Day 17: Things are coming together

Tuesday was our first full day back at work and it had a late start because of last night's festivities.  We finally got to our job sites at about 9:30 but our crew wasn't even awake yet so we had go to Helogio's house (our group leader) to wake up the troops.  Allison and I were the only ones left because Lux was off helping another group and Will was still putting roofs together.  We put the roof on our 1st site so that it could be plumbed and ready for use on Wednesday but were done with all of that by lunch.  We moved to the 3rd site that afternoon and did virtually the same thing that we did that morning.  We were also working all day without Luis, one of our group members that was feeling some of the effects from the night before.  Pampoyo definitely likes to party.

Day 16: I missed you Pampoyo

After 3 days of being sick in Potosi, I think I can speak for a lot of people in saying that we were ready to head back to Pampoyo.  With only a few days left to work, we quickly unpacked and ate some lunch when we got back to Pampoyo before getting back to work at about 1:00.  It was astonishing to see what our teams had finished since we had been gone.  We worked until about 5:00 before going up to the school house for a post baptism party that was much more elaborate than I was expecting.

The town had rented and outfitted the room with huge speakers for the night's festivities that proved to be plenty loud.  After some waiting we had a great dinner of llama and different types of potatoes that was delicious.  Some toasts followed dinner and then we pushed the tables aside and started dancing.  This dancing was still just bobbing back and forth with the music, so Will and I decided to kick it up a notch and grabbed Hannah and Perry and danced with them.  It was kind of a competition between me and Will and it was a pretty close one at that, but ill give him the victory.  We had call it quits at some point because the dancing wore me out.  Will kept partying late into the night but myself, Warner and some others called it quits in order to get some rest for another work day tomorrow.

Day 14 & 15: More of the Same

So I put Saturday and Sunday together because nothing much happened due to the fact we felt like doing nothing.  We woke up Saturday at about 11:00 from our 13ish hour hibernation.  We knew we had to venture out to get some food at some point, so at about 12:30 we walked to the supermarket to buy some "sick food" of crackers and gatoraide.  Sleep was on the schedule for the rest of the day, and I didn't even go out to dinner cause I still felt really bad.

Sunday was the baptism for everyone that had a Bolivian godchild, but as neither myself, Will or Warner had one, the La Casona Hostel room 5 had another slow day.  Most of the day was sleep, until the rest of the group got back from the baptism at 4:00 when we ventured out to get some street food, which for some reason sounded like a good idea.  We were looking for street burgers that cost 5 B's,  (which is less than one dollar).  Unfortunately I started feeling bad again when we got out and went back to the hostel to go back to sleep.  Putting the cap on a very rough weekend.

Day 13: Bolivia got the best of me

I woke up on Tim's birthday excited for the next few days in Potosi and feeling much better than the day before.  Breakfast was empenatas and some tea that went down surprisingly well for how I felt the day before.  After packing a small bag for the weekend trip, we boarded our small bus and, like a bunch of sardines, had a pretty uneventful ride into the city.  There were rooms already ready for us when we got there at 10:30, so Will, Warner and I crushed a nap for about an hour before surfacing to get some lunch.  To our shock, everyone else was already gone so we went to one of the only places we knew, a cafe we went to breakfast at earlier. After searching the menu for something good, Will found a "hamburguesa double" on the menu, so we all ordered one of those.  The burgerish thing that came was definitely a disappointment but we ate them none the less. We paid our bills and left, and turned back for the hostel as our stomachs turned against us.  The three of us returned to the hostel by 2:00, regretting our lunch.  We didn't really move from our beds until about 7:00 when we went to dinner, but unfortunately there wasn't much on TV that was in English.  Dinner was at a steak restaurant for Tim's birthday but I didn't feel like eating much.  Hoping that this was the last day of sickness, Will and I went back to the hostel and crashed right after supper.

Day 12: TGIT

Thursday was our last day in the Village for a little bit.  In order to breakup our work schedule and give us some time to rest, we were going back to Potosi for a few days to relax before our final push before we went home.  We reverted back to site number 1 for the day, getting to the point right before we were ready to nail on the roof.

We finished a little early so that we left the site at about 4:00, excited the bed and some rest in Potosi that awaited us.  That also happened to be the same time that I began feeling bad, thus beginning the sickness portion of the trip.  Determined not to be out for very long, I took some medicine when I got back and went to bed early that afternoon, trying to sleep it off or at least feel better for the bus ride back to Potosi.  My precautions seemed to abate my symptoms for a while, but it was still a very uncomfortable night and was unfortunately just the start of a long few days. 

Day 11: Our team is gone

Wednesday began a little weird.  When we went out at 9:00 to begin working, we checked all 3 sites and couldn't find our team anywhere.  Thinking they were just running late, we went back at 9:30 and then at 10:00 but they were no where to be found.  Allison and myself ended up helping the pipe team assemble roofs for the morning until Tim and Afnon stumbled on them at at 4th new site that we didn't know about yet.

Anyway, we went back to work with our team after lunch and got to bend and cut more rebar, fun... The day ended a little early because our entire group was going to the hot springs that afternoon, our second trip there.  We had a little more people than last time, but it was still just as much fun and just as relaxing as last time.  Since we went later than we did last time, they closed when we were there and turned all the lights off on us.  I guess that's one way to get people to leave at closing time.  It was crazy how cheap the entire thing was.  The equivalent of a little less than $2 got you the whole hour or hour and a half in the hot springs.  After we got back and had a late supper, surprise, I went to bed. 

Day 10: Higher and Higher

Tuesday began at the normal 9:00 time, reporting to our job sites with bellies full of a wonderful scrambled egg breakfast.  The morning was just like Monday afternoon, mixing concrete and stacking bricks higher and higher. We got almost to roof level on our 1st latrine we were building before lunch time, so having one close to completion was a really good feeling.

After lunch, we went to yet another site to start a 3rd site.  During lunch time, we were the only ones that actually eat lunch, all the locals just chew dried coca leaves that abate the feeling of hunger.  Anyway, back to the afternoon activities, we worked on the 3rd site til we got to the slab height before calling it a day.  We lost Warner for the day because he was beginning to assemble the roof piping that would heat and store the shower water.  The design was amazing and surprisingly easy.  They got the 1st roof made that afternoon and it looked really good.  Everything was starting to come together.