Day 6. Back to work. From Chuck.

After a great day of sightseeing and enjoying the culture of Oaxaca, it was back to work. We got started earlier today because Saul was at home trying to prepare for his Doctoral dissertation defense on Friday. Saul has had a tough week, he has us in

town as well as some others, he is trying to prepare for his defense and his mother is having some sort to surgical procedure on Friday. Please pray for all of these things.

Getting started earlier helped us to progress further but we still have some work to do. There are the three projects that we have been involved with, the basketball court, the chicken coop and the fence to surround the property. The chicken coop is being handled mostly by another team that came down a little after us. It was really their project and they are using it to train some of the Mexican students in carpentry. The basketball court has been just digging through hard or wet clay depending on the location. It has been very hard work. I assume that our team will not get to see if finished. There are footers to pour and I think more trenches to big for additional support across the court for support. We will find out on Friday. The fence, unless more supplies are purchased, more posts will be made. They are concrete and made on site at a rate of 8 a day. The fencing material comes in rolls of 8 feet and has to be cut in half to make two 4 foot sections. We did two rolls today only because that is all they had for us to use.

It is somewhat difficult for us Americans to have to deal with frustration of knowing different ways to do things that can progress the projects must faster. A little bobcat with a back hoe attachment would have had the basketball court ready to pour in less than two days. A power posthole digger would have dug all the holes in a day. But those tools are not considered because of cost, availability, and the number of students both theirs and ours that need work to do. If you have 40+ kids with idle time, you will run into issues. So they keep it simple so there is work to do. That is why they still wash all the dishes by hand, make their own tortillas, farm the plot of land (as well as working to make themselves self sufficient).

We tasked-oriented Americans also have a tough time letting go of the fact that we will not complete any task with which we have been involved. We want to leave with everything complete and pretty. That is usually the case with this type of trip. We still way out perform what the plans are for our group which is a testimony to the work ethic of our group. We have been told many times that we have great, hardworking kids. They are well mannered and willing to do any work. Their comments make me believe that other teams are not the same. One example is lunch. The Mexicans would fix two lunches, one for our team members and one for the Mexicans. I told Saul not to do this. We will eat whatever the Mexicans eat. It is ridiculous to cook two meals because other teams refused to eat what the Mexicans ate. This was wasteful of money for the food and resources who had to cook twice.

We were reminded again today that much of the folks around the site still believe in much mysticism. Last trip and this trip we have heard these firework type explosions that just shoot up a mortar that just makes a boom. They are random and scattered across the area. We kept asking what they were for but no one knew. Today we were given an explanation that the locals would shoot these off in hopes to ward off the rain. Now remember, we are in rainy season.


One of the highlights of our cultural experience was partaking in an Oaxacan delicacy of eating grasshoppers. They are sold in mounds at the market. Dave Seligson purchased a bottle of them and shared them with us at breakfast. Bon Appetit!