El Aguacate Day 2

Sunday, July 30, 2017
Joyabaj, Quiché Department, Guatemala
After a night of certain friends getting up and moving around throughout the night, we got up at about 6:30 for breakfast. Cata made us eggs over easy with black beans and tortillas, and man oh man was it good. One of my friends let me finish her plate too so that rocked. 
There was only one car for the morning, so half of us walked down to the site. I was thinking this was going to be a lovely morning hike, but no this was like survival of the fittest. It was 1.75 miles down this hill/mountain, real steep and pretty rocky. My knees did not love me after that. By the time we got down to the site, we were all hot and sweaty, already in need of a break. I can't believe those kids do that, especially uphill. Kinda made me think about how much the bridge is gonna help, but I guess it's something. Something to also consider in the next community survey...
We started out by drilling the holes we marked in the cross beams yesterday. Thank you dad for letting me use a drill more than once in my life. It was some people's first time. We got all 50 done in about two hours, which is pretty good given the heat, experience level, and moisture of the wood. Then I headed to rebar cuz I really wanted to learn about that. Kassie was killing it with the teaching, I didn't know she was so good at rebar. We cut, bent, and tied both sets of towers, then moved onto the suspenders for the cross beams. We knocked out 50 suspenders in an hour or two. We basically did all the rebar for the entire bridge in one day. Amazing. Rebar was fun but I think we could all use a break from it for a bit. 
Throughout the day some of the kids from the school came to watch everyone work. They got more comfortable with us and started playing with us. It was fun, it just made me want to speak Spanish even more. 
We ate lunch in the river with some of the community members and got to chat with them a bit (thanks to the help of our translator). It was nice to enjoy the sounds of the river and nature because it was drowned out the rest of the afternoon by the concrete mixer. They poured the foundation for the other side of the bridge, as well as the retaining wall on the road side. Lots of concrete today. Now don't be fooled, I was doing rebar from 10am-5pm, so this time I was covered in concrete, but it was still loud. 
The group split up tonight so half of them stay in a hotel (Don Guillermo) in Joyabaj while the other half stays at the school. We'll be doing this every night from now on. So by the time we got back, everyone it seemed was packing up, so i just sat outside and read a book because I was not one of the chosen ones to stay downtown and take a shower. Tomorrow will be my day. 
Kassie also stayed behind, so she and I took a walk around. It was nice to not be in a group and be able to appreciate nature, plus I love Kassie. We figured we shouldn't go too far since we're not supposed to separate, and when we came back we knew Dr. Federle knew we left cuz everyone was at the dinner table except us. Oh well. 
Cata made us pork chips and mashed potatoes and green beans... and tortillas to remind us we were still in Guatemala. Cata's great because she's been working with us for a long time so she knows us well and makes food that won't upset our stomachs- important for two weeks of construction work in the summer. However this means we get more gingro food than the average community member. Hopefully tomorrow night in town we can try some good authentic stuff. 
After dinner we all just hung around and talked; our night talks are always fun because we're so worn out that anything is funny. Plus it gets so dark so early here that we feel like we're staying up late, even though we go to bed at 9pm. It seems to be raining harder than it was last night, and the power went out, but thankfully you don't need lights to sleep. Hopefully that doesn't mess up too much tomorrow... especially at the hotel because I would really really love a warm-ish shower. Although I can't lie, having the water heater broken at our house right before leaving on the trip made me ready to take on any temperature shower. 
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