Shack Day # 2

Today was day 2 of the School of Leadership shack experience, where the students had the opportunity to work a common local job, rock picking. Have you ever been to public places and noticed the perfectly smooth black rocks that are often found in planters and in other for other landscaping purposes? There is a good chance that those rocks have come from this part of the world.The students woke up this morning, made some eggs and tortillas over an open fire, then met me at the highway at 7:00 am. We drove down to the beach and met up with about fifteen other workers to pick rocks for the next 8 hours. They had to dig through the rocks, find all the similar rocks of the same size, same color and with few blemishes. They loaded 20 bags of black rocks throughout the day. Each bag is worth about 80 cents, so therefore they would have earned a total of $16 for the whole day. Not a great daily wage divided by five people. Talking with one of the workers that was on site, he normally fills about 25 bags per day, which is still not a great wage. By the end of the day the students were exhaust, with worn out finger tips. Most of the students found that the hardest part of the job was staying focused and motivated on the task. They found a great respect for the workers that do this for a living day in and day out.