Day two in the field and we were out the gate early! We were loaded up and left before 7:00am.

I rode in the truck today with Aaro and a few others to site. On that ride, Aaro gave me some more details about the family we are helping.

The house we are working at is for a family of five. Julio is who we usually see, because he let’s us in the gate when he gets home from work. He works the night shift and sleeps during the day while his wife is at work and three kids are at school.

Except for the part where we are doing in construction on his roof???? Poor guy probably doesn’t get much sleep.

Their house is pretty large and the only rooms that are livable are one bathroom, the kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom. For all of them. Oh, also they have three beautiful birds and a four legged (but three pawed) pup! The rest of the rooms are covered in mole because they are all leaking so much when it rains. And it RAINS here.

Tom and Nora were placed on a different team today, staying on base to help clean. Everyone rotates this job. Joining us for the first time was Melissa and Denise instead.

It was another beautiful morning on this roof! The views are unreal! People’s houses just…in the middle of a beautiful natural jungle. I can’t get over it! I unpacked a lot of the tools into as much of an orderly fashion as I could.

Aaro had me finish creating a canal with a rotary hammer which I spent the morning on. I was creating a path for the water to flow to the drain pipes we had busted out the day before. I got to wear a mask because I was blowing up so much concrete and dust. After carving out my canal, I had to remove large debris, sweep up as much small debris as I could, and blow off the rest to clean out the space and prep it for cementing.

Today definitely went slower than yesterday. I think it had to do with the heat, it was significantly hotter today than yesterday. While my arms didn’t look red, they freaking hurt. The sun on them just stung like little needles. Wasn’t much I could do except continue to put on sunscreen.

After that, Marissa and I worked on busting out four other drains on the roof. They have old PVC pipe in them and are too small for the amount of water moving through them. We had to hammer through the concrete, take out the old pipe and make the hole bigger for the new pipe. It sounds simple, but it took so mich time.

This whole experience has given me a whole new appreciation and understanding for construction and construction workers. You can spend so much time doing the simplest thing, feel accomplished when it happens and simultaneously feel like you didn’t actually DO anything all day.

We had lunch, together again under the carport. We sat mostly in silence today. The heat and humidity we’re brutal.

After lunch I learned how to mix and lay concrete! This was new and run. We actually have an additive for the concrete to slow down it’s drying process so we can lay it out where we need correctly. Without it, plus the heat, it dries before you can even get it off your tool. It’s crazy! So I spent a lot of the afternoon doing that with Marissa and Ryan. We concreted a lot. Sealing off everything hoping to avoid any future leakage.

After that was done, Marissa and I went back to working on knocking out the other drains.

Julio came up on the roof to check it out today and talk some things over with Aaro. It was cool he came up.

Literally, that was it. It was such a long day, leaving at 3:00. Yet, feels like we did so little. Obviously other people were there too, working on other parts. But that’s all I did today and it took all day!

We brought everything back down, loaded up the truck again and headed back to base. We stopped at the cómado and some people got snacks and ice cream. I enjoyed the AC and we walked back. I got to talk with Ryan a bit more. He’s a sophomore in college in New Jersey and he’s real quiet. He is incredibly knowledgeable about what is happening around here and can answer every question. We got back to the base and unpacked the truck..I got to dump the trash….yaaaaaaay.

I showered, changed, and relaxed/chatted until the 4:30 meeting. This is where I learned that I had chores tonight. Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy. I was to sweep andop with Susan. She’s from Central Florida and retired.

So after dinner, we did our due diligence and swept and mop the entire kitchen, dining area, and bathroom hallway. As we did this, we realized that Aubrey (volunteer from France) as on food/dishes/kitchen duty and her team totally bailed on her! They left her to do it all, refusing to do chores! So, Susan and I began to help her with that because that is A LOT to do for one person. We were there until after 7:15, sweaty as hell. After that, I was exhausted. I just relaxed and eventually went to bed. A lot of people went to the local pizzeria for karaoke but I just didn’t have it in me to join. It has been a long day.

Thanks to those of you that have donated!! I appreciate it SO much. It isn’t required for us at all. Just something I want to do. This place is amazing and what this organization does and wants to do for people is truly beautiful.

Fundraising sucks. There’s no easy way to ask people for money. There’s no easy way to not be bummed when people don’t, even if you know it’s for a reason.

But seriously, if you can. Just $1 can even help. Skip your morning Starbucks run, make food at home instead. It all adds up and helps.