.First Day on the Job.

July 12, 2011:

Ready to work.

Today was our first day on the work site. I could not believe how exhausting this work was. The first thing we did was form a 'brigade' line to pass a huge pile of cement blocks up on to the roof (3rd story). Once we got in a rhythm, it wasn't too bad - swinging them helped. But when people would switch out to take a break - it took awhile for the new people to get into the swing of things.

Moving in the cement mixer.
*Note: we still did a lot of cement mixing by hand*

The Dominican guy next to me kept trying to talk to me which was really frustrating because I could only understand a couple words. I couldn't even guess what he was saying. Finally, there was a break in the line and he could use gestures. He was trying to tell me that I was strong and a good worker. I just smiled and thanked him.

Working in the brigade line.

After we finished moving all the blocks up to the roof, we then were ready to start with the buckets of cement. And that lasted all day! Load after load. We worked hard from 9-12, with short, staggered water breaks throughout the day. Then we ate lunch (sandwiches and chips) in shifts. We may have each sat down for about 10 minutes, which really was not long enough. The plan for tomorrow is that we each get at least a half hour.

This is how the classroom floors looked when we started.

They built frames for the cement.

After lunch we just kept moving buckets. For awhile I got out of the brigade line and helped Jim. He had a really long piece of re-bar, with one end bent like a cane. So he lowered the hook end down, someone hooked a bucket on - he brought it most of the way up and I grabbed the buckets off for him. We were only on the second floor at this point, but it was really hard. The bucket line sent up the cement to fill the bottom 4 inches or so of cement, and the buckets we lifted had the thinner, top coat of cement for the floors. After awhile I ended up down on the ground, lifting the buckets to put them on the hooks. This too, was exhausting. Lifting bucket after bucket full of cement over my head was tough.

Putting buckets on the 'hook'.

Kid's Club went good for the Tennessee group today. They said there was about 100 kids that showed up. The only problem was - they left their suitcase of crafts on the bus, and that drove to Santo Domingo, so there was no crafts for the kids today. But overall, it was an exhausting but great day. Tomorrow is my groups turn at Kid's Club. I hope it goes well!