The Shack Experience – Day #5: Rock Picking

As the sun hit the edges of the land the SOL’s awoke for a day of rock picking. Not knowing of how the day was going to go the students all bundled up since the previous night had been excruciatingly cold. The fire was started in a brisk 5 seconds so that we could get cracking on breakfast.We started the work day off thinking we would have to fill Brett’s truck with rocks. We soon found out that we would be working for actual rock pickers! As we arrived at the work site, we were told that we had to wait until the tide came out. The main rock picker had his whole family at the site; his wife and two children. As the son quickly warmed up us students, we learned that the two children were not enrolled in school. We asked Santiago, our translator, to ask the family questions for us about their job as rock pickers and the basics of the job. Like the fact that a full bag of rocks true worth was 8 pesos (around $0.80 CAD). So to make a normal, a Mexican’s daily wage of 100 pesos they would have to fill approximately 12 2×3 bags everyday.The job itself was pretty boring and we all sat engulfed in rocks awaiting to find the perfect rock to be able to put in the bag. The only slight problem was knowing which rocks were the right ones because the last thing the students wanted to do was create more work for them and not actually help. But as we hit the last 10 mins of the job, Brett brought out the camera. The son ran up grabbed the camera and went around taking pictures. We were able to see the mere enjoyment that the child was having with the camera. By being able to help this family and just bringing a smile to their faces made everything worth while in the end.~ A School of Leadership Student living in the Shack