Breakfast: fresh papaya, watermelon, banana, cornflakes, rice and black beans, scrambled eggs and sliced ham (like lunchmeat), coffee!
Then on the bus at 7:45 a.m. to head to the worksites. I was assigned to the group at Santa Cruz. We began by planning the mural wall. After a struggle over measurements, Daphne was able to begin transferrring the design onto the wall. She was able to complete the outline by the end of the day!
Other projects at Santa Cruz included a second coat of paint on the exterior walls that were completed yesterday (I did this for a while), digging a trench that will be used to build a fence, and continuing the sidewalk that was started yesterday (I worked on this project as well). Hand mixing concrete proved to be labor intensive, but the youth, Amy and I worked diligently to complete as much as possible. We were told by the contractor helping us that if we used a mixer out in the front of the church to mix the concrete we would have to pay a tax, probably like having to have a permit for home improvement projects in the states.
Lunch: catered by outside company and it was delicious! rice, plantains, salad, sweet and sour salsa (?), and cas (drink-gritty texture, kind of sweet, little sour)
After lunch we returned to work site (lunch was served at Parish House. We worked for about 1 1/2 hours then cleaned up. One the way back we stopped at "Mega Super" and bought a few snacks to try, then back to the hotel for a little relaxing. I took a dip in the pool to stretch out my muscles a little from all that hard labor of mixing concrete!
Dinner at 7 p.m.: another American style dish-lasagna, salad, corn and some other vegetable mixture, squash and carrots and cinnamon ice cream over mixed fruit for dessert
After dinner the youth and I took a hired van and driver to find ice cream. Herbert, our driver, took us on a mini scenic drive to an ice cream stand where we all enjoyed a taste of local ice cream in Guapiles.
Then we came back together with the adults for a compline service. Together we shared our high and low moments from the trip so far. I shared that the neighbor next to the church came outside to clean her yard as we we working, then saw we enjoyed the music she was playing so she continued to play it loud while we worked. It really helped keep us going! She was also able to answer questions about the crazy mosquito spraying that forced us to evacuate our work site for 10 minutes! She even jumped in the trench with Jeff and began digging!
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