Day 8 Build & Manta Ray Night Snorkeling

I'll keep it short and sweet about the build site today because we actually got our work done so quickly that we were released early! We finished getting everything ready in the interior of the house so the sub-contractors can come in and paint it. We taped all the windows and garage trim so the ceiling can be done. After that, some of us went to other houses to help catch them up since they were a little behind. A few of the houses had the wrong size tresses during the beginning of the build and that put them a ways behind. After today though, it looks like all of the houses are at about the same progress.

Some of the local elementary school kids came to visit us today. They drew pictures and passed them out to volunteers at all ten houses. One of the kids actually came up to me, rubbed my arm, and said "You're not very sweaty. Are you working hard?" Kids say the darndest things, don't they? (I was working hard, by the way; it's just MUCH cooler when working on interior since obviously it's on the inside of the house away from the sun.

Tonight I organized a group of eight of us volunteers to go out to sea and snorkel with the manta rays. After dark is the best time to see them since they feed on the plankton that come out at night. We saw three or four of them swim right below us! It's hard to see in the photos, but they were just swiftly moving underneath us to scope out the feeding scene. Once it hit sunset, we turned on our water lanterns to attract plankton so the manta rays would swim up by us. We were out there for nearly three hours until we decided to head back to the pier. What a fabulous bonding experience for us all. I'm truly looking forward to spending the rest of my time here with this amazing group of humble people - they have become my ohana!