What a solid sleep! I am well-rested after our first day volunteering to build a house in Nepal, though not as sore as I thought I would be. A few sore muscles, but ready for another challenging day of building.
We spent a lot of today sorting out how we were supposed to build the roof. I think the Nepalese way is just to wing it. First we were waiting for a generator, and when it arrived to did not work well. Luckily a couple of our guys seems to know a bit about building and have it under control.
The other major construction work for the day was rendering the walls, which mainly involved standing in a pile of mud mixed with cow dung and straw and stomping your feet to mix it. We got used to the smell after a while. We got quite a bit done, but there is much more to do especially if we have to do several coats of rendering.
Our group of Australians, who were mostly strangers at the start of this week, are getting on great. There is nothing like some shared hard work to bond us.
Poor Van had a bad day, spending a large part of it in the mud pit and getting a rash on her legs, and also having a fall and spraining her wrist.
A few of us tried to get a lift to the local town about 10 minutes away, but that did not eventuate, instead, I used the time to Skype Clare and the family. A few beers went down well with dinner, and another earlyish night to rest up for another day on the build.