer's real mother used to give Yay Nuan 50 baht a day to watch him, then she dipped out and left her son in the care of this old lady who is completely incapable of caring for him. Terrible situation. Sister Jiab, our RS president, arranged for us to come back and look at the stairs the next day in day light hours. Before we parted ways, I confirmed with Sister Jiab that we would just go to give a small sack of food from the 20+ sacks they prepared as part of the RS anniversary as well as LOOK at the stairs so we could get an accurate estimate of what needed to get done.
So the next day we get a call from Sister Jiab. She had already sent someone over with the food and wanted us to go fix the stairs right then. It was already getting dark. I tried to say it probably wouldn't be too good for us to just jump right in, but apparently that wasn't good enough. I tried to say we could do some more planning and get some people who are on welfare assistance to help, but apparently that wasn't good enough. I tried to say we just needed to check it out first, but apparently that wasn't good enough. So we went. She said she would bring the tools.
We get there with about a half hour of daylight left, just enough time to discover that the drywall hammer and flimsy nails we had would not penetrate the ancient, petrified wood we were working with. By this time, we had already torn off one of the two stairs so we had to get a candle from Yay Nuan so we could at least put a temporary fix in place. Now Sister Jiab started to see things from my perspective. It's funny, because I'm pretty sure I had told her it wasn't going to be a good idea. It's almost like the 22-year-old boy from America who doesn't understand anything about Thailand (a common complaint when I make a decision that some people don't like) actually does know what is going on sometimes!
Anyway, we told Yay Nuan we were going to have to leave it the way it was for now. We took a few days to think about it together and decided all we needed was some better nails, real hammers, and a saw. We went in the morning two days later. Two hours, who knows how many bent nails, a smashed thumb, and a dirty shirt later, Yay Nuan and Beer have an improved set of stairs with three fairly sturdy steps, rather than the two rickety ones they used to have!
I wasn't really upset at all with how it all went down. I was actaully very happy to have the opportunity to help someone who lived in the midst of many who could have helped but had not yet done so. The only reason I was upset is because of how unskilled with a hammer I realized I am. What kind of man ruins about 20 nails in his efforts to pound in 18. Even the 18 we finally got in were sketchy. I seem to recall that Home Depot has little classes or something where they teach you how to do stuff like that. I'm going to check that out one day. I wonder what they call their classes? They should probably just call them "How to be a Real Man" classes. I suppose if I am wrong and Home Depot doesn't really have that, then I'm going to by a big block of wood, a nice hammer, and a million or so nails and just go to town. I can't sleep at night knowing that I lack such a basic skill. That, basketball, and cars. Three areas in which I need to improve if I am to achieve true man status.

Love you all. Stay on the straight and narrow. It's the only one of many paths that will actually take you to where we want to be.

Aaron