"It´s like vacation... except we are pounding concrete instead of margaritas"

Hello!

I have been in Guatemala for almost a week and it has thus far been pretty freaking amazing. We are just getting settled in Xela (pronounced "Shay-La") which is a beautiful city full of language schools and bustling market places. I won´t go into detail about everything that has been going on but just know that the weather is mild, the country is beautiful, the other students are awesome, my stomach hates me and my Spanish sucks.

Anyway, what I really want to talk about is my experience thus far with Habitat for Humanity. We have just completed our 3rd day on site and it has been quite an adventure... or more precisely a live game of Tetris. My group of 7 were sent to a small lot 10 minutes by bus away from were we are staying. On the first day our task was to dig trenches... and move 1400+ cinder blocks. The first truck arrived with 700 odd blocks which we carried one or two at a time through the kitchen and across the yard, followed by a break, followed by the second truck. We then hauled massive bags of concrete which probably did us the most in.

The tetris bit came on the second day when our mason, the lovely Abel, realized that we had put the pile of 1400 bricksright over where another trench was meant to be dug and kindly asked us to move them. A chain gang was formed and the necessary blocks where moved. But that´s not all! Yes, the next day we discovered that our new pile had yet again intruded on a future trench so we formed another pile. When we described our labour to Leah, one of our teachers, she likened the aimless moving of heavy stones to torture in concentration camps. What you have to understand, however, about our lot is that it is in the city, crowded by other houses on three of its sides with little room to move around... though marking out trenches ahead of time might have been helpful... I find the physical labour rather satisfying and figure either I will be ripped or have several chronic injuries by the end of it all. Really the hardest part so far has been trying to explain in Spanish to Abel why we aren´t getting paid.

Our mason, Abel, and foremen Dennis are lovely guys who get quite a kick out of us. It´s a great time on site as we sing songs, make jokes and attempt Spanish all day. During some breaks or when we have all given up spontanous Salsa classes are common. Why just to day Team Leader David spun me around the dirt pile between trenches and cement columns, narrowly missing all of them.

I´m so glad to be here.