Yesterday we started our 3rd and final house in a town called Santa Maria de Jesus. It is a much bigger town than the last one we were in and much more diverse in its wealth. The community that we are working in is mainly Mayan families, including the family we are building a house for. The speak Spanish to us and the other guys but they have their own Mayan language that they speak to each other. They tried to teach us a few words but it is incredibly hard as it is full of clicks and other sounds we can´t make! It is incredibly fascinating to listen to though.

The family seem to be the poorest out of all the families we have seen. They have two small rooms, one for sleeping and one for cooking. However, the kitchen area doesn't even have four walls. One side is completely open to the elements, and all the mud from outside (and our cement) finds its way into the room. Also, their plot of land is tiny!! It is really hard to work in and once the cement is in a pile you either have to stand in the house foundations or in the cement...neither of which are ideal standing places!!

Today was a tough day for the Guatemalan builders as the village is at the bottom of the volcano, which meant that there were HUGE volcanic rocks to dig out to make the foundations. Some of them were so huge, it took two grown men with pick axes and brute strength 20 minutes to remove them!

While the guys were busy tackling the volcano we were sent off to hammer bricks. This is normally an incredibly easy task that takes no effort whatsoever. However, today we were all feeling pathetically tired and all agreed that they had swapped the hammers and had given us ones made of rubber! Thankfully this is pretty much all we did all day...we were in no state for anything more physical. You would think that as the days pass and we all get a bit stronger, that the work would get easier, but for some reason we are all feeling more tired each day! As much as we are enjoying this experience we are all looking forward to the final week and moving on to pastures new.

Since it was friday, we decided we thoroughly deserved a night out. We went to the Black Cat Hostel for some wine and nachos (the best nachos we have found). Maddy discovered that wine and rum is a bad (or good, depending on your perspective) combination and danced the night away like a loony at a club we went to after the Black Cat. By the time we were back at the house, I had dissolved into giggles because Maddy is great fun when she has had a few drinks. I was giggling so hard that she thought I was drunk (totally sober at this point!), and kept asking Ian how he could have let me drink so much (two glasses of wine). It was a suberb evening and a great end to the week.