We started the day back at the Pastor's house continuing our contruction. Five of us worked on the septic tank cisterns. After digging the five by five by five hole yesterday and putting the concrete cisterns in place, today we had to dig out the dirt from the inside, fill in the dirt on the outside and mix cement for the bottom. It took a lot of effort but we got it done! One of our team members even hung upside down in the cisterns to smooth the cement!
While that was going on the rest of the team began working on a sidewalk project for the church. After we finished with the cisterns we headed over to help them out as well. I got to be part of the concrete laying team. Three of us were in charge of smoothing out the concrete when it was poured. We only got about a third of the way down the path before lunch.
During lunch the sprinkling rain turned into a complete downpour. We stretched out our meal as long as we could to see if the rain would taper off but it didn't. We ended up calling the day early.
While we waited for the bus to come back and pick us up a few of us started kicking the soccer ball around. Now I don't typically like to play soccer but I think this was the most fun I had kicking a ball around in a long time. I laughed as my teammates kicked, tapped, and chased after the ball all while raindrops pelted my head.
The rain was refreshing - to my body, to my soul, to my spirit. I love summer rain storms and that's exactly what we got today. During lunch I was looking for a reason to go out into the rain and was thrilled when I finally got the chance. At one point I just stopped in the middle of the field, stretched out my arms and turned my head up to the sky and just took it all in. The rain was like peace washing over me. I came back to the hotel feeling refreshed.
After showers, a few of the girls and I spent some time just chatting. Andrea and I have known each other for years but I've only known Allyson and Angelica since I started working at 3J's two summers ago. It was wonderful to sit and talk to these girls - to get to know them and to laugh with them. We spent probably two hours just resting and chatting. My heart was full.
Then I got my machete.
I wanted an authentic machete to take back to the states so I bought one at the hardware store. t the hotel there are mango trees and we went on an adventure to get some mangos - with the machete in hand. I am happy to report that we got three mangos (which weren't ripe), all of our fingers and toes are still intact, and we had a great many laughs while doing it.
We ended our day with a meeting to prepare for tomorrow's venture into a school. I'm looking forward to seeing this part of the Costa Rican culture.
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