Got (bloques) BLOCKS?

PEILE, the organization I volunteer through, builds schools and health clinics around the country in some of the poorest areas. I went to a first rock laying ceremony for a school in Los Pinales back in early September, and this weekend we got to actually go as a group and help build the school. The day started off pretty fun, as we broke up into different teams and had different jobs to do. Iain, Ben, and I were upstairs helping them build the second level. Jobs included: mixing cement, mixing “mixta” which is not cement, but close to it, carrying cement blocks up to the second level, handing blocks and mortar to the workers, and giving marked blocks to a man to cut them at an angle for the roof. After we finished, we had a nice little lunch and returned for more. What we didn’t know is that we were about to do some serious work. We spent the last 5 hours of the day moving cement blocks from the bottom of the hill up to the side of the school. We stacked these blocks in a wall like formation, and in total we moved about 1000 cement blocks. It was ridiculous- and our fingers were sore from the cement. We eventually started an assembly line and just started laughing, because it was clearly the worst job ever. We decided to return on Sunday, only to find out our new job was to spend the day moving the largest pile of sand to the second floor of the school via 10 old, rusty buckets and one makeshift ladder. Again, we formed an assembly line and laughed the whole day despite it being the worst job ever. The men were very appreciative of our work at the end of the weekend- and by work I think they were just overly happy to have 10 white girls there to look at…end of story.