Wednesday, November 27

Day 3, Keep Calm and Chive On Day:

    At last night's meeting Paul introduced the team to The Chive, specifically Chive Charities (http://chivecharities.org/). This organization uses crowd funding to support various charities and people in need. Paul had made a contact there, and let them know what we were doing and they provided us with some free shirts to wear while we were working today.

     Today started off with a little bit more rain... and by a little bit we mean a lot. It rained through the night and then through the whole day. For a while we weren't sure if we were going to be able to make it out to the sites to work. The rain makes for lots of mud, slippery slopes, and very soupy concrete, but we made it out to the sites. Better late than never. The two Cobán sites had to head back to the hotel a tiny bit early as they were not just soaking wet and cold, but also working in very dangerous conditions. Not a single complaint was heard today, though, as everybody had a strong will to work and contribute as much as possible to their respective builds. "Keep Calm and Chive On".

     Despite the rain, each site made tremendous progress today. Wednesday is the middle of the week and we know we are more than half way done which is a huge motivation to work that much harder to get more done. It also seems as though everyone is in agreement that today is easily the best day so far, despite the weather. We take back everything we said yesterday about wanting a little rain to break the heat, because today the heavens opened up on us and we could have used a little sun to dry us up.

Site 1, Team Tony (Santa Cruz):

 Stretch Circle

 The beautiful farm landscape

 Laying the toonie in the wall with the family

 The masons hard at work, you can see the progress

This is what the site looked like when we arrived this morning

 Dancin' in the rain

Dancin' fool

Site 2, Team Chris (Cobán):

 Keep Calm and Chive On

 Working hard on the rebar

 A little rain won't stop us

Soaking wet in the trenches

 Just how muddy was it? This muddy.

Getting to work

Site 3, Team Paulie (Cobán):

 Father and Son, our Habitat family

Taking a short break to pose for a photo

TRYING to keep dry

Keep Calm, and keep working hard because the rain won't stop

Blocks in the puddles

Working on the foundation

Taking shelter

Focused on working hard

QUOTE:

"I can't believe how cold and wet it can be so close to the equator!!" -Tad

"I can't imagine doing this every day. Makes you think about those Canadian Soldiers at Vimy Ridge. Mud, mud, mud." - Mike

"Worked all day in rain and mud, working with people who want to make the world a better place. It doesn't get much better." -Uncle Joe

"Looking forward to kicking some Guatemalan butt!" - Coach Dave Gervais (referring to tomorrow night's soccer challenge)