We had another work day today continuing to clear the land for our house. On Friday, everyone we saw we told that we were going to work on the ground some more and that if they were free we’d love to have some help. On Saturday we started a little before 9am with just us, our coworkers, and one Pal guy. A little later a lady showed up and went to work cutting out all the tiny roots snaking through the ground. Not long after a few more people showed up, and over the next couple hours people kept coming and joining the work party. We stopped for lunch about half past noon and all ate together. Maggie and Elizabeth cooked up some huge pots of rice and many of the Pal people contributed garden food to the meal and everyone ate and was satisfied. The rains came as lunch was ending and the work for the day ended but we not before we had accomplished much. This first picture is looking up the hill from the Lockwood’s house toward where our house will be. Two months ago you could not see past the tree with the swings because it was all dense jungle. We marked out where our house is going to sit and the ground underneath is now just about devoid of any stick, shrub, or blade of grass. The last tree to come down. The trees that are already dead they like to leave standing because once they are felled they begin to rot, and hence its value as fire wood goes down. I expect all the pieces will be hauled away in the next couple days as fire wood is a hot commodity here.
