Day 6

Mr.P is taking another break from his blog tonight, probably because his arms, legs, back and body are sore from the hard work today. I'm David Ibrahim, another CH worker on this incredible journey that is Guatemala!

One word for today: Construction.

We travelled back to Lake Amititlan today to start on the construction of the new centre.
A dark concrete room would be our home for the next 8 hours. Sledge hammer in hand, shizzel ready, we attacked that 10 foot concrete wall like it was going out of style! I must say I was pretty impressed at the utter strength of some of the ladies on this trip! A true sign that some pent up anger and frustration lay deep down somewhere.

The wall came down like an old lady on ice!! Next on the agenda... a giant hole needed to be dug to make way for a cistern. 3 inches of concrete covered the earth beneath it, with the tools we had, it was like being in barbaric times.... but the process began! After inhaling a lot of concrete dust, and sand, things started to get a little dillusional! We began creating nicknames for each other, Bruce Almighty, Dashing Dave, Demolition Dave, Mighty Mike..... at one point, we all broke into song! Disney's the Little Mermaid was first on the playlist! We established that you're never too old to love disney, and definetly not too old to know all the words by heart!






The digging, hauling and transporting started to slow down as we started to lose some juice.... so in true north american tradition, we ate! Sitting on the steps of a neighbouring house, the team was noticing that all the girls walking by would only answer if I said hello.... if anyone else said something, they simply carried on their way no doubt making fun of us in their language! But, once again, being egyptian comes in handy. I guess with my dark complection and dark hair, they assumed I was one of them.... this sounds good in theory, except when they start speaking to me as fast as possible and are surprised to find I can't respond. hm.

After lunch, we assumed our post in the dirt hole, more digging, picking, hauling and shizzeling. Either our bodies weren't having it, or the soil was having it, but the deeper we got, the harder the soil became... but that didnt stop us from getting it done.

By the time we left for the day, only to race home, and pick numbers out of hat to see who attacked the shower first- we managed to get the whole wall down, and left the hole at about 2 1/2 feet.

Construction continues tommorow, as the hole needs to be about 7 feet deep. A secondary trench style hole needs to be dug to make way for the new wall, so we'll have to break through some more concrete- but i have every confidence that the Lord will give us the strength we need to persevere through it.


We arrived back at the home and devoured the delicious pasta dinner Sully and friends had prepared for us. Then just spend the evening lounging around and comparing blisters! Colleen (another memeber of this team) had an incredible opportunity this evening which really broke her. She had a chance to travel with Gabby and Alfredo to a town about 15 minutes from here and meet her sponsor child. She hasn't really shared with the team her experience yet as she was rather moved from it, but from what I can gather, it was an incredibly humbling experience for her.

The night is upon me, and as I hear the slumber of my team, I am reminded that I need my strength for tommorow.
Prayers for safety and perseverance tommorow are greatly appreciated. Maybe tommorow night, Dave P will have enough strength to blog it up!

Dios le bendiga, buenos noches.