Day 11- We are (mostly) done!

Today we laid blocks. All. Day. Long. We’ve been building the lower half of our fence which essentially consists of a wall of CMU blocks. Don Francisco conducted a mini lesson to teach all of us his method yesterday, and we continued today. I personally have discovered a newfound talent for brick laying. Don Francisco nicknamed me albañila (to me that essentially means he believes my work to be quality and at his standards). We split into pairs or smaller groups to fill the spaces between the block with mortar, to shovel dirt to fill in trenches and of course to lay blocks. By the time we got to lunch, everyone was tired.

For lunch pretty much everyone got ham and cheese sandwiches which for some reason came with three pieces of bread. We have gotten into the routine of all eating lunch and then finding various places for a quick siesta. The team utilizes various objects (some more comfortable than others) as pillows including backpacks, bags of cement, rocks, pieces of wood, bags of water and even just the ground.

After our naps we were all revitalized to go and continue the work, and good thing because our technical advisor, Joe, set the lofty goal of finishing the entire wall part of the fence today no matter how long that took. Even with everyone working tirelessly and lots of help from the albañiles and ayudantes, we didn’t end up finishing until 7pm when it was pretty much getting too dark to see anything anyway. We took a short break in between there to try some delicious Guatemalan snacks and to finish off some Coca Cola. I think the sugar may have gotten to us because everyone was being a little wild, at first, during the ride back. We did, however, get to see the mountains at dusk and then night which was absolutely beautiful.

Many of us were motivated by the thought of the pizza we would get upon arriving to the hotel (It did not disappoint). We finished the day off as a team preparing for our final community engagement activity tomorrow. All in all, it was a very long, but overall very rewarding day. I am so proud to be part of a team where every single person works so hard towards our final goal of helping ease some of the cost burden for the clinic. It feels so surreal that tomorrow is our last day going to the clinic as I have gotten so used to the routine and all of the wonderful people here who have given so much time and energy to help Hermana Edna and the kids.

-Desi