October 17

Hi Everybody,

Sorry I missed our chat last night.  We had a busy day and it just got too late.  However, here we are together again tonight :)

Today was a very hot day.  Used a lot of sunscreen and drank a lot of water.  We always know when
to take a break because we were told "when the masons break everybody stop work and take a break".   The locals know best.

Yesterday and today have been very productive on the build site.  You can actually see the house taking shape.  Yesterday I did a lot of digging in what we have affectionately named the "hole".  It was quite a dig...approximately 9 feet deep...YES! I said nine feet deep.  This is just one of the projects being done on the site but it is the center of our attention.  The collector or trap, the second hole, is only about 4 feet deep by five feet.   At the same time the brick perimeter is now three brick high and the dirt has been tamped down in the various rooms over which concrete will be poured later and then tile installed over that.  All of this sounds simple but doing it all by hand without any electric devices, except the ole electric cement mixer, takes a lot of time.  Every day we move more brick, hand carry mortar, fill dirt buckets spread dirt, and many other jobs.

Today we started lining the holes with bricks.  It's time consuming but not nearly as consuming as the digging.  We should finish this tomorrow.

Another fun experience that happened on the site was the local TV station came and interviewed three of us and took video of the team doing our various jobs.  They said they would send us the video.  None of us had any idea they were coming so we were not prepared and consequently  we all felt we didn't give Habitat for Humanity the recognition it deserved.  Oh well, we had fun doing it.

If I knew how to put pictures on this blog I would...but you will just need to wait until I get back.

Time for bed..sleep well and we will chat again tomorrow.

Good Night!
Linda :)