15
Location: West End, Tortola
We woke up today at 6 am with the sun rising over the hills across the water from our beautiful villa named Pineapple ????(our neighbors are Papaya and Mango). We took the truck to the worksite at 8 am. On the way, we saw many chickens crossing the road. It was the first day working on the basketball court which we had to first clean out the dirt. We were helped by the brief torrent of rain???? that trapped Chase under the bleachers.
We then got separate jobs working on fixing the bleachers, taking out the fallen telephone pole, clearing the entranceway, digging holes for the hoops and preparing the chainlink fence. That morning we met many people who came by to assess the site including an organization that wants local kids to paint murals on the wall. We also met the Honorable BVI senator Mr. Fahie (pronounced “Foy”) who told us the backstory of the park which is named after his grandfather. He also told us his inspiring life story. We had downtime for two hours at the villa in the heat of the day. Of course, we still miss the 2-week kids and our boat Aqua Marine, but the villa has its perks- showers! During the break, most people showered and napped. Shannon, Elliot, and Jamie survived a treacherous drive to the clinic in Roadtown. When we got back to work, Clem and Chase braved the spiders and cleared the gateway. Jaden, Isaac, Chase, and Stefan made great progress in removing the chainlink fence and poles. I had fun getting the dirt out of under the bleachers. While clearing weeds from along the wall, Clem and I discovered a lost baby chick????. After we took some photos with it, David (aka Chicaron) reunited it with its family. We got home and grilled burgers (our first non-vegan burgers this trip!) which tasted great. We did a lot of work today, but we still have a lot to do the next few days. ????