Day 7: Last Day at the Work Site

Last day on the worksite. Well it had to come sometime, and honestly the work has been very tiring, so part of you welcomes the final day on the job site, but most of you is dreading it. You've now worked hard for 5 days, and along the way made great friends with those you've traveled with, the homeowners, and the local workers.

But we've made great progress. The floors now look like floors. The freshly poured cement covering up the rock jigsaw puzzle we put together the previous 2 days. But it's been a lot of work.

Take a look at this picture, the mess of water, sand and gravel is how you mix concrete in Ecuador. Quite a bit of back breaking work. Including mixing the gravel and cement mix by shoveling the entire pile 2 feet to the right, twice!

One thing we were definitely be glad to be finished with was 'THE HOLE'.
Now 5 days into it the hole is 6 feet by 6 feet by 7 feet deep. Here is Chad tossing out the last couple shovels full of dirt.

But when it's done it's done. Here is the gang taking satisfaction in the completed work. The end of the digging had to be one of the best feelings of the entire week! Of course the picture was fun, but watching
everyone try to get out of the hole was classic! Brie is getting the heave-ho by Chad and myself. Luckily there were no broken bones involved.

Now that the hole is finally complete it was time to leave. Time for a last semi-group picture before we said our goodbyes to the family. Here Selam, Brie, and Sue hang out in front of our week's worth of hard work, and our new friends.

Now came the hard part. We presented some small gifts to the mother and
the three daughters. Nothing too special, backpacks, crayons, and the like. But then the mom said her thanks. I'm pretty sure there were tears in the eyes of at least 75% of the group. When someone tells you that you are 'like angels from heaven dropped down to build her a home', it's hard not to be emotional.

Before we headed home for one last night at Campo Alegre, Maggie took in the sights one last time.