Day 6: More Groundhog Days!

It's Thursday, we have to start finishing some projects. My team stands up benches and fixes shelving. Mitch now has, for the first time in his life he exclaims, his own workshop.

I relocate with Dan McCoy to the house site. Stefan has already been there all week and learning some trade skills. Taylor is also learning that 4" nails take a lot of skill to hammer home and gets nickname lightening....that doesn't strike twice....hahaha

Dan and I hammer away assembling 11 roof trusses that weigh a ton when it comes to moving them. It's hot, windy, dusty hard work.

We still go surfing and the water temp has plummeted to 12c, Mitch says even he is cold! Everyone is frozen and even the most energetic slow down. We line up for a hot shower that night, our cabin shower just dribbles out 3 minutes worth then turns off!

Day 5: Groundhog Day

Yep, stiff and sore in the cold morning fog we rise at 6:30am. My cabin is full of tradesmen so they are used to this. I must admit, this routine is wearing out the groms let alone the oldest team member - me!

We all take up our tools. It's a very exciting day as we all go to the house site and stand up the first frames. Shadrach is emotional as he sees his home emerge. A pile of old Adobe mud and straw rubble are all that remains of his demolished home. It lasted 110 years though before the big earthquake last year. You see little sign of the devastation, many Adobe homes empty and condemned, cracked walls, buckled rooflines. We have not felt one aftershock, Mitch says this is not a good sign as the pressure is building again and last month this happened the release was a "small" 7.1 quake.

Built shelves and storage cupboards in workshop. Great to see Lisa and Roseanna do a fantastic job making surf contest trophies. Lots of positive conversations and we're doing a morning team meeting with "inspiration spot". Jeffro Ryan our Misfit Aid partner spurs us on with work each day. Jeff Bell takes over financial management as it's become a nightmare trying to both get and maintain the money.

Another great afternoon of surf. Sooo cold though. Ice cream headaches all round. Punta de Lobos is a wave that just won't stop! Everyone gets waves, feels like Bali in a wetsuit.
A special night as we split into groups and are hosted in some local family homes we do our best with a translator. Inevitably an 8pm meal starts at 10 and it's midnight again before tired bodies collapse into bed.

Tired but happy we serving together so well.

Day 4: More Building, More Surfing

We are getting into the swing of things - house floor down; work benches made; walls up in salon. Poor Tim and Lachie are out in the sun cutting steel and digging. The 3 teenagers give digging a ditch a few hours then come back to me in the workshop asking, "Isn't there something we can do in here?"

We eat a seafood chowder for lunch with mussels, clams, chicken and sausage.....I guess that's more than seafood.

Straight to surf and it's a powerful 4-6' and offshore....again. Locals tell us it's always like this, can't believe it.

After dinner everyone is so tired. But it's a 7am start and we are going to do it all over again tomorrow.

Day 3: Building

Dawn comes and we can't see anything, the fog has rolled in and there's giant surf hiding behind it. We finally started our building projects, everyone keen as this is what we came for.....though the allure of waves was distracting. The goal was to work hard then play hard.

Some met Shadrach the guy we are building a house for and he is overwhelmed a group of Aussies would come all this way to help him. He has pitched 3.5m poles on top of buckets of concrete! What so high and not even in the ground we ask?? Because it's in a watercourse! No council approval or flood reports here?

I take a team to build a workshop for the YWAM Community Centre, while another team start work building a beauty salon. The third team are at work preparing a concrete pour for a gymnasium. Despite skills or lack of everyone finds their place.

In the afternoon some brave, or crazy, ones head to the point and try to paddle out against a roaring current down the point. Better to cruise the streets of Pichilemu and sample empanadas and churros. Churros is a big hit - deep fried donut tube filled with caramel, glad we can work it off!

Team settled in well and late night dinners and chat.

Chile Arrival

Well after a cancelled flight and only having 4 hours sleep in an NZ hotel we arrived in Santiago at 1am. A 16-seater van and Mitch Anderson's truck were there to meet us. We set a new record with 22 surfboards on Mitch's Toyota Hilux!

We drove through the night and arrived at first light exhausted. After settling in it was surf time for those able to stay awake....which was all the surfers.

Punta de Lobos is a world class left hand point and the reason most foreigners come here. It was dead glassy 5-7' and sunny with 300m rides! Easily enough motivation to wake any surfer. However, one has to negotiate one of the worlds sketchiest jump offs and a few of us got rolled into the rocks.

Jet-lagged and now surfed out we ate and then returned. The surf had picked up double the size! It was now terrifying and four of us paddled out whilst the others wisely stayed on the point. We watched Chile's premier big wave rider Ramon Navarro charge waves the size of buildings on a specialized 9'6" board. Meanwhile our own froth grom "Lachie" Lachlan was taking it on with his 6'6", big effort for 18! His booger bro Ben was amazing as well. Older but wiser BD and mitch took our time in the channel and the best part of the surf was getting in alive.

A late dinner and then meetings had us in bed by 10pm. Day one done and totally exhausted.