Well we’ve been working hard and I promised photos so here we go. [I’m afraid they’re not the top quality however, because my portable hard drive just broke and so the other photos I had are currently inaccessible. These are from my iPod Touch.] Firstly, these are the huts we are working around:
The structures themselves were there when we arrived but we’ve been working on finalising the area around them. (We seem to have been so hard at work that we failed to document it much as we went, but) basically the ground has been removed from up the hill and relocated to lower down the hill. The hut on the left has had this wall pushed right back from being near the poles you can see here (the ropes are for hammocks :-D) and the dirt pushed over the edge of the other side so that the ground doesn’t disappear halfway along the hut but is flat all the way across.
The hut on the right has also been worked on in the same way, although we’re still working on finishing that one.
The ground between the huts has been pushed back some too and Kuya (which means brother) Al installed the swing seat as we worked. The dirt path up the side of the hill to the huts has also been fitted with some stepping stones now too:
These huts will form an extension to the use of some of the church activities and also be used as sleeping space for future missionary visits, particularly so that any potential married couples can have somewhere separate to stay when here.
We also spent a morning cutting a path through the mountain woods (during which I managed to gouge a small chunk from my leg with a machete) to be used in a kids’ event (see next blog post).
We also did some work for a guy named Ricky, who lives around the corner, levelling some ground by his house as some of the men from the church positioned a large log as a bridge.
This work has at times felt so hard, not because it is difficult in and of itself (although, yes it is gruelling), but largely because of the heat. I have sweat more here than I think I might have in my entire life before (and that’s not because I’ve never done any work before, I have…). I have bled (my own fault), and I have had a tremendous amount of insect bites. I was unable to wear shoes for two days following the work at Ricky’s since we uncovered a nest of fire ants who went to work on my skin. Their bites hurt. And a day later each on left a mark on me half an inch wide. Damn.
It’s been hard but this has been rewarding work, and it’s only part of what we’ve been able to do.
More to follow…
