This past Thursday was my favorite day on the race thus far! We worked at the Be Like Brit site to help pour concrete. It was my team’s first day working there so we didn’t quite know what to expect except lots of buckets of concrete.
Before I tell you about my day there’s something you should know about me…I’m pretty stubborn and I think I am strong enough to do anything a man can do. Working maintenance at a camp for two summers I realized I’m not as strong as every guy, but I can hold my own in most situations.
Some of the amazingly strong women on my squad
So back to my day…when we got there at 8:30am the Haitians were already hard at work. We went up to the second story where the concrete was being poured. All the women from our squad made a line to pass empty buckets back to be refilled. Well, I am a woman, but I didn’t want to join their line. Instead I decided to help all the men carry concrete filled buckets. I got asked three times if I wanted to do a different job, but I declined.
Women don’t usually do construction work so I got a lot of funny looks from the Haitian men at first. But once I proved to them that I could pick up heavy buckets of concrete and carry them across the rebar I made a bunch of new Haitian friends! I had a ton of fun working with all of them and can’t wait to go back to Be Like Brit! I just hope I can remember everyone’s name…
On a slightly different note, one of my favorite things about working construction is seeing some of the Haitian workers at church. It’s really great to know we are working with some believers and then we get the opportunity to talk to them at church as well as during the week. My teammate Sarah now has a new best friend at the work site and after seeing him at church she learned he’s a believer, but doesn’t have a bible. So, being the amazing woman she is, she bought him his own bible! My team is pretty awesome!
“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.”
Ephesian 6:7
