First days of work

The main task for the May team is to complete the foundations. We have dug out trenches and filled them with concrete. We have also put in steel as reinforcement and loads of cement blocks. The concrete mixing is done manually in a pit using spades and the work does not become easier of the size of the stones. The stones for the foundation concrete are almost the size of my fist.
We are working together with six local workers and the relationship between the two groups has been interesting in the beginning. They were a bit shy to start off with but we have started to attempt exchanging some thoughts. None of us (except the boss and the team leaders) speak any Portuguese and they do of course not know any English other than a few basic words. I have been helped by some limited knowledge of Spanish.
Here, the locals have never seen white people work so this must be some sort of a shock for them. But they are enjoying it and have already asked if they can be involved in more projects like this. They are particularly impressed by the women. They could never believe women could work on a building site. Here, the society is very different from Europe and men and women have different roles. Maybe the children at the school will take some impression of the European women on site and this may help them improve equity.
The work is very hard. We wake up before 6:00 every morning, walk three kilometres to the building site and have breakfast and lunch on site. We finish at around 16:00, walk back, have a shower, clean the gear (boots, shirts etc) and at around 18:00 it gets dark and you can not do much. However, after a hard days work with concrete mixing, you would like to do as little as possible. At 19:30 dinner is served and many go to bed straight after, knackered.