Back to work today after a wonderful meal in the old part of town.

First job for Dave and I was back to the sanding to finish all the posts around the central quad for the new community centre. More sanding followed by painting them all again. Eventually we had to stop because we ran out of paint – more coming tomorrow (along with the mythical stepladders!).

Next was whitewashing the plaster in one of main rooms. The good news was I managed to complete it. The bad news was I also managed to get paint on almost every bit of me. I’m told a spotty white complexion will soon be all the rage – in which case I stand ready…

The last part of the day was rending/pointing one of the external walls. It was hard work and I’m not sure we were doing a particularly good job either – but we plodded on. Some people are making famous progress – Louise for instance has progressed to chief skirting tile grouter (high praise indeed!).

We had a surprise visit from Gaston the head of the Martha Estrella Foundation (see main picture with Gaston & Vanessa) . He is a charming and enthusiastic man. He explained that when the centre is opened there will be a glass panel in our beloved quad with all the names of the volunteers etched in it and across the way will be another panel with the names of the building team and the community who have worked so hard.

Dinner tonight should be interesting… roast guinea pig (called guy) is on the menu… who knows I may have to be brave. I doubt it will be a tasty as the brilliant watermelon we had at lunchtime today (see photo of Louise, Claire and Sally trying to look dainty eating huge wedges of the stuff).

More tomorrow

Mark Ralf

(PS if you can’t see all the pictures uploaded with my blog, you need to be using Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox to see them all – don’t blame me, blame Microsoft!)