Janet, Kayla Andrew and Ryan, Day 2

From: Andrew Petheram, A.N. Myer
Hola everybody, our second day was a productive one!!! We began the day with a healthy serving of scrambled eggs, liquid beans, buns and O.J. Following breakfast we were driven to the worksite by our own personal ¨wheelman¨.Upon arrival we were greatly surprised, our worksite was not out in the poen as most of us had predicted, it was set back down a stone road from the highway. We were also surprised to find the foundation already dug. We had expected to literally start from scratch. Since the house was already started, our duties basically consisted of placing and tieing re-ba, as well as mixing and moving concrete. We also moved a lot of bricks. Today was a dirty day as we spent the first 2 hours of the day down in a trench tieing re-bar to the foundation as well as mixing concrete on the ground. We moved all the concrete in an assembly line style with buckets. I found it interesting how they build houses down here. There is re-bar placed vertically through the walls on 16¨O.C. and their blocks are only about 3¨wide. All in all today was a great day...we got a lot done even thoughit was so hot and dirty.

Chow, Andrew

P.S. The leaders are great seeing how they forced me to take a break when I was purple and still wanted to work.


From: Kayla Kuyvenhoven, Grimsby
Hola! It was a long day today; our first on the worksite. The location is perfect. It´s close to locals, there are pigs and chickens roaming everywhere and we have shade! so much hardwork was put in by everyone. If you add up all the ours of our meetings; we´ve barely been together for one day! This could never be spotted, because the way we work with eachother and care about one another is incredible. After mixing, lifting and watering etc... myself, Janet and Corie played with some local kids. Their smiles and laughter were worth every drop of sweat, and every speck of dirt we got from running around and rolling on the ground playing with them. I love it here, the people, the culture, the scenery...even the cold showers.

Love you, miss you,
XOXO, Kayla

From: Janet Krzeczkowski
Buenos Dias!
Day three in El Salvador was exciting and exhausting. We went straight to the work site after a wonderful breakfast. Working together on the house was very hard, but fun. Mixing the cement and shovelling it into buckets was my favourite task. My favourite part overall was meeting and playing with the little boys from the village. They were so cute and very polite! Even though we had no idea what they were saying, we figured out other ways to communicate and eventually started a game of tag. I can´t wait to edit the footage from today!
Family and Friends->: I wish you could see how amazing it is here! I´m excited to show you pictures and video footage. I´m having the best time, don´t worry about me, I´m safe and comfortable with everything going on. I want to take home some of the children, is that okay? Good. I have been eating well and I haven´t been dizzy at all mom!
Love you, miss you, adios! xx
Janet

From: Ryan Elliott, E.L. Crossley
Hola,
It feels like I have said that a thousand times in the last 3 days, well, because I have. It is one of the few words I can remember off the top of my head, and it is an easy way to put a smile on a face you have never met. The communication is hard, but as we learned at the worksite today, it isn´t impossible. A quote that I believe in, and have for a while is from the book ¨The Last Lecture¨. ¨Brick walls aren´t there to get in our way, they are there so we can show how badly we want something¨. The language barrier is our own personal brick wall, and the whole team has used it to prove just how badly we want this trip, and how badly we want to give the family of 12 a house. On the worksite, the masons we work with do not speak English, but we have developed forms of either sign language or broken Spanish to find out what we need to do, or to simply tell someone they are doing a good job. Another thing I have learned, in a combination of the orphanage 2 days ago and the children around the worksite today and yesterday, is that it does not matter to a child what colour your skin is, what language you speak, or what clothes you are wearing. If you treat them well, they adore you. This is a value that I believe a lot of us lose as we get older. For once I have felt that I can learn from a child instead of teaching them something. So to end another somewhat self-realising post, I would just like to say to my family and friends that I miss you and I wish that everyone of you could be here with me.
Love, Ryan