Day Four – The Shack Experience – ‘Share Some Love’

Em woke me up by yelling “I hate the shack! I hate bugs!” in her sleep. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. As excited as we were rolling into a day without work, we all wondered what exactly does such a busy nation do with spare time? A ‘sun’ day it was indeed! Our plastic insulated shack keeps us warm at night but boy oh boy, as the sun hit that morning it became much to warm to sleep in.We made scrambled eggs over the fire so the first people to eat had a clean pan and the last people had very burned eggs. Some of us had a bucket shower and washed some clothes. Almost dreading a whole day of what we thought would be excruciatingly boring, we soon felt the true spirit of being Mexican. On our day without pay we worried we would be eating another day of rice and eggs. But how wrong we were! By living in a warm climate culture the saying “what’s mine is yours and what’s yours in mine” is quite literal. Our next door neighbours invited us over for a lunch of ceviche and pop (not to mention some American television but shhh, don’t tell the LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) staff). We played with their puppies and baby boy. We picked up some groceries for supper and then other friends up the road invited us over for carrot cake. We played la loteria (bingo) and won chocolate coins.As we headed to bed around whatever time the sun went down, we realized how important it is to appreciate and share love with those around you. It doesn’t matter if you have no money or all the money in the world – everyone has some love to share (and great memories to create).Em and Zoe, 2010 School of Leadership students living in “The Shack”