Posted in Costa Rica on November 14, 2024
November 11, 2024
So today was our first day on the job! The amazing team made short work of the garden, which meant we had to dig up the trees, roots, and all. The eight feet of original concrete had to be dug up and removed. Once all that was done, we had to dig out the footings for the forms, 105 cm of sticky, chewing gum soil had to be dug out!! Then there was the old pipes and boulders!!
Once the footings were dug, it was time to add a concrete slab at the bottom of each one. One hundred buckets of gravel later…the rain started!! We will be back tomorrow!!
November 12, 2024
Today was only our second day, but oh my goodness, did we get a lot done!! There were two aspects to today’s work: the indoor and the outdoors! The ladies had to clear a huge pile of junk—empty bottles, broken chairs, brooms, bottles of bleach etc. from the old bathroom and shower before we totally dismantling the whole room removing the concrete walls and jackhammering the concrete shower floor. Then all the rebar had to be separated from the concrete! It was a huge job—but we were up to it!! Way to go team!!
Outside, the group finished digging the footings which included digging a trench to expose a pipe so that pipe could be bent gently to get it out of the way of the foundation!! There was holes to deepen, concrete to be mixed and huge concrete beams to be cemented into the footings. There were about another hundred buckets of gravel to be lugged into place and the concrete wall panels to be painstakingly installed!! What an amazing day.
The best part? Everyone said they had fun!!
November 13, 2024
Today was truly amazing!! Some of us went to town to use the bank machine and pick up water and some goodies. The rest of the crew got right to work and made a tremendous difference!! All the rubble was removed from the decommissioned bathrooms, and the whole 3 metre concrete storage room was assembled!! Those slabs weigh 100 pounds and had to be raised and slotted into the vertical post just perfectly!! Then literally hundreds of buckets of gravel were moved assembly-line style from the back of the compound right into the work site.
It felt so amazingly gratifying to see just how much we completed today!!
What an incredible team!!
November 14, 2024
Great day 4 for the construction team or Team A as we prefer to be called!
Jobs we worked on is putting a lot of mortar in the cement block seams, getting the beams up for the storage room ceiling, cutting down the steel in the old bathroom and Jack hammering away the last of the pony wall in the old bathroom.
Highlights for me were seeing the hole in the wall for the storage room door, eating a great lunch and enjoying coffee with the ladies from the clinic. Bring on day five!!!!
While Team A was slaving away at the worksite, Team B was off into a remote community to distribute Days for Girls kits. We had been warned that because the government has closed down the schools because of inclement weather there might not be many people there. But when we arrived, there was already a crowd including women, girls and even a few men; they kept coming. We were also told that the priests from the local Catholic Church had torn all the pages from the school encyclopedias which depicted anything at all about women or men’s reproductive systems so we had to be really careful about how we presented the education. Just before we were due to begin one of the clinic directors came out and wanted to know what we were doing. He was concerned we come to sell the kits, when we explained to him that we were giving the kids away he was absolutely delighted.
Donna and Drusilla began the education with Marine as our able, and translator. To the delight of everyone. Marcy demonstrated how to wear the shields in the panties!
Soon we were handing out kits and Colleen was kept very busy finding just the right size for everyone.
Every recipient was so grateful and time and time again the women returned to us to thank us and let us know what an amazing difference we are making.
The men asked for kits for their wives and their daughters. I don’t believe there was a team member was dry eyes, after the presentation. We packed up 24 kits to be taken to an indigenous community in a remote area of the jungle; the lady who came to the presentation and who was delivering the kits to the community was absolutely thrilled. “you’ve made such a difference in my community and to every members financial situation” she said.
Even the doctor at the clinic asked for a kit; she was so pleased to receive it and let us know. We were changing lives, giving the girls the opportunity to stay in school and the woman the opportunity to work and living every day of the month Renee let us know that many of the people who picked up the kids later. Text her to say thank you and to let us know what a difference we were making. I don’t believe there’s a better feeling in the world thank you to everyone. You all played special role in this project and I appreciate it. I wish everybody could’ve been there to see the amazing gratitude for what we do thank you from the bottom of my heart.
November 15, 2024
Friday blog! Today was a day of painting rebar, washing walls and floors in the clinic ready for the return of mothers and their children on Monday.
Because the clinic has been a literal construction zone since we arrived, it has meant mothers and babies and young children couldn’t safely attend to pick up milk powder and food, so we have been working furiously to get to the stage where they can come back in. Our hard work—which included chain ganging literally hundreds of buckets of gravel from the pile through the worksite to the new storage area to build up the floor. Such hard work again but so very satisfying. We finished the day with a delightful visit to the home of the lady who takes care of the food in the clinic kitchen, Rosetta. She treated us to a variety of wonderful baking.
What a great treat to celebrate the end of the first week!!
We are all tired and looking forward to the weekend, but so grateful we have another week to get this job finished
November 18, 2024
Today was another exhausting and exhilarating day!! Two ladies worked in the kitchen prepping vegetables and making soup for the malnourished women and children who come each day for a meal and to take home milk powder for the babies. We also washed all the walls of the clinic ready for an upcoming inspection. While some of us were doing that the others moved hundreds of buckets of gravel while others finished the concrete on the outside of the new storage building.
We mixed and wheelbarrowed the cement for the floor inside the storage unit.
After lunch it was time to put the finishing coat on the outside walls and get really serious about moving all that gravel!! Someone came up with the crazy 😜 but amazing idea to pass the building buckets of gravel up to a person on a ladder who poured it out over the fence!! Efficient and much faster!! By the end of the day, we were able to admire all our work before travelling back to our hotel for a well earned shower and an ice cold 🍺 beer!! Another fantastic day!!
November 20, 2024
Today was a mixture of incredible hard work and highly charged emotions followed by a burst of fun!!
There was a huge amount of concrete finishing which meant applying, spreading sanding and polishing —in other words, getting very dirty in the blazing sun !!
Then there was the Days for Girls distribution at the clinic. The women—and a couple of men, streamed into the room a little shy and unsure and left delighted and deeply grateful. We handed out almost all the kits with the last few designated for women clients of the clinic who were unable to attend today. So many people told us what a difference the kits would make in their lives. There is just so much need!
After work it was fun times and a chance to visit a local coconut plantation and sample delicious coconut treats including ice cream!! yum!! What a wonderful day!!
November 21, 2024
Although none of us could believe it, Thursday evening was our last evening before we head out to go home.
We were treated to an amazing evening of entertainment and food—so much food!! We learned how chocolate is made, tried some samples and bought a whole lot for family and friends ! Very special thank you to Miguel and his lovely wife and family for such amazing hospitality.
To our surprise the family gifted each of us a beautiful personalized water bottle with iconic images of Costa Rica including the rainforest, a beautiful bridge and a sloth!! We were all blown away by this extraordinary generosity!!
This indeed was an evening to remember.
We now only have one more day to work, albeit a very short one, and we are going to make the most of it!
Posted in Costa Rica on November 14, 2024
