Day 4:
Today was our first (of two) construction days. Our construction master, if you will, was the coffee farmer from yesterday, Timoteo! Whoa that guy does it all. Today we assisted in building a wall that will in-case a land  that will hold all of the coffee farming machinery and dry processing secure. So construction while still making it all about that coffee. Neat!

When we arrived at the work-site, Carter, Daniel, Amber and Mike built a wooden chamber for a depulping machine. This will be a quick way for that process and the wall built is to in-case the noise so not everyone in the neighborhood has to be like “must be coffee depulping time.”

Meanwhile, Sophie, Taylor, Kari, Cassy and myself built wooden casings to fill the metal rebars with cement. Pretty legit. We then all worked together to pack cement into rebars. Our other Nikki was sick last night so she didn’t join us for the morning but she came back refreshed and ready for action by lunch! Lunch was delivered to us at the work site, homemade, from Timoteo’s family. Noice.

(Hard working ladies)

(Lunch: Construction style)

Once lunch was consumed it was back to work! We spent the rest of the day packing cement, laying brick & mortar and building metal rebars. It was a lot of work but quite the accomplishment!

We arrived back at the house just exhausted. Some of the group went out to find fireworks while the rest showered/relaxed. We then went to Miguel’s for dinner (father of the Armando, the farmer we ate with the second night). Fun fact, families (extended) live together all on the same lot. Commonly when we have dinner at farmers’ houses the farmer will join us for dinner. Well we had the women of the kitchen join us for this dinner! It was super rad to have them join us. Plus one of them had a baby that would not stop staring at Mike durin the dinner so Mike and Kari got to hold the baby. It was adorable.

(Mike and the baby)

After dinner we came back to our house to have a reflection that was based on how were feeling here halfway through our trip. A general agreement of the group was that we were thankful for what we have and interested and excited about all that we’ve learned and have yet to learn.  The day was a long one so Mike surprised us at the end of the reflection with notes from people back home! Oh my gosh, they were a wonderful surprise for us all! We loved them. We all particularly loved Amber’s grandmas list of random facts. Hilarious. Thank you all for your letters!

Day 5:
Another day of construction. We were all a bit hesitant to do another hard day out in the sun. We were all still exhausted and lobster red from yesterday’s burns. But we kept the motivation going and the day actually went super fast! Once at the work site, we knew what to expect and what to do so we got right to work. It was a lot quicker than the previous day so that was nice.

(Working hard or hardly workin? Har har har)

(Bending metal, ya know, the usual)

(Cement everywhere!)

As a surprise, Jane hooked us up with pizza and movies for dinner! Woohoo! A night in to eat and bond. Simply delightful.

(Movie night!)

Right now, were pullin out some fireworks to light off in the streets! “When in Guatemala!”
Check back later for some words/stories from the crew.
Nikki