The Day I Went Pro by Richard Melville

We had a pretty busy Tuesday. We woke up on the crack of dawn (in other words, 7am) and were out of the house by 9:30 to head to the worksite. The building is coming on very nicely, and we all had different individual jobs that kept us busy. I was filling in the cracks between bricks with concrete up until lunch.

For lunch we had this Bolivian specialty which the Bolivians cooked for us. It was called Silpancha. It was rice, potatoes, and steak with a fried egg on. It was the best meal I have had in this country so far. It was made even more special because of the poverty of the people cooking for us, and how expensive that meal would have cost. The selflessness of the Bolivians we work with is super humbling and really cool to see.

The high point of the day came after lunch. A soccer game between the Bolivians and the rest of us. The game ended 3-3 but we lost because it came down to "next goal wins" and they scored first. I firmly believe that I launched my professional soccer career today.

After lunch we got back to work and were done by 4:30 at which point we came home. For dinner we had pizza. However this wasn't standard pizza; its the size of a table and it had no tomato paste on it. I hugely enjoyed it.

A lot of the team were excited about today because I promised that I would do my American accent on Tuesday just to get people to stop asking me to do it. No one forgot however and I had to do it at lunch time. I sounded a little bit robotic, but hopefully I didn't disappoint.

- Richard Melville

P.s. I would like to extend greetings to my family. Hello.