Dan Masterson '09 - When I woke up today I felt like a little kid on Christmas Morning; I ran down the hotel stairs and saw exactly what I was hoping for, my long lost luggage!

From that point on I have to say was I looking forward to our day’s activities since they couldn’t have possible been worse than working all day and then hiking for nearly two hours sandals and khakis which I had been wearing since we left C-ville ( which would’ve been alright in some proper clothing). 

We continued our service project helping another family with their farm up in the mountains.  I honestly can’t get enough of the scenery up there.  Everything from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountains are just breathtaking.  There are some very pretty flowers and plants, some really neat falcons with a forked tail , and other flora that are just awesome.  But as for the farm work, I was put on “trail blazing” duty.  Seven of us( Coach Creighton, Coach Lemmond, Scott Liska, Will Certain, Pat Millikan, Mark Ellis, and myself) had the pleasure of tearing apart mountain terrain and creating an easier trail for the families to get to the farm.  To be absolutely humble, we most certainly blazed that trail, and honestly I actually wish I had trail like that in my backyard, it’s pretty sweet.  Scott and I were going at it, digging up probably a literal ton of rock and chopping up tree roots from the ground. 

As hot and difficult as it was, it was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.  It had started raining at about lunchtime and I think it was the most comfortable I’ve been in doing manual labor in the rain.  The air was warm and the rain was cool, so it felt really nice, I probably could have been out there all day, and I think the rest of the guys could have been too. 

When some people started finishing their jobs I looked around and noticed the energy everyone had in helping and it was just nuts, plain and simple.  We probably would have built a mansion if we had more time.  It has just been great being here and helping these people, we really feel like we’ve made a difference, and we hope we can keep helping people for the remainder of the trip.  But for now I’ve got to go chow on some Latino food, so adios!