Our Last Work Day

¡Hola! 

Today was an amazing day. We started off the day by waking up at 6:20 and having breakfast at 7. We had fruit, beans and an omelet. We then grabbed our bags and hopped on the bus for our last work day. We were both working at the house along with about half of our group, the other half spent the day building one stove and one latrine. Our drive to the site was very beautiful, even though we had a little traffic jam. There was a parade going on in Panajachel today, so the city was very busy. When we arrived at the house we got introduced to the family and got to see what we would be working on. There was also a little dog named Perry, we were obsessed because he was so cute and loved everyone. There were two main tasks to do at the house today. Half of the group went to go tie rebar and the other half was moving sand and rocks up to the construction area. I (Maeve) ended up twisting and tying rebar all day. It was actually really fun because I got to talk to the people I was working with. I (Lauryn) worked on putting rocks and sand into buckets and bringing them up to the construction area. The group I was working with formed a line around the corner and up the stairs, while we all passed the buckets. We all worked for about an hour, then we took a break to eat some snacks. I (Maeve) got to eat my favorite snack, Chikys, which are chocolate covered cookies. Unfortunately Lauryn will never know what they taste like because she's allergic :(. After we had a snack, we continued to work. During work time we talked to our leaders Diego and Gabi, and we had a ton of fun. Lunch arrived fast and we all gathered to eat. For lunch we had chicken, corn, potatoes, tortillas and lemonade. The potatoes and chicken were the best part of the meal. We were also able to eat with the masons who helped us build the house, and our bus drivers. After lunch we only had about 20 minutes to work, but we had a lot of sand to move up to the house. We ended up forming a big line between the sand pile and the house. Lyndsey and Nancy shoveled sand into buckets while we passed them from the base of the hill all the way up the stairs to the house. It was actually super fun to work together. It made the time fly by because we were all able to have fun with it and laugh together. One little boy named Smiler came to help us out, he really liked to hand us buckets and be a part of the project. After the 20 minutes of nonstop bucket moving we went to gather our tools and go. Our next stop was the closing ceremony with all the families we had worked with that week. We gave Smiler and his mom Hilda a ride to the Habitat headquarters where the ceremony was being held. Our ride back was much smoother and we passed a lot of parade busses with balloons tied on them. There were lots of kids who were on them and they looked like they were having fun. Diego and Gabi said it was either for a school trip or the Panajachel parade. When we arrived at the Habitat building, all of the families had already gathered in the main room. It was amazing to see everyone we had worked with and all the familiar faces. They were all smiling and happy to see each of us. We were also very excited to see them. We started off the ceremony with a prayer together. Then the families we had worked with had the opportunity to say a few words. They expressed how grateful they were for our work, and they also thanked us and God for providing them with the opportunity to be helped. Hilda told us a story about how us helping her build her home was the first step to making her dreams come true. She started to tear up and it was touching to see how grateful she was and how only a few hours of work could impact her life so much. Then it was our turn to express our gratitude towards the families. My mom and I (Maeve) were able to go up and say a few words to thank the families for being so hospitable and welcoming. It was a very cool experience to see everyone's faces and really be able to focus on how thankful I am to be able to get to know these families and to learn from them. I (Lauryn) was so touched to be able to see all of the families and just see how happy they were to see everyone of us. They always had such a big smile on their face. It was also really fascinating to hear how grateful theses families were for only a few days of work. After we all shared a few words, we went outside for a fiesta! They served us dessert which was horchata and fried plantains with chocolate in the middle. After we all ate together we got to interact with the families. We held the little kids and gave them coloring books, they were all so sweet and happy. We took lots of pictures with different families and one of our favorite masons Gabriel. We were all very sad when it was time to say goodbye. It was hard to leave the families and their positivity. We will all miss them a lot. Then we walked back to our hotel, on the way some of us stopped for "the best" coffee shop in town. I (Maeve) had some and it was amazing. We did a little shopping on the way back, then cleaned up for dinner. For dinner we went to a restaurant right on Lake Atitlan. There was a thunderstorm and it was fun to watch the lighting. Most of us ate soup and chicken fajitas. A few people had garlic pasta. For dessert we had fresh fruit cups, it was all really good. We walked home in the rain. When we got to our hotel we had reflection time. We talked about our highs and lows of the day. Almost everyone's low was the fact that we have to start heading home soon, and that the work days are over. We then journaled and blogged (obviously). Now we're super tired because we haven't gotten much sleep... oops.

Logging off! Buenas Noches!

Hi Dad, Quinn and Nellie. Miss you all (Nellie especially) and I'll see you soon. Don't miss me too much! 

-Love you, Maeve

Hi Mom, Dad, Rollo, and Dillon. We are all having such a good time here but I'll see you all so soon. Miss you & love you<3

PS  Sorry for the delay in posting.  We had some wifi issues last night.

Today the schedule is: Breakfast, pack, bus ride back to Antigua.  We will be there in time for lunch.