Dorbata, Chirripo Indigenous Reserve X Ray 9

Quietly and unassumingly, hidden down in the Chirripo Indigenous Territory, X Ray 9 have constructed their school building with the energy and vigour of an army of thousands. Indeed, such is their progress that on Saturday morning they celebrated the opening ceremony with the local community.

Apparently the group don't have time for words, preferring to let their actions do the talking, so treat yourself to a mug of the hot stuff, settle in your favourite chair and enjoy X 9's photos from Dorbata.

It is also worth pointing out that an envelope of electronic proportions, featuring a smorgasbord of photos from our Nicaraguan groups landed in our inbox this morning so check back through the blog to see some digital depictions of the X Ray Groups in action.

Chirripo calling... news from X-Ray 9

Hello relatives and friends of X-Ray 9. We’ve been in Dorbata for over 10 days now and we’ve made great progress building a school for the indigenous population. Although it’s work in progress, it’s been put to good use as a stargazing platform and an impromptu bedsit.

The group are now happy residents of our jungle camp, including hand cut bamboo. This has produced a number of funny incidents such as monsoon rains forcing 11 out of the 14 members to find refuge in the hut. Only Brayan, Matt and Rob managed to sleep through the night. We’ve now acquired a whole community of furry friends including a few dogs turning up for dinner, one of which is particularly underfed and has been adopted by Josie as Skeletor. This morning Sophie was awoken by a cow attempting to join her on the basher. Unfortunately there is only room for one...the cow won.

In terms of our actual project, the walls are starting to come up with the help of Ciara and her magical spirit level, you know, the one used to measure ghosts... Alex and Fred, our residents Belgians, are attempting to learn Spanish whilst hard at work with varying levels of success. As we’re writing this, Jay, our group mother, is complaining about our lack of hygiene. Yes Ravenna, you should’ve cleaned up today. Danny’s beard is coming along nicely, long enough so that braids can be constructed.

Yzza our most talented photographer (well she has the best camera) has turned out to be our most devious card player. We celebrated Ciara’s birthday on the 10th with cake and a homemade piñata constructed by Adri and Jay. Dara has been rejected membership to the latino club by Adri and Brayan. The camp has been pimped up as we have no running water or electricity. Despite Rob constructing a shower, Matt has eclipsed his tenth day of no showering and if he makes it through phase, he will receive 15 Oreo packets from Dara.

So, as you can gather, we’ve been very productive. Everyone’s looking forward to Bravo’s visit and building a bridge for the locals, all in time for the school’s inauguration, where we hope to celebrate with the whole community.

X-Ray 9 out.