Friday April 11 - Last day of the build in La Florida

Today was a melancholy day.  We knew we were not going to finish the houses, but we wanted to get as much as possible done.  All of the brick work is now done on scaffolding, and there is only enough scaffolding to work on two walls.  That means there is only so much that can be done.  I chose to move the last half of a truck load of sand from below the lowest house up to the highest house.  Since the homeowners are paying for materials, it is important to take the sand, water, bricks and cement from each owners pile to their house.  It was about 100-110 paces up the hill from where the pile of sand was to where it needed to be.  I started working with Marcia.  I took a picture of her shoveling sand into a bucket at the pile at the bottom of the hill and she took a picture of me dumping a bucket of sand at the top.

During the day, different people got involved for a few bucket loads.  By the end of the day, we had moved the pile of sand.  Some people carried the bucket in their arms, some carried them by the handles.  I found it easiest for me to carry two buckets and be somewhat balanced.  We had five gallon buckets, and I would load them to about a third full with sand – my estimate is that two buckets like that weighed 60-70 lbs. and I made that trip many, many times.

The team managed to finish the three long walls on the lower house and two of the long walls on the other two houses, plus some work on the front and back walls where the windows and doors will go.

Today, we ate lunch at the worksite around 11:30 and then finished work by 2:45.  At 3:00, we had a nice celebration with families, children, staff and volunteers at the Fuller office.  The families made several dishes: fried soup (not soup, but a typical Cañete dish of pasta, a few dulce beans and chicken), quinhoa (Peruvian is said to be the best), a sauce of onions and tomatoes for the quinhoa, and fried yuca. We also had more Casqueña cervesa, some chilled white wine that Sylvia brought, Coke and Inka Cola.  Many of the volunteers had gifts for kids: blowing bubbles, Frisbees, soccer balls, etc. Fuller had certificates and Inca Tumé, traditional Incan knives.  

This is the note Grace had written and drawn

Then we went back to the camp for showers and final packing, then on the bus for the ride to Lima. It was a little over three hours, but before 9:30, we were in our room.  I set the alarm for 5:30, but there is only one outlet in the room and the white noise machine is plugged into it.  I will let the phone charge for a bit and then move it into the bedroom so that I will be sure to hear the alarm over the white noise machine in the morning.