Day 3 – Latrines and Conference

Nathan and Geoff shoveling

Day three brought the start of work.  We split into two team.  Each team went to a home and began work on a latrine for the household.  The digging started and we began the hard work.  Each latrine is supposed to be 5 feet deep.  But this can be a real challenge on the island.  My group got down a little over 3 feet before we had to stop.  The other team got down a foot or two.  Once the hole is dug, concrete block walls are constructed around the hole.  We also pour 2 concrete and rebar slabs that will form the top of the hole/floor of the latrine.  The size of the hole is marked out and then shovels, picks and metal bars are used to dig out the hole.  Dirt is emptied into buckets and then they are dumped near by.  The dirt is used later to fill in around the sides of the walls.

At our site we had Susannah, Meredith and the Ariel girls helping us (Rob, Mark, Nathan, Nate, Luis and I) out.  They were a great help in removing dirt and even helping with the shoveling at times.  It was a hot first day and we were all tired by the end of the day.

After lunch and a siesta, some people went back to the sites to lay the block walls.  The rest of us headed over to Proyecto Libertad’s feeding center.  The heat and salt air are rough on things and paint is no exception.  Our team repainted in 2011 and the walls needed work again.  So we scrapped the walls and repainted.  We had an audience of little boys who watched with interest and had fun playing with us when we took breaks.

In the evening, we went back to the feeding center for the first night of the marriage conference.  Mark taught on men as the prophets in the home.  Karen translated for him.  We had a good turn out with good questions afterwards.  It was a good word to the people of the island and challenged them all.  We were so thankful to the Ariel’s and others spreading the word of the conference and inviting others.