December 28, 2009

Millennium Development Goals:
Total of 864 hours.

Repainted the Casa Club community social centre, built a bathroom and septic system, dug out the sidewalk from mudslide, dug the culvert for it, redid the front garden , put up cement wall for window garden, weeded cement garden pots , cut down branches from trees that hovered over the ceiling of Casa Club, chopped for wood use.

Painted window metal grids, painted inside walls and ceiling the kitchen, and all outside walls installed new chimney for the kitchen.

Cas Club is used for community affairs, meetings and orphanages in the country will use it as a vacation venue for kids.

Quote of the Day:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled and that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken

What a glorious first day!

We started off with a breakfast call at 6 am-early rise which we will have to get used to.

After a hearty breakfast we walked to the bus—waited for a short period and then was off to our first day at Camitas.

After introductions with the representatives of the town, with a description of some history, Nia oriented us to the town by giving some history of past Global Volunteers projects – what accomplishments! We cannot forget --delicious coffee was a part of this orientation.

In this town there are 250 people, 50 families with a doctor that visits 2-3 days every couple of weeks.

After the elders of the town had a team meeting to decide on work projects for the day the group started out by getting some supplies required for our first day activities.

We started the day by weeding and cutting trees. Working in a matched labor environment one of the local people came with a chain saw and cut the part of the tree over the social club.

Then we went to work with machetes in order to cut the large branches into smaller bits to pile a mile high in various locations.

Lunch was delicious with an after lunch soccer game played by the younger members of the group and a walk to the local store.

After lunch we painted the side of the club house with great energy and completed the one side of the building in one hour flat. Great teamwork!
Cleanup took sometime as many of us had paint all over and then we were back to the bus and to the hotel. A rest period turned into a goal meeting and a tasty dinner.

The end of a great first day!