Wheelbarrow Capsize

We worked pretty hard today. Our group's task was to shovel sand into wheelbarrows at one end of the campus and bringing it up hill to another part. I got blisters on my hands, even with my gloves. A couple of the tiniest kids insisted on helping us for about 2 hours, shoveling pretty hard. They were having fun like it was a game. One of them Carlos, managed to take a wheelbarrow full of sand all the way to its destination. The smaller kid, Wilmer, wanted to try with the next barrow-full but promptly fell over after moving it about one foot, capsizing the wheelbarrow and emptying its contents. He thought this was pretty funny.

We found out during a presentation given to us tonight by Claudia, the director of El Hogar, that Wilmer, the smaller boy who had just been there a year, had been living on the streets with this alcoholic Dad for a while. He was such a happy, bright child. Althought all of these kids come from some sort of disfunctional or dangerous environment.

I am pretty exhausted. I still somehow found myself chasing kids in the evening, an activity I said I wouldn't do as I was too tired.

Tomorrow will be Wednesday. We are not working in the morning but going on a tour to the technical school where I worked the last time I was hear. I'll see how it has changed.

Stuart