We would like to remind you of why Brian and I have decided this year to spend our holidays helping the charity Habitat for Humanity.

• There are still nearly 1 billion people living in urban slums, let alone rural poverty.
• Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 and operates in 90 countries around the world.
• More than 300,000 houses have been built worldwide.
• 1.5 million individuals have been helped into a decent place to live.
• One house is completed every 10 minutes.
• The average cost of a Habitat for Humanity home in the developing world is £1,235.
• Global Village is the name given to groups of volunteers who go overseas for 1 to 2 weeks to build houses.
• Habitat for Humanity sent 45 teams (1,000 international volunteers) from the UK in 2007.

So please dig deep and help us meet our fund raising target and help Habitat for Humanity by donating at Just Giving.

If you are a company you may wish to consider becoming a corporate sponsor and joining our growing list of corporate sponsors who will get their logos printed on our hard hats and/or T-shirts.

¡Hola!

Le segunda semana... our second week of Spanish classes at Centro Español Lorca and today we learnt some useful phrases anticipating our tasks in Argentina.

Last week I said that we hoped to learn “pass me that hammer please”. We now know that this is "dame el martillo por favor" or "alcanzame el martillo por favor" depending on whether the hammer is close by or a little further away.

The words for wheelbarrow (carretilla), screwdriver (destornillador) and cement mixer (máquina mezcladora) don’t usually feature in language classes! They did today.

Starting with a little bit of grammar and pronunciation, the hour with our teacher Natalia soon passed by.

It is great having a native Argentinean teacher to coach us on not only the language but to tell us about practicalities and customs.

We have some homework which we will need to find time to squeeze in – ironically practising how to tell the time so we don’t miss our early morning starts!

¡Hasta semana!

¡Hola!  Me llamo Nicola.

Brian and I have just returned from our first Spanish class at Centro Español Lorca.

Our new teacher Natalia will need to be very patient with us! Luckily she is from Argentina so we can pick up some tips on the South American accent and pronunciation and also some useful insights into life in Argentina.

Over the course of the next few weeks we hope to grapple with some basic conversation language as well as some useful phrases like “pass me that hammer please”!

I have studied a little Spanish in the past but this is a new experience for Brian. His analytical mind means that he is asking loads of questions and will prove to be a challenging student.

Today we learnt how to ask and tell the time, how to ask about some simple travel arrangements and – most importantly – how to ask for a menu in a restaurant.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

¡Adiós! Hasta semana.