... And the hard work begins!

This morning started with toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and pineapple juice before a quick game of Ninja (or 5) while waiting for the bus to pick us up. We took a comfy bus ride to the district of Independencia where we began our work day. Independencia is one of Lima´s 43 districts, and is about 1 hour (depending on traffic) from the YMCA Peru in the Pueblo Libre district (where we´ve been). Independencia is one of the more impoverished areas of Peru. It was a sweaty, cementy, dusty job and without a ton of teamwork and peer encouragement, we would never had made it through! Our goal for the day was to finish pouring half of the floor in a community dining hall. We moved and opened fifteen 50-lb bags of cement, mixed it with thirty wheelbarrows of sand and fifteen wheelbarrows of rocks (all of which we shoveled in and dumped out). We mixed this massive pile of stuff with water and loaded it into buckets which we fireman chained up to the dining hall. We all got the chance to mix cement, fill buckets, pass full buckets, throw back empty buckets and drink lots of water! It was a successful day if we do say so ourselves. We will return tomorrow to finish the other half of the floor! After our work day, we returned to the community center (our home base for the night) to wipe ourselves down with some baby wipes (that´s right, no showers here), change our shoes and head to the mall for some dinner and Peruvian shopping! We had Bembo´s for dinner... which is a Peruvian Burger King of sorts. They have burgers with fried plantains and eggs, pineapples, doritos and guacamole, sausage dogs on top and some regular ol´ cheeseburgers. After picking up some delicious sweets (ice cream and churros are the current faves), we headed back to the community center for devotion and fun! Take a look back in the morning for pictures. We took so many that the camera battery died... but we wanted to keep you updated and let you know we are all having a blast! Thank you all for allowing us to spend this time together and with our new Peruvian, Colombian and French friends, and to serve the people here in Peru! Goodnight!