Building Foundations (Roberto Tessada)

One of the most important aspects of the trip is the service and the experience we gain from it. We work on the week days and take a break during the weekend. The fist day we went out to work I got to go with a group of five to a house to make concrete which they would use to make the floor of the house while the rest went to the school in front of the mission to work there. It was a great experience and it would help me later when I would have to do similar work. This was on a Friday and we only worked in the morning. After taking a break we came back to work on a Monday, this would be the first day that we would work in the morning and in the afternoon. In the morning we were once again split into two groups, both groups were taken to two houses, not too far off from one another. My group and I were given the task of putting dirt in a bucket and carrying it to where they would level it out and use it to make the floor of the house. This task took us most of the morning since it was a large amount of dirt that we had to transport. Once we finished the workers gave us machetes to dig very narrow holes 30 centimeters down. This took us less time than the first task but it was still tiring. As my arms were starting to weaken it was time to return to have lunch, but after lunch we would head out to the school to work yet again. Split into two groups, we would work simultaneously doing different tasks, I was in the group that had to make concrete. I found this task very easy as I had already learned how to do it on Friday and everyone else seemed to get the hang of it very quickly. Half way through our time there the two groups switched places. The task I got to do then was the most fun in my opinion. We had to knock down a wall on of cement with a hammer and a chisel. Though my arm was burning from exhaustion I had a great time.