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Day 6 -- Build Day 1 (Taken straight from the journal)

We arrive at our build site and find homes in various stages of ready. Some just need finishing touches, others are just stakes in the ground. Our first bit of flexibility comes in our tour of the village and chance to meet the families has been indefinitely post-poned. There is a wedding in the village and almost everyone is there. The greeting party at the bus makes us all feel very happy to be there. We each receive a colourful flower lei, a dab of yellow and red on our faces. Smiles all around and off they go to the wedding.

I volunteer to dig holes. It's dirty back breaking work--but that's what I'm here for. The holes must be 3X3 and 4 feet deep. I need a chair to get out by the end.

We find Nehru St and all the sari shops.
eat supper at hotel and fall into bed exhausted


[End of entry]

What I didn't write down is that by noon on the first day we have lost two members of the team to heat exhaustion. It is well over 35 degrees, plus the humidity. We have been told to drink at least 6-8 litres a day and after the first twenty minutes I can understand why. I live in the North...I haven't seen +20 since I was out last summer...the heat is too much for me. I manage to dig one hole....the twenty something fit as a fiddle male manages 2 1/2...I'm barely hanging in when I finish my first...it isn't the work. I felt like I could do more shovelling, it is the heat that is getting to me. I wonder how long it will take me to adjust.

It is a red brick build. We will be digging holes for the corner posts, pouring cement, laying bricks, moving bricks, moving sand and generally giving free labour to the site.

During the build we will end up working 6 hours a day. Lunch is from 1-2pm during some of the worst heat. After the second day of building we ask to start earlier in the day when it is cooler (?!...if you can really call 32 cooler than 35 degrees). Our wish is granted and we start working at 8am and finish at 3pm. The last 15 minutes of each day are spent cleaning up the build site. It is a half hour drive to and from our hotel to the build site...the bus has no AC. My roomie and I get along fab and there is never a fight to the shower...we go by which one of us is dirtier.

And the end of day 1, showered and with a second wind...four of us set out to explore a bit. We just start walking and end up finding the shopping district in Pondicherry...Nehru Street. We go into one of the sari shops...it is five floors of madness, nothing like the one I was in in Jaipur. I hold back, I don't need another sari, but I do help the others look and talk to the sales clerks. No one is in the mood to buy...too tired from our first day of building but we make a mental note of the name, catch a tuk tuk and head back to the hotel to eat and then fall asleep.

My TO problems have finally left at this point and I'm happy...cause it would suck to have these issues at the build site.

My fav pic of the whole trip...the welcoming committee at the build site. Taken as I was standing on the bus steps waiting to get my lei.


My awesome roomie!!

Some of the team waiting to get started after our welcome...





My hole!