First work day

This was our first day of work. We signed up for various assignments, both morning and afternoon.

Each day five or six of us are signed up for construction work. The crew this morning worked on materials for a house being built this week in San Pedro, a nearby village. Last week a group of volunteers made cement squares that will be used for the floor. Today we took the forms off the squares, cleaned up the forms, and then took 48 squares, along with sand, rock and concrete mix to the building site. We could only take the truck to the end of a road--from there the materials had to be hauled either on our backs or in unweildy wheelbarrows. Morgan, Deb, Katie, Joanie, and Charlotte figured they hadn't been so sweaty, tired and dirty in a long time--but they helped get the goods delivered.

Meanwhile, Claire, Nan, Sarah, Stacey and Alex unpacked and inventoried school supplies at the warehouse. Later Sarah, Stacey and Alex worked in the kitchen making great tamales to serve for dinner tonight. Claire and Nan also spent time in the library looking for lost and damaged books. Bridget spent the morning translating letters written by students to their English speaking sponsors.

After a presentation about the sponsorship program and how it works to benefit students and their families, we split up again for various assignments: The afternoon construction crew--Nan, Sarah, Bridget, Katie, and Stacey, laid out the forms for another set of concrete blocks and worked on building panels that will be used for the walls of the home in San Pedro. They had fun, but didn't get as dirty as the morning crew!

Morgan and Deb took the kitchen assignment, thinking they would be cooking--but they ended up hand washing pots, pans and dishes for 3 hours! The kitchen crew was really grateful! Charlotte and Alex were in a classroom in San Pedro with students in an afterschool tutoring program. Charlotte wondered how she would manage, given her limited Spanish--it turned out that her job was listening to a first grader sound out words and learn to read from a simple Spanish reader. After that, she and Alex worked with a third grader learning to count by fives. Claire and Joanie worked at the warehouse, packaging beans and corn that will be delivered to various families.

Tamalyn Guiterrez, the Guatemala director for Common Hope, spoke to our group before supper--telling us a bit about her own life and the history of Common Hope.

It{s easy to wonder what kind of contribution we can make in a week--eleven of us with limited language and no special skills--but so many projects here in Guatemala are so labor intensive--there is work to be done if you just have a willing set of hands and a cooperative spirit. The staff and long term volunteers are great--they are patient, willing to accept what we can do, and they make every effort to communicate with us. So--we are glad to be here. And all of us are headed for bed a little earlier than last night!