This post features student writing.

We started the day with a breakfast of pancakes and a kind of grits/breakfast pudding. A little after 8:00 we began the walk/hike to the work site. It was sunny when we arrived and was great to finally see the project site where we’d be spending the next several days working to fill in the foundation of the children’s home. In groups of three we worked alongside Nepalis and in assembly lines brought dirt to the pits. We worked for about two hours and took water breaks. We broke for lunch around noon and walked back to our home base of Solukhumbu Girls Dorm. Lunch and rest were very needed after our hard-working morning! We returned to the work site for an hour and a half in the afternoon and by the end of the day we’d almost completely filled in all four large pits. Afterward, the head of the work crew asked if they could take a photo with us because he said we’d worked impressively hard. This made us feel great 🙂

Back at our dorm, we played some volleyball, relaxed, and took cold showers. In the hour before dinner we broke into rotations to help cook dinner, learn Nepali, and work on independent projects. After a delicious dinner it was time for our nightly family meeting and early to bed as we were all tired from a long, good first day at the work site.

— Frances