Man, was it hot today, and I spent most of it on the roof with the unhindered sun baking my Irish skin; how does that always happen?  Day Two is when the construction team usually makes most of their progress.  By this point in the trip, we usually have all the missing parts, got the local operators trained on the basics of gluing, sanding, etc.; and we begin to make some real progress.  Not today.  We spent a good deal of time still trying to run down basic parts (I will never take for granted how easy it is to buy a 1″ PVC union in the USA), figure out what other parts were still missing, and how we could possible make clean water without any filters.  At one point it looked as though we would not get a certain filter, which was essential, which meant there was no way we could drink the water at the site dedication ceremony on Thursday.  This would be kind of embarrassing, especially with the town’s mayor expected to be in attendance.  We poured over the manual, hoping against hope that it would tell us the filter was not necessary.  No luck, without it, we were out of business.  Then not one, but two showed up from Guatemala City.  Al Webb managed to find the 1″ unions in hardware store in Escuintla, and by the end of the day, the entire system was put together.  All that remains is to check for leaks, turn some dirty water into clean, and drink it.

The education team had a large group of students and teachers-in-training, and things went well.  So well in fact that our normally very careful-what-you-eat education team helped themselves to some of the locals homemade tortillas and guacamole - cut and mashed with a machete.  These fine Southern ladies may be going native on us.

All in all, today was one of those hard, yet satisfying days from which you draw so much energy.  The 45-minute car drive from the site back to where we stay has you falling asleep, despite being only 3 feet behind the sugar cane truck in front of you, but it is a satisfying tiredness.  You feel like you spent a day well and that in some small way, you left the place better than you found it.