Build Day 3

It's so motivating to continue seeing the progress we've made. We spent the day sifting sand to make mortar, mixing the mortar itself, and spreading the mortar on the cement blocks we loaded into the trenches to begin forming the walls of the house. Instead of forming a bucket line, today we formed a brick line. We nearly finished the first level of cement blocks and will move on to the next tomorrow. We were able to untie the horizontal rebar since the cement from yesterday had already dried. Around lunchtime I was gazing at all the lizards on our site. I caught an adorable baby anole that appeared to be scared for his life, so I let him go back to his home in the weeds. After lunch we dug out a three foot deep hole to place the water pipeline in so the kitchen and the bathroom have access to running water. This is why we had to move the huge pile of sand yesterday; it was placed directly where we needed to begin digging, but today another pile of sand needed to be moved since it was halfway in the road. We had a crew shoveling that into wheelbarrows again and moving it a few feet onto the property. You could feel the intensity of the sun just simmering on your skin all day. It was another day of hard work in scorching tempuratures of nearly 90 degrees. That must be why I didn't need to take a bathroom break all day. I've been drinking at least 64oz of water to stay hydrated but never feel completely satisfied. I was livened up after seeing a guy dressed as a clown directing traffic though, this country never ceases to amuse me. 

After the workday we visited Joya de Cerén, which is an archeological site that features a pre-Colombian Mayan farming village. It was evacuated around 200 AD due to the volcanic eruption of Ilopango and was later repopulated. A few hundred years later, around 590 AD, it suffered its final evacuation as another volcano, Loma Caldera, erupted and buried the village under 14 layers of ash within hours. The site was unintentionally discovered by a bulldozer in 1976 as part of a governmental project. Archeologists later discovered several buildings including kitchens, bedrooms, workshops, and a communal sauna. Within some of these rooms they found utensils, ceramics, furniture, crops, animal remains of ducks, mice, and turtles, and even half eaten food. No human remains have been found, indicating that there must have been ash falls and tremors that occurred in enough time before the eruption to prepare the Mayans for evacuation, but not in enough time for them to finish their meals or release their animals. 

We're now back at the hotel awaiting dinner and will have the opportunity to relax the rest of the night. Our last full workday is tomorrow, and Friday we'll have a half day and goodbye ceremony where the family will hopefully be present. Tomorrow we will likely be finishing up with mortaring the cement walls, and then will begin whatever follows. We never quite know, as every day is different, but it certainly keeps things interesting.