This morning we all got up ready to go back to work. We were excited to get back to the job site to see what the group of 60 volunteers had done over the weekend. Steve warned us that the answer to that was probably 'nothing' but we tried to have a little more hope than that, that maybe they would have gotten all the sh!t piles cleared and maybe even started on the second foundation. Cassandra also brought it to our attention that it had not rained at all over the weekend so the dirt wouldn't be as muddy as it was on Friday.
So there we were, shoveling all the same mud that we had left there on Friday, heavy with the Sunday night rain that had begun after Cassandra's weekend observation. The 60 weekend volunteers had finished about 1/2 of what we finished in a day. We did fortunately find the same wheelbarrow we were using, and Cassandra and lilian built a terrific ramp out of scrap plywood and blocks.
We are thinking of bringing a wheelbarrow with us to the site tomorrow. It is only 30 dollars in the USA, so we can only imagine what it costs here, and how much it would be used, first by us of course. So a stop at ace hardware may be in order.
It started raining right after we started. About an hour later, Cherry came over to tell us that we could leave because of the rain. As dirty of a job as it was, we didn't want to just leave, we felt like we were actually being useful. So we told her that we would stay until it was raining tool hard for us to work. We took a break during the first rainstorm and went back to the mud, which had now become swamp. The mud was slippery and stuck to our shoes and shovels, it was really heavy. Finally we called off the day, it was raining too hard again. So we said goodbye at about noon and headed back to the hotel, where we played card games until dinner. I tried chicken sisig tonight which was excellent, and we hit up dairy queen for a refreshing American dessert.
A big challenge during the work day is peeing. We were sweating so much that we (well maybe it was just me) were really celebrating if we were hydrated enough that we had to pee!
Covering the septic pit
Everything is relative.
I confided in Cassandra and Joan about fearing the departure day. I am afraid it is going to be a really difficult day. On Friday when we left, the children were all hugging us asking when we would be back. I am dreading the moment when I have to say that I will not be back. It is the hardest thing. Also, to know that the children here are not even the children we are building for (the homes we are building are for those who lost their homes in recent floods, while the children are part of squatter families so they did not 'lose' anything) makes it harder.
Cassandra told a story on the bus the other day that she went to another global village trip where the family they were building for had a baby, but the mother could not put the baby down for the baby's entire life because the floor of their home was sand. Once they built the concrete slab the 9 month old baby had begun to crawl. It was such an amazing victory, and the group left feeling very successful and good about their journey. She remembers sitting in LAX watching tv waiting for her second flight and there were 2 news stories on, Britney shaving her head, and . Here we are in the wealthy parts of the world paying attention to such unimportant things while there are people that do not have a floor for their baby to crawl on.
The kids are so resourceful. We gave them cars and they started making ramps everywhere for the cars to drive around on.
Dinner.
Chow King. I don't understand how a restaurant can be called this. If you take out the w you have CHOKING, and no one wants to eat at a place named choking.
Shakeys. I feel similar about this place. I don't want my stomach near anything with shakey in the name!
Here are some extra pics of the weekend from May Yens camera
No comments:
Post a Comment