To start…
Jetlag 3
Jessica 0
I woke up at four am today. Better than 3am yesterday.
After traveling four hours from Antigua to the community we will be helping, we arrived to the most beautiful site. All of the kids were lined up waving American flags cheering for our arrival.
It was a truly overwhelming feeling with the kids and parents so happy to see us.
As we walked towards the setup, one of the kids grabbed each of our hands and we walked down the line of cheering children hand in hand as they announced our names.
So many people of the community wanted to speak and with the help of our Spanish and Quiche translaters, we were able to communicate. The most moving of the speeches was one of the teachers, Yoli. She was emotional pointing at the makeshift classroom knowing that by the end of the week, she will have a real classroom for her kids.
After speeches, games were played. The first one was a dance competition and I was chosen as the girl contestant paired with one of the local men. We watched a couple and then had to mirror them. One we had danced a bit, everyone joined in – even the kids.
Pinatas and musical chairs followed – such a fun way to interact with the families. Lunch followed and our orders for the afternoon.
Our orders included digging holes for the playground equipment and mixing/pouring cement for the basketball court. I was on concrete duty and let me tell you… That work is no joke. We have to fill five wheelbarrows with sand, then five bags of cement followed with five wheelbarrows of rocks. That’s just for one pile! Then mixing the dry ingredients fully then adding the water. Extremely physical work that doesn’t stop there…once the cement was mixed (luckily we had professionals to help today), we were carrying individual buckets of cement to the basketball court. I’m talking two gallon buckets – one at a time.
We were able to finish half of the basketball court and all the playground equipment have holes, so a great accomplishment considering we only worked in the afternoon.
Heading home, all the kids ran up to say goodbye waving and hugging. Just so sweet.
Dinner at the hotel and then to bed. Ready for tomorrow!
