Perhaps it is sad to say that I have never worked as hard in my entire life as I worked today. Nor have I ever sweat as much as I did today. My group went to the site of the pole barn. It's located in a clearing in the jungle. Yesterday it was nothing but a pile of rocks and sand on a piece of ground.
Today when we left after working for 6 hours, it was an almost level pile of rocks and gravel with 8 casons and a rocky driveway. Tomorrow we will do more leveling, and possibly start hand-mixing concrete for the floor.
There is very little shade, lots and lots of bugs and back beyond where the latrine is being dug, shovel by shovel, there is a place just inside the trees where a little waterfall tumbles down the rocks! A place where showering in your clothes seems like a good idea, feels absolutely lovely, but in reality it really made the tired body more tired from carrying the extra weight of the water around!
It's entirely possible that we are completely spoiled. Did you ever think of how buildings get built? Did you ever think how buildings get built when there is no heavy, earth-moving equipment around? Did you ever wonder how cement gets mixed when there are no cement trucks around? I tell you, I never have. It's nothing short of hard labor, and a slow process!
But even in that there is the joy of the Lord that carries us through. Being able to enjoy a friendly butterfly, a cool breeze, a tumbling waterfall, a cloud, and a nap on a bumpy bus ride after a LOOOOOONG day's work.
