Construction in Casares

Twice in July we had the privilege of going to Casares to help them with the construction of their Kingdom Hall. Never taken so many trips to the coast without actually walking on the beach! Click here if you didn't see the pictures from last time. 

So, we went the last day of July - 10 of us from our congregation - and had a great time! Again, doing jobs that we wouldn't do if we'd been paid for it, but for Jehovah and our brothers we happily did them for free!

The hall has come a long way from the pictures in my earlier post. Looks like a real hall now.

There is no such thing as an RBC safety department down here!

How's that for a hard hat (they'd run out!). We spent the day pulling up old fence posts, and then digging really deep narrow holes for new concrete posts. This is for the land next to the hall that they later hope to sell.

Jael, Maritza and Jennifer hard at work making a hole. It took us girls a bit longer to get a hole done!

Antonia & Cristina working on their spot. First time I'd seen someone work construction in a skirt. And she worked hard all day, believe me.

Here we are along with volunteers from another congregation who came for the day.

At first it didn't take too much bending and stretching to scoop the dirt out with a little plastic bowl- this turned out to be easier than using the tool designed to scoop the dirt out, since the dirt was try and small.

Then when the hole got a bit deeper some lying down was needed.

And then when it got really deep a bit of diving was called for! And this wasn't the deepest of the holes. At one point I was reaching down into a hole with my head and neck completely in there! And since I was the longest of the girls, I got this assignment repeatedly!

Maritza digging out the hole at it's shallow stage - my long limbs were later called in!

Antonia doing her thing

Jael got down in there too!

This is when Cristina found out that the hole was way short of the measure and more digging was called for!

Our dear Jennifer - she's a really hard worker.

So, in the States or England, if someone bought a bottle of Pepsi and nobody had cups, we wouldn't know what to do. In Nicaragua the solution - plastic bags. And someone happened to have brought a whole bundle of them. Problem solved - bags of Pepsi all round. This seems normal to me now, but it struck me that it might be a fun detail to share on the blog!

The other group that came, ready to head home.

It rained a bit on the way home on those in the back, but it didn't stop Wilber (our congregation coordinator) from enjoying some leftovers someone gave him!

Cristina, Maritza & Antonia - and the rest out the back! I admire these three sisters. They worked hard all day, and all three of them had to get up and go to work the next morning. And here I was feeling sorry for my aching self, and I had the day off the next day! 

So, that was our day. Good times. It was nice to work with members of our new congregation and get to know one another in a different setting. We had a really fun time. And a few even came home with some fresh fish they got for just over a dollar a pound from a brother down there. Thankfully it was transported in the bed of the truck, not inside!!