A New Week a New Project

Well we have been officially reunited with Robbie AND OUR BAGS!! I must admit, as happy as I genuinely was to see Robbie, I was a hundred times more happy to no longer have to live out of a backpack. Wearing the same shirt, shorts, and other stuff for nearly a week is only so fun, for so long... When we got home I nearly embraced my suitcase. Opening it up was like winning a shopping spree at your favorite clothes store! Two weeks away and I had nearly forgot all I could now wear, lol. We then went with Elizabeth to Maasai land to help build the chicken coops. It was ALOT of work. We hit a small snag when we realized the prices of some of our necessary materials had doubled thus extremely limiting us on what we thought we could use for the coops. We ended up following through with another idea to utilize a pre-existing wooden framed shack on the compound. The shack was leaning to one side so we all pushed it straight and nailed support beams to keep it strong and sturdy. Oh! I used a pick and a ho for the first time in my life. It was tough, strenuous work but the type of work that leaves you feeling stronger and purpose-filled. At one point early on, while swinging the ho into the rocky ground, I realized I was getting tired fast. One Kenyan guy, Dennis, noticed and asked if what I was doing was "hard." He along with me, noticed it was taking alot of effort on my part. It was a slight blow to my pride seeing as he was 1/3 my size but it was more than true. I was using alot of wasted effort. The fact was I didn't know what I was doing, lol. It wasn't long before another Kenyan named Christopher came along and did my same job but with a million times less energy. Watching him swing away was so nostalgic of the countless times I've observed someone experienced or skilled do a job so much easier than me. As if every swing was effortless and smooth. All around it was a learning and growing experience. We laid down a layer of sediment to act as a preliminary layer before the cement. All this was done with many wheel barrels full of dirt which I was blessed enough to fill nearly single-handedly, lol. It was LOADS of joy with every shovel-full, haha. Once again we had good time working, putting forth our best effort in the African sun, came home and relaxed. Today was another reminder that in the midst of hard work its rarely easy to smile, but deep down you know its good and even fun to a degree. And at the end of the day nothing beats that feeling of completeness. Accomplishment feels great.