MINGA DAY + POLICE PUPPET + PUPPIES

Our day started at 6:45, when Mr. Beyer knocked on our doors. This is earlier than the usual 8:00 wake up. We had breakfast and rushed to the bus, where Juanito expertly drove us to Jesenia's house. There we moved concrete blocks into the property to prepare to expand her home for her kids. Jesenia and her husband have four kids and needed more room than the one-bedroom house. Upon arriving we were greeted by Jesenia as well as four, one-month-old puppies. We picked them up and played with them before work began. (Mrs. Ortiz and Fr. Menard would be mad at that since we don't know the vaccination status.) We moved concrete bags (which were 110Ibs each) and formed an assembly line and move hundreds of cinderblocks. The puppies were in the way and had to be put in a makeshift cage. 

At this point the group split up. One group stayed with Jesenia and built the wall while the other went to Jessica's plot of land. At Jessia's we had to clear the ground so that she could plant crops for her empanada restaurant. It was hard labor. Having to chop down bushes with machetes, move rocks, and dig roots and other foliage up, but two stray dogs came and encouraged us on. Alex named one of the stray dogs le Tigre because his fur had marks that made him look like a tiger. Alex S. also found the machete the hardest while Nate found that digging up the roots was. Both of us spent 30 minutes digging up 1 root system. Jessica's land had soil perfect for growing crops. We knew this because of the hordes of bugs living in the soil. Including, but not limited to, spiders, scorpions, frogs and lizards. At the end the transformation made the land unrecognizable. Everybody worked hard especially Jessica who did the most work and was forced to take a lunch break. There is more that needs to be done after the 5 hours at Jessica's. 

At the end of our service two police officers stopped by. We didn't do anything wrong they were just checking in on the community. Funnily enough, one police officer had a puppet policeman with him. It was hysterical and we all got a photo with him.

We left at 3:00 to pick up Alex Chapman's group. This is Alex Chapman writing; We started off with the whole group in moving the cinderblocks. Then when the other group left we started our tasks. The first task was moving a pile of sand into the fencing of her land. This took us about an hour of work and we moved over 75 wheelbarrows full of sand. The next task was to make concrete. We would mix sand with the concrete bags and some water to make the concrete for the wall. This process took a while, and it was physically demanding because when the water mixed with the powder and the sand it became very heavy. Then we started to build the wall. There was a man helping us from The Center laying down the bricks and we placed concrete in the gaps to prevent the blocks from moving. This was the main activity of the day, and we did this same process the whole time that we were there. There were also puppies there that we spent lots of time with every time we got a break. Then we met back up with the main group and headed home.

Alex Chapman and his group did wonderful work on the construction of the house. Both mothers were very grateful and gave us some tasty empanadas and pound cake. Overall, the day was great and we felt like we were useful for the families. Sad to think our time is almost over.