Day one of the build!

After a quick breakfast we climbed in to the van for our "20 min." drive to the work site. 50 minutes later, we arrived! :) Apparently, Magaia and Djassi are on African time! When we got there we split up in to 3 groups and headed off to three different sites (they were still pretty close to one another but not right next door). We dug trenches, spread gravel, mixed cement (masa), lugged cement blocks from the pile to the home, and started building walls with the help of a few local skilled workers and our site supervisors- Pedro, Sergio, and Lucas. The weather was warm and sunny with a nice little breeze. Good thing too- being a human cement mixer is HARD work!

Like a lot of builds, there were lots of kids around but they kept their distance for a couple hours and just stared at us. One of the team members commented that they were probably thinking that we glowed in the dark! We started taking photos of the site and before too long, the kids warmed up to us. Ever since they have been everywhere we are! It's amazing to see how self sufficient the kids are- 5 years olds carrying their baby siblings on their backs for hours, pounding corn in to maize, doing laundry, making fire with sticks and helping their mothers carry 30 litres of water in a jug on their head!!! The neck muscles they have are incredible! We could hardly lift the jug with our arms!

We got lots done by the end of the first day and we plowed through our supper. After we ate we walked across the street to the ocean. The surf is crazy here- there are massive waves all the time crashing up against the shore. You can't swim there because there is a sudden drop off and violent current. We stayed on the beach and just stared up at the sky. Night time in Africa is unlike any other place I've ever seen- the stars are incredibly bright and light up the entire sky! You can see many of the constellations and even a good chunk of the milky way as clear as day! We headed to bed shortly afterwards, tired and sore! The team is great and everyone gets along fabulously! On to day 2!