Friday, March 11, 2011
This morning was full of talk of the tsunami alert and until we got on the bus, all anyone could talk about was potentially not going to the beach. Our rough start to the day seemed to continue as we were late leaving the hostel and kept running into traffic after dropping off the other group at their site. Our bus driver was a miracle worker behind the wheel and peeled us out of tight spot after tight spot with mad skill.
Once we got to our site though all thoughts turned to work and goodbyes. We've made incredible progress and Claudia says we're amongst the top three most productive teams to ever start from scratch. A lot of today's work was cementing blocks, however we also moved blocks, mixed what seemed like another hundred batches of chispa and mortar, and filled and compacted the insides and outsides of the house with dirt.
The fact that we only had a few short hours to work seemed to invigorate everyone and we worked through the morning like a pack of energizer bunnies. All too soon it was time to say our goodbyes and board the bus to drive to our closing ceremony. Goodbyes, as they often do, took quite some time. Despite the fact that most of the family and the masons were coming with us to the closing ceremony, there were still photos to be taken, gifts to be exchanged, and hugs and translations galore. It's strange how when leaving, the words don't seem as important as they did upon arriving. Everyone seemed to understand at least the emotion behind the moment, if not every word.
We shared the ceremony with the university group working with Habitat as well. We had a great lunch at their site, heard speeches from family members and masons, said our own thank you and received diplomas for having participated in a Habitat project. We then moved on to the first surprise which was a real piñata! Each group got their own, ours was a a real Canadian moose (so I was told). Daren, Chris and Mr. Carpenter each got a couple good licks in -Chris's aim was a little off and he almost took out a few kids and Claudia! Our second surprise was a lesson in making enchilladas. Habitat supplied us with the dough and we were taught how to shape them into disks to fry in hot oil. It was a great final cultural experience.
After all the excitement, yawning faces and dragging bodies were piled back onto the bus to head back to the hostel. We're now settling in for the evening and setting our sights on some serious R&R. Be in touch soon and back to Canada in no time.
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