Tuesday

 Tuesday at the work site looked like peeling forms off of the final pillars, cleaning them up, then reusing that wood to build a large form around the upper perimeter of the church to make a bond beam. 

We took an early lunch so that we could come back sooner to get more work done before we left for an early supper. We got ready for the rescheduled church service, and went right back to the batay we had visited on Monday when we were in the sugar cane fields.

Church was a unique and exciting experience, and it was very special that we could share it with our new friends who welcomed us warmly and joyously. This was a special joint service with several local churches that typically happened once a month. The vast majority of the service was in the creole language, but Steve, who was with our team, was invited to preach and he delivered the sermon to us in creole and english. We introduced ourselves during the service, and greeted as many people as we could afterward. 

Monday

Long post alert! Monday was a busy and amazing day!

When we arrived at the work site, we peeled off the concrete forms from Saturday, cleaned them up a bit, then set up and poured the forms for the remaining columns.

At the work site, concrete is mixed in a big pile on the ground with shovels. On Monday especially, A few little girls were extra enthusiastic about hauling buckets of concrete. This was impressive and humbling, since the adults thought the buckets were heavy but the kids made it look easy and didn’t leave many buckets for the adults to haul. They were nearly covered in concrete but they quickly washed up with the water we used to make concrete and left for the afternoon school shift. We left the site to eat a late lunch a few minutes later.

We had some time that afternoon because we could not proceed with building until the concrete set so after lunch, we hopped back in the van and drove into the countryside hoping to find someone harvesting sugar cane. When we found a couple men cutting cane, we introduced ourselves, explained that we wanted to learn more about how sugar cane is harvested, then humbly asked if a few of us could give it a try. The men happily handed their machetes over to Tristan and Trevin who got to work. After a couple more people took their turns harvesting sugar cane, we sampled some sugar cane, then walked further into the field where we saw a larger group harvesting and loading up a wagon pulled by a team of four huge oxen. The men jumped in to help fill the wagon, we took a few photos together, then walked back to the batay, a small community that houses people who harvest sugar cane and their families. Our organization helped build a church in that batay years ago, so we visited with a deacon who lives there for a little while, and also chatted with a large group of children who had just left school. 

Our next stop was a small cave just outside of Boca De Yuma, the town we’re staying in. We explored for 30 minutes then went back to the hotel. A smaller group broke off and got some ice cream, then we had supper and evening devotions.