DAY TWO - CONSTRUCTION!!! AHHHH

I had a quick night sleep before I was off to my next challenge: Construction. We drove about an hour into this colony where we were going to help build BY HAND septic tanks. Those that don't know what septic tanks are, they are sewage lines. YUCK!!! I quickly found out not only do Indians not have any electrical tools or heavy construction equipment like Americans do, they like to do things in the most complicated way. We were working in at least 95 degree weather that day WITH humidity. We were carrying big cement cylendars and laying them on top of each other in a big ditch they dug out. But instead of finishing one project completely, they made us move around from house to house doing the cylendar placements before we finished filling in the ditches. This wasted a lot of time. Then once we were finished placing the cylendars in the ditches we had to fill in the holes. THAT WAS THE HARDEST PART. We had to hand shovel the dirt back into the deep ditch. In the meantime, BIG RED ANTS had built nests in the pile of dirt and we got attacked by red ant bites. That hurt. It was hot. No air conditioning in any houses. No ice for a cold drink. We drank warm water to cool off on. We allowed Indian 'construction' workers to boss us volunteers around as we sweat our fat off!
But, under all this hard work, there was the beauty of India surrounding us. There had been a death in the village that day. Here they mourn the same day, playing drums and singing where the people from the village can come over and say goodbye to the body. There were many people in the streets that day for the funeral. I don't know what they do with the bodies after that.
When we were done with this, we were able to go to an art school. It was really special to see the art these people have created. Many of them have lepracy that paint and so they paint with limbs, or with deformed hands. But the work is very pretty. I was able to buy a painting from them which also gives them a salary.
We were pretty exhausted after this adventure, so many of us used our rest time that day in showering and resting up. I enjoyed the evening this night. The kids recognized me more and I brought the stamp art that they LOVED. I don't think some of them have ever seen stamp art before...and the stamps didn't just get on the paper. It ended up all over our FACES and BODIES! We all had a blast Making a mess!! I might not be able to use this as a center anymore for my kindergarten classroom, but we sure do have the memories!! :-)