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Today was a very long day. We had breakfast at 8, a cornmeal cake with fresh fruit. Today it was papaya and watermelon but we have also had bananas and pineapple. All the fruit has been delicious! Right after breakfast we headed half an hour away to another local community called New Jerusalem. This community is quite poor and we went to fix a roof for a local school teacher who has been part of the community for a very long time. The teacher, Melody, has had a tough life. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo several surgeries. She lives with her parents and young children and their roof has been leaking onto the family home for many years. That tin roof had seen better days.
When we arrived, it was already hot but throughout the day it got to be about 35 plus degrees, feels like 42°C at the peak with a UV index of 12 and humidity at 87%! Between that, the humidity and the fact that the guys were ontop of the roof, surrounded by tin for most of the day, there was definitely some strong reactions to the sun. Everyone has some burns, especially since the roof took a bit longer that orginally planned so we ran out of the supplies we had brought along such as snacks and sunscreen. Next time we will know to bring the whole supply suitcase just incase!
While the guys took care of the hard work up on the roof, the girls painted the reusable tin pieces with anti-corrosive paint to make them able to reuse on sections of the roof. The girls also ran around making sure the guys had water, snacks and everything they needed to be productive.
When the guys took off the tin that was old, the beams underneath were also rotted out so they all had to be replaced before any new tin sheets could be installed. All this took much longer than expected and the orginal plan of being back at Fudesa just after 5 o'clock was scrapped. After a push back on dinner to 8, the roof was still not finished so Carlos took some girls back to the lodgings to have dinner and start on washing up while the guys and a few other girls stayed behind to finish the roof and play with the neighboring children. Once on the road, we realized that the girls room key was still with those who had stayed behind but a quick call to Richard back at Fudesa resulted in them finding a way in and by the time we got back, the rooms were open.
Dinner was delicious and when arriving, the amazing cooks had prepared to go meals for all the workers still at the job site which Carlos took back to them and the rest of us stayed behind, eating a great meal of chicken pasta and fried plantain. Yummy!
At the time of posting this evening the other team members are still not back so it will be a late night for many with an early start tomorrow to head to our next location, Obispo Kellogg. Title Credits: Monique
