Buidling a Brighter Future, The Final Day

Rachel McCullys' trip to Nicaragua has concluded. She has arrived back to her home in Ottawa and also back to the Rhodes & Williams Office.  Below is a blog that Rachel has written about her final day of helping to build a School for the community of El Sasle.

We knew the day would be good when breakfast was served: pancakes and watermelon salad.  After breakfast, Gregorio the engineer took us back to the job site on the scenic route (otherwise known as mud alley). Along the way we saw royal lemons the size of a grapefruit, a variety of cacti and a plant that shrinks to the touch.  Kelly McKinney also led us through a surprise session of "Kelly-thetics", otherwise known as a massage circle to get our shoulders ready for the day.

Then Gregorio numbered us off and we were put into 3 teams: Team 1 Rebar, Team 2 Leveling the classroom floor and surprise, surprise, Team 3 Cement!

Team 1 Rebar, powered through creating the forms for the back slope and finished in record time!  Despite finishing their assigned task early, they were soon asked to move 1,200 clay tiles. When moving one stack, a scorpion emerged. Before we could get a clear photo, our local hero swooped in and eliminated the threat.

Team 2 Levelers, MacGyver'd some much needed tools to help level and stamp the sticky red clay used to form the floor in the classroom.  Here's something funny about that clay.  Most of you will recall that expression "Ants in your pants," well Christine understood the literal meaning of that expression when she sat in the pile of clay on the return trip from the quarry. Upon this discovery, Chico advised the best remedy was to stand under running water. Christine sprinted to the shower only to find there was no running water.

Team 3 Cement,  mixed 8 pans and finished the back slope all while incorporating cement mixing competitions and humorous exchanges all day long. By the end of the day, all teams were working together on the cement.

We finished the work day a little early and had time to visit with a local family. Rachel McCully, Rhodes & Williams, was impressed with the tight knit family values.  "It was interesting to hear from the 75 year old patriarch who fathered 15 children, each of whom worked together to ensure family priorities were met. Two of the sons were Contra soldiers in the war, while their home was located in the Sandanista territory, placing the family in a dangerous position. The father's response was to this unfortunate arrangement was "war is not delicious" which left us all in tears.".....

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