Day 4 – Monday – Aidan & Hunter (& Tymon)
Hello world, we started today off by waking up in a pool of sweat, due to it being a mild 35 degrees (without the humidex). We then had a delicious breakfast as always, thanks to our amazing kitchen staff. We got our apples in a row and hopped on the bus and headed to the jobsite.
Upon arrival, we immediately got to work, with some of us preparing the grout mixture and others pouring concrete. We can’t say much about the grout mixing because we were both pouring concrete, but we think that we got the short end of the stick. The work was so demanding on our bodies that Tymon’s fingers started rotting (unfortunately this is not a joke.) Tymon here… never experienced concrete burns but I’m all good 😉.
After hours of gleefully serving God under the hot, humid, blazing, toxic, big ball of fire, we headed back to base camp for the best lunch you will ever eat, thanks again to our amazing kitchen staff. We then went for a quick dip in the beautiful pool and played a very intense and well-fought game of marco-polo. Then we got back in the bus for round 2 of the concrete shenanigans.
When we arrived at the jobsite, we were all ready to outdo ourselves. We moved more concrete than a Putz ever could. We were sweating so much that we started wringing out our shirts and using it as the water to mix the concrete (not seriously, that would make very salty concrete). We thought it couldn’t get any better, and we were right. It went downhill fast, quite literally. We formed a 10 person bucket ladder straight into an ant colony and a swamp, and there was a 20 foot drop in elevation throughout the ladder. It was okay though, because the view was literally something straight out of Jumanji.
I guess we should probably say what we were building! Today, we were constructing a wall for a vocational school that we were also working on throughout Saturday. The most challenging part of the work was moving the concrete, due to frequent elevation changes. We actually constructed a chute to help deal with it.
When the work was finally done for the day, we went home and ate another stupendous meal, thanks in no small part to our amazing kitchen staff. And that brings us to where we are now. Our plans for the rest of the day are to play another game of marco-polo, and then go vibe to some Dominican music and watch the crazy traffic from the roof.
We saw God at work many different times today. When we first arrived at the jobsite, all the children were saying “Hello!” and giving us fist bumps, and it felt surreal because we were genuinely making a difference in their community, as this vocational school will provide both jobs and education for a this village that the Lighthouse Projects is currently working in.
Sincerely, Hunter & Aidan (& Tymon).
