I woke up at 5 and went for a run with Woody on the airplane landing strip that is right behind our hotel. It has a beautiful view of the mountains and was a great way to start the day. We had breakfast at the hotel, gallo pintos (aka breakfast rice and beans...with eggs) before heading out to our build site 40 minutes away at Potrero Grande.
When we got to site we were greeted by our foreman, Freddie, and two workers, Luis and Donald. Our task for the day was digging. Lots of digging. 28 holes. 1 ft by 1 ft. 1 meter deep. We grabbed some shovels, post hole diggers, picks and got right to work and worked hard. It was hot and humid and I think we had all sweat through our tshirts by 9am. The expectation was to finish by the end of the day and we finished the holes by our morning break at10:30 am.
Before work starts Day 1: Mike, Woody, Alisha, Laura, me, Charles, Carlotta, Valeria
Woody, Valeria and Carlotta cut up some fresh fruit for our morning break, an incredibly nice gesture I may steal for our volunteers back home. We then started working on the secondary project of digging out for the septic tank, which was about 15 ft long by 1.5 ft wide and then a 4 or 5 ft diameter whole at the end. The entire thing will need to be about 2 meters deep.
Digging holes.
Laura and Alisha digging.
We were definitely all ready for lunch by noon and took an hour break. Our homeowner, Florinda had helped prepare lunch, along with another woman who acts as a community organizer in the neighborhood. I had a chance to practice my Spanish with them at lunch. I learned that Florinda has 6 children total, all have moved away to bigger cities except her 20-year old Natalia, but she has a lot of extended family in the neighborhood. Her 8-year-old nephew was at lunch with us.
In the afternoon we continued with the septic system and mixed some concrete to put at the bottom of each hole before posts go in. The sun came out during the afternoon which made it exceedingly hot and sweaty. During the last hour we encountered a "BFR", big frickin rock, that took all the rest of all of our strength to get it to budge. Even with 2 people with pry bars under it and 2 people trying to rotate it up, it barely budged. At about 3 we called it a day and decided to finish with the rock tomorrow. On the way home we stopped for some Imperials, Costa Rican beers, to celebrate our first and incredibly succesful day.
After work day 1: exhaustion dirt, sweat and beers.
A cold shower back at the hotel had never felt better. We had a little time to relax and catch up with the other group before heading to dinner. The restaurant we go to for dinner provides us with a menu of 4 options every night. Tonight the "chef suggestion" was a fettuccine del mare. Fettuccine with clams, mussels, crab, other fish in a spicy tomato sauce. Every single person at the table ordered it and it was worth it! Every bite was amazing. I never wanted to stop eating it. At dinner we shared stories and pictures of family and Coloradan adventures with Woody, Valeria and Carlotta. Family has been a great thing to connect with other people over, and easy to talk about.
While the days adventuring in the rainforest had been fun, there was something about today that just seemed perfect. Every aspect of it. It felt great to work to the point of exhaustion, to make a connection with some great people and have a good time while doing it all.
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