~A Little Dirt Never Hurt

Last week Monday I went to work with Ruth at the Sous Espwa offices.  By the end of the day I became a little bit bored sitting at the desk. So, on Tuesday I volunteered to help out at the worksite with the team. Little did I realize what I was getting myself into!


The team was building a septic tank. The challenge in this was that there was a steady stream of water coming into the hole that was dug for the tank.  The bottom of the hole was much lower than the water table-  so all week long someone had to scoop the water out with buckets.  The water level had to stay low enough in order to pour the concrete floor of the tank.

Tuesday morning- Digging out some dirt to level off the ground.

I scooped the water into 5 gallon buckets for about 6-7 hours. Thankfully I did not have to lift the buckets out of the hole, just fill them!

Nearing the end of the day, after getting splashed with water, mud, and concrete.

Tying the rebar together with wire.

The Haitian crew mixing the concrete.

The concrete was placed in these big tubs and then brought, on a trailer, to the place where we were working. Someone filled the tiny metal buckets with the concrete.

Then we made a human chain to get the buckets over and down into the hole. On average there were about 17 people working in/near the hole. It got pretty crowded at times! But thankfully we had all the willing and able hands to help. 

The progress as of Friday, the last work day for the team.

Part of the team also painted this apartment building on the site... 

... a pretty peach color!

Friday afternoon I played soccer with some of the kids that live at the site. They were off from school for the holiday.

One of the boys was teaching me a sweet move!

The whole group, including the Haitians that worked along side us!