Busy Day of Community Service

Today we had an early breakfast and went straight to the school to continue the community service project started last week. Today was a holiday for the students, so we were able to get to work with no children around. By midday, the boys were all exhausted from scraping, plastering and sanding, but it was still tough to pull them away from the project to send them for lunch. A small restaurant down the street made a great meal for us, topped off with some delicious homemade pineapple and passion fruit juices. Before some were even finished eating, the boys hustled back to the school to continue on their project. They even passed on ice cream! Our group leader Angela insisted that the boys try the local ice cream, so we bought 14 scoops and took them back to the school for everyone to try.

After the brief break for dessert, it was right back to work. In the afternoon, some of the local kids found their way to the room we were working in and were excited to join in. At 4pm, Angela insisted that the bus driver had been waiting for us and we had to go, so the boys finally tore themselves away from the project. They immediately asked that we delay the pickup time for tomorrow. Angela is thrilled with the hard work of this group, as are we (Rob and Danielle). We returned to the hostel for another delicious meal from Augusto, and had a low-key night of socializing and card games. Tomorrow we are back at the school for another long day of labour!