Day 5 - Special guest post from Rhiannon

Today was an all round amazing day and probably the most emotional I've been on this trip. Like previous days, we made our way to LaValla relatively early and got to work almost as soon as we arrived. We all participated in the construction of  the front garden, the work for which had only begun the previous day. Despite it only being early, the heat was already sweltering. We dug up rocks and brick so as to be able to create the stone boarder to the garden. War wounds were received with my hands being victim to two blisters, but I show them with pride as I know the work we were doing was worth it. And there's nothing better than some physical labour to start off your day.

Throughout the school day as well as cleaning and plastering classroom walls preparing them for painting, I spent a lot of time with one of the students whom I've grown very close to. Every lunchtime she waits for me to sit at her table where she and I have small and simple conversations. After our meal she led me into her classroom where she took out her English book and turned to the back where she ripped out a page she had written on and handed it to me. On it she had written five or six sentences, practicing her English homework, yet she had included my name; 'Annon you like lamp, you have a doll.' I'd never experienced something as heartwarming as that and she proceeded to read each of the sentences out and then gave me a big hug.

In the evening, we went to 'Dining in the Dark', a restaurant which employs blind men and women as waiters and waitresses and enables diners to immerse themselves in a blind experience. We ate our meals in complete darkness, and I mean complete, guided by our waitress whose name was Honey. After our meal, Honey sang two songs (unaccompanied), one of which was 'Looking into the eyes of love'. Listening to the lyrics was very emotional as it was obvious she was singing from her heart, with passionate enthusiasm. Afterwards, Lauren sang Ave Maria, also unaccompanied. Listening to something like that in complete darkness really allowed us to focus on what was being said and how beautiful it was as opposed to being distracted by visuals.

The entire day was absolutely brilliant and I think perhaps my favourite so far. Hopefully nothing we experience will be forgotten and will remain with us later in life; enabling us to appreciate all that is available to us. By that I'm not necessarily solely referring to economic and social privileges, but physical privileges such as our ability to see.