Rebuilding in Canto Grande-Continued

In the last post I was only able to cover up to the bringing of materials and the walls up the hill to begin construction of the house.
The first thing that some of us were engaged in was the demolition of the old hut. It was a dirty, distasteful job given the dust, dirt, and smells. It was hard to believe that the walls of cardboard could be so hard to bring down. But I was not engaged in that activity. Mostly I was working on preparing the walls with most of the group. We were asked to paint a wood preservative on the walls to help them last through the moisture and possible infestation by insects. It was not as easy a job as one might think. The path we had to work in was only about ten feel wide at its widest and we could not block the neighbors´ houses with the 16 or 18 sections of wall that we had to paint. So, we spread the walls out in three or four locations and went to work. We had to paint one side, flip the wall, and then paint the other side. The area was not only dust, but also dirty. One had to avoid the garbage, dog droppings, and a distinct odor of excrement. There is no way to dscribe the particular smell that permeated Canto Grande, especially up the hill.
There was great cooperation but, even so, we were only able to finish the preparing of the wood by lunch time, 1pm.
Meanwhile, after the demolition, the three or four members who were working in the space of the house were preparing the ground. The biggest obstacle was a large boulder of the original mountain that was in the way of the side wall. It seems hard to believe but the ¨floor¨ would continue to be the ground; there would be nothing but a dirt floor in the new house. Thus, some of our immersion trip members were engaged in the seriously physically challenging work of digging into rock. Under the direction of Jorge the carpinter and with the help of the father of the family and a neighbor, our students were wielding picks, chisels, hammers, and shovels to remove stubborn boulders and rock, carry them to the back of the house, and heave them over the hill. This is a job that some were engaged in well into the second day. It was difficult, dirty, and backbreakingly slow. Every time they were convinced that we had removed enough of the rock and boulder in the way, it was re-measured and determined there was more to do.
One positive thing is that, despite the dirt, smell, and dust of the area, looking around while stealing a break revealed some wonderful views as we were high up on the hill. The view from the back of the house was not as impressive as the one from the front where one could see the ¨Fe y Alegria¨school dominating the neighbor, a beacon of hope in some sad surroundings!
More later.