20
Location: Venecia & Hotel Aeropuerto
Today we started with a nice breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and tons of delicious fruit at the Hotel Torre Fuerte. Soon after, we loaded up the minibus with our bags and waited for Nela, the lady that would be taking us to our final project. We drove for about 10 minutes and arrived at where we would be working for the first half of the day. We got off the bus, and after deciding on a good meeting time and place for lunch, we walked down a very slippery muddy pathway, over a rickety river bridge, and arrived at the small neighborhood where we’d be helping out. Session 1 students mixed, poured, and leveled out about 75% of the cement used to create flooring for a small two bedroom house. By this point, we were all pros at mixing cement… all we needed to know were sand:rock: cement proportions and we got to work! We mixed a very large pile of cement right on top of the grass where the last group had done the same thing a few weeks before. After about an hour, we took a nice quick fruit/juice snack break and got to try a new fruit from the area. We went back and mixed yet another 8 or so wheelbarrow’s worth of cement, and that was all that was needed to complete the flooring for the house. After taking some final pictures and playing with a cute puppy, we realized that we had worked so quickly that we finished an hour early. Nela then took us to a crystal clear stream about 15 minutes away, and we all waded in the cool water for a bit. It was a hot day, so it was incredibly refreshing. About 30 minutes later, Henry (our driver) came by to pick us up and took us back to the Torre Fuerte hotel. The hotel had prepared us homemade hamburgers with French fries. We weren’t quite hungry, yet so we took our lunches on the bus and stopped along the way to eat our delicious lunches at a park. The drive back was beautiful with rolling hills and misty mountains covered with fruit plantations. When we arrived at the hotel, we went straight to our rooms, showered, and relaxed. At 6:30, we had dinner and shared some great conversation about trip highlights (particularly the funnier times). Later on, Gail came by to say goodbye, and we talked and laughed about who knows what… all I can say is that, at one point, everyone was laughing because Gail and Xavier were demonstrating some sort of self-defense move. After some high-quality conversation, we all went to bed. Will and Cass will be headed to the airport around 4 am tomorrow with Anna. Isis, Morgan, and Xavier will be leaving a few hours later with Evan at 7:30 am to catch their flights back home. Can’t believe how fast this has gone by. Safe travels everyone! Thank for being a group to remember!