Shack Day 4 – Clamming

This morning was a cold morning. The fog was thick and the sun was no where to be found. Not a good thing when you are planning on spending the morning at the beach up to your waist in water, digging for clams.We met up at the highway at 7:00am and travel to the supervisor’s house. That is where all the people that work for him meet. He gave us some pitch forks and told us where to meet him on the beach. We were on the beach around 8:00 and after a quick instruction, the students were ready to clam. They dug through the sand for the next four hours and found quite a few clams. Their biggest challenges were staying warm and finding clams that were large enough to keep. They took a few warm up breaks but they dug until the tide started to come in at noon.  They found a total of 51 clams that were the proper size to keep. The supervisor told us that he sells the clams for 35 pesos per dozen, which is a little less than $3. The students, made about $12 all together. They were unsure of how many clams that they would find that day which gave them an idea of what kind of stress is involved with not getting a steady paycheck but still having bills to pay.