Day 7 – May 17, 2011:

It has been nearly a week here in Nicaragua. Work is coming along nicely. We were running low on water but thankfully some members brought some iodine and chlorine tablets. We started with the chlorine which was not bad considering how thirsty we were making ourselves but after a while you would feel like you swallowed a considerable amount of pool water. Some people were starting to come down with fevers and diarrhea. They took it easy for a few days to recuperate. I forgot to mention how we ate. We ate awesome thanks to some local families cooking us breakfast and dinner. We would buy the food and they took care of the rest. It was great! Today was the day the rest of our group would arrive at the site. This was pretty awesome because my wife would be joining us.

With that in the back of my mind we placed right side anchor cage in its hole and wrapped the cable around it. We clamped the cables temporarily to keep them in position. We then began the important task of filling the hole with six cubic meters of concrete. We began mixing by hand and assembly lining it across the river in buckets. It was muddy and wet on the right side and I am getting attacked by ants and bees nonstop while tightening the cable clamps. It is approximately 6pm when Kenny, Santos, and Nancy (my wife!) arrive. We exchange greetings and they head back up to set up their tents. The local community has joined in on our assembly line of concrete buckets which continues into the night when we finally pour the last bucket at 1130pm. Six cubic meters of concrete were hand mixed and transported over 60 meters in eight hours.