Week 5 – 26 September

Just a note about the weather here to start with: It's always warm here, sometimes hot in the mornings but recently, we have been getting rain in the afternoons and in the night. The rainy season isn't due to start till November but we have certainly had a good amount of rain. It's also interesting to see how quickly it gets dark. The sun sets at 6pm every day of the year and by 6.30 it is completely dark. This makes it feel like it's really late by 8 o'clock, although we tend to go to sleep earlyish anyway (about 9 or 10pm).

In terms of the work this week, it was a lot more relaxed. We repaired the kitchen roof which wasn't easy but we lifted those logs we'd carried back two weeks ago mainly by using ropes to lever them over the posts they were going to rest on. It wasn't as hard as it might sound but when we were carrying one, G slipped on the step and fell down with the heavy end of the log landing on him. It looked bad but he got a knock on his knee and a big bruise on his other leg. He recovered after a few days, fortunately.

I managed to get some time to use the chainsaw this week, too. I wanted to carve some logs to make seats for the common room and cut one into a Z-shape to make it lighter and in a taller one I cut out a section to give it a seat and a back-rest. It was hard work and took 45 minutes to do them both and my hands were tingling for about an hour afterwards due to the vibration of the chainsaw. We played football after that, which was a good fun game.

We did some other clearing of paths and weeding but the week went by quickly as we were not stressed out by hard work. There weren't many people going away for the weekend so I decided to stay at the reserve, too.

We had our hike on Friday and did one that I suggested as I had been along a path to collect natural paint which was almost terracotta coloured clay-like material. It was in a beautiful area with a river flowing through and lots of overhanging plants like in a cave. 

There was lots of lovely scenery to see and although there was a lot of uneven ground and climbing, we went in two waterfalls to bathe (even though it was freezing!). 

On the return stretch we had to scale a long path up a very steep hill. Most people found it hard work but I loved scrambling up it as fast as I could and I didn't lose my footing once. It was the hike that I have liked the most here.

I didn't go away for the weekend as most people were staying here. On Friday night, we played Pictionary that someone had left behind. It was a very good night and lots of fun, most of it based around our team winning easily. On Saturday, some of us went into Santo Domingo, the nearest big town to buy some things and use the internet. G bought a huge amount of food and rinks as he wanted to say thank you to all of us who looked after us when he was ill. He's a good cook and I helped him make the various things. I'd made omelettes for breakfast and he made dinner. It was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and it turned out to be a very good weekend. We enjoyed each other's company and had a nice relaxing time. 

When the others had come back we played the second match of Pictionary. Our team won again, although we gave the others a five point advantage and finished when they had one point over us. :)