Seth gave a quick wave and he and Sarah left with a couple people for checkups while Jeffery meandered towards the back of the village and saw what Jennifer and the others were doing.

Jennifer was directing others and using a shovel digging into the dirt. Many of the villagers seemed hard at worked.

As she looked up for a moment and their eyes met, she seemed displeased.

something in his eyes told him she was thinking, "oh god... this kid."

"Heya..." Jeffery spoke deciding to speak up anyway.

Jennifer put her foot onto the shovel head and pushed it into the dirt and walked up to him.

"Why are you here?" she replied.

Jeffery responded, "I was interested in what was going on."

Jennifer replied, "well," she spoke as she wiped some sweat off her forehead. there was dirt stains over her clothes as well, "we're designing a water storage and irrigation system..."

Jeff felt that that's pretty much what it looked like.

"I already know what you think," Jennifer replied. "you said that it's not nice to give the villagers false hopes."

"oh..." He replied. I did? Jeffery thought. Of course he wouldn't remember saying something like that.

"Yeah," Jennifer responded, "and although you may have forgotten it- that's how you felt- So you don't need to worry about wasting your time here- you should just go hang out with your buddies while we waste our time- dont worry about us -it's our choice.

Jeff scratched his head. this was a difficult situation... in reality all he wanted to do was help if he could.

"Well," Jeffery replied, "that's not how i feel right now...I'd love to help now, see." Jeff mustered his best sincere smile.

Jennifer looked at him for a moment as if dumbfounded. After studying him a moment she rolled her eyes and picked up a shovel and handed him it.

"Fine," she replied, "she pointed at an empty plot of earth, "dig a foot down in the center there. Make sure it lines up with the other holes."

He took the shovel and smiled. It was the first time he'd actually gotten through to her.

--

A moment later he put the shovel to the ground and pushed in and was met with resistance.

'How do you make it go in?!' he thought as he looked at the shovel. He looked around and it seemed that everyone was able to make it work as their holes got bigger- despite the fact that he was probably taller than most of them.

"Here..." Jennifer sighed. She took the heel of her foot and pushed the head of the shovel into the ground with it.

---

He follwed her lead by repeating what she showed him and he felt the earth crumble below his foot. He pushed into it while met with some moderate resistance- there seemed to be a rock or something. He kept working around and finally was able to maneuver a bit of earth as a small rock shifted.

He'd finally gotten some headway! He looked up happily for a moment and noticed that other people were already much further along. He looked back down.

The day trickled along- but by the first fifteen minutes- he was already sweating buckets.

Why am i so weak... he thought to himself. He looked around a moment and noticed everyone else was further along than himself. As he held onto the shovel- he took a moment to catch his breath.

He looked at Jennifer. She seemed focused on laying down some tubing or something with one of the villagers.

He got back to work before she could look up. He didn't want to give her the satisifaction of seeing him resting.

After a while - he was able to dig the hole to where it was supposed to be after enough time. Supposedly they were going to setup drip irrigation from a rainwater catching silo.

Inside of the holes they would dig and place some mulch to keep in moisture then place some plants above it.

"What do i do next?" Jeffery asked Jennifer after finishing the hole.

She looked at him and the hole- inspecting it.

"Make this more rounded-" she responded. She spoke while critiqueing the hole he'd dug. She showed a couple more things. It turned out there was a lot more to digging holes than he'd initially thought.

--

"Hey..." a boy came up to him and patted him on the back. The boy pointed at a tree near the village.

"Sijambo..." he responded with a shakey smile. He was determined to do at least twice as much as he'd already done. After all - he was way behind the other's work.