I’m exhausted. I’m dirty. I’m sweaty. And I feel good. We did a lot of work today.

Started out at 7am with breakfast and coffee. Then went out to the local dump. There is a tent city beside the dump where lots of folks live. They were displaced by Hurricane Mitch about a dozen years ago. They make their living by digging through the trash as it comes into the dump. It’s pretty filthy work. And they don’t make a lot of money doing it.

Then we went out to Villa Santa Catalina. That’s the city that is being built to accommodate those who want to leave the dump. Small homes made of concrete and brick in a community with a soccer pitch and basketball court. They’ve got a couple of schools built because they outgrew the first one.

First task was to dig latrines. Don’t worry there was nothing in them yet. But we dug trenches 60cm deep. It was hard work out in the hot sun. Shovel. Pick. Measure. Shovel. Pick. Measure. Repeat. Move to the next one.

Then we moved onto helping lay the foundation in the houses. Shovel sand, shovel gravel, mix with concrete, add water, mix more, keep mixing, shovel into buckets, carry the buckets to the house. Repeat. That was more grueling than the digging.

We had lunch at about 12:30 – PB:&J again. Then back to work.

We worked until about 5:30 or so. It sounds a lot easier when I’m typing it out than it was to actually do it. Lots of people over exerted themselves and had to take an extended breather. And we took some time here and there to play with the kids who ran to us to try and help out.

It’ll be an early night tonight. Ate dinner in one bite I think. Waiting for the showers to clear out. Going to have to burn these clothes or something. Tomorrow we’re going to be helping to build a bridge.