By Rebecca, Sam, & Kat
Today we started our day with a lovely breakfast at Big Yellow House.
Afterwards, we loaded up the bus and headed for the worksite in Villa Del Rio. There, we met Noel, Angel and William, who led the project. Sonia (and Calvin) did an excellent job translating for us while William gave us his welcome speech.
We then packed up our snacks and gloves from the bus, and were put to work making concrete from 2 bags of cement, 4 buckets of water, 8 buckets of rocks and 8 buckets of sand. There were iron rods and pipes already set up, so we had teams scooping the components for making concrete and putting it in the mixer, teams putting the finished concrete into buckets, and an assembly line to pour it. Half way through the work day, we trekked to Maria’s (Angel’s wife) house, where a delicious FEAST was waiting, consisting of beans and rice, and chicken.
After lunch, we gained momentum and began to work in a fashion that was more efficient than ever. We were able, much to the surprise of everyone, to finish laying the foundation for the floor. The owners of the house were very grateful for our work. For them, it wasn’t just a floor. This floor was the beginning of the addition of a new room which would allow the wife’s daughters to move back in with her; since Hurricane Maria, her daughters had been living with their father.
Once we returned back to the house, we headed for the beach where we enjoyed the refreshing and clear water. Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice dinner and a great birthday celebration for Rebecca! She’s 16! For our final activity we sat in the common area, doing a recap of the day and shouting out specific things we noticed and wanted to appreciate. We all agreed that today was most definitely a success!
