Too Many Buckets of Cement To Count...

Hi, this is Lisa Kelly again serving as a guest blogger tonight. Several members of our group are gathered on the rooftop terrace of our hotel this evening celebrating the day and recounting today's events. The men on our team today really got a workout. They mixed over 30 bags of cement (at 80 lbs each) to pour foundations for a home. This was backbreaking work in the hot sun. We did take opportunities throughout the day to speak with the masons... they are helping us with our spanish and we are helping them with English. Every once in a while they will surprise us with an American phrase they have learned and as a result, we all break out into laughter.

At this point in the week, we have gotten to know about our ElSalvadoran co-workers and their families....who's married...ages and names of their children. A striking memory from today was seeing an elderly woman in a dress (she was a mother of one of the home owners) shoveling rock all day into a wheelbarrow...the people here are amazing!

We had the opportunity to go out to dinner tonight at a steakhouse. We were joined by Felipe' and Ramone (who drive us everywhere we need to go) and Ana Maria Montoya who is the head of the regional Santa Ana Habitat office. We had live entertainment and enjoyed our fearless leader, Nicole, share her amazing voice on stage with the band. It's hard to imagine that tomorrow is our last day on the build site...the days have gone by so fast...it seems like we've known each other much longer than 6 days. We're looking forward to the progress we'll make tomorrow...