Tsunami Diary: Today we finally got stuck into the heavy-duty construction work.
Although we were all told the night before that everybody would be plastering, confusion set in once again and we were shipped to another site to dig the foundations of a house.
There is a severe lack of communication and organisation around the reconstruction effort at the moment, which is not helped by the language barrier.
Despite all of this, the volunteers I am working with are amazing.
Before arriving here there were rumours that there would be a lot of standing around while we waited for the on-site engineers to tell us what to do. We have managed to avoid this so far by using our own initiative and common sense.
Working in this heat and humidity was unbelievably difficult and with so few tools can be extremely frustrating. Poles are placed in the ground to line the foundation area and then rope is tied from one pole to another to indicate where we should dig.
Using pickaxes and hoes, we pounded through the rocky red ground between the rope, taking regular shade and water breaks.
After lunch I had had enough of the heat.
Another girl and I headed off to one of the refugee camps to spend some time with the children.
There is usually at least one Global Crossroad volunteer with the children between 2.30pm and 4.30pm.
They have school in the camp until 2pm and, once they see us arrive, they run like a swarm of ants to their tents, grab a tiny chair each, and sit waiting patiently for us.
So starved for attention are these children that boys as young as six have fist fights in order to get the volunteers to notice them.
We tried to introduce some discipline when two particular boys refused to stop punching one another.
I separated them by making them move seats but they turned this into a game.
It's really heartbreaking to see the children in this environment. For such a poor nation, the Sri Lankan people seem to place a huge amount of importance on education - and these camp children are missing out.
When we were leaving the camp today we handed out a bar of chocolate to each child.
We left the tent when every child had received a piece, and yet once outside we were mobbed by some of them who claimed they had not received any.
These are the tricks that they are picking up as victims of the tsunami.
They learn to beg, to plead and to manipulate people at every opportunity. Survival of the fittest.
Fiona O'Connor (24) is from Dublin and opted out of her IT job to do voluntary tsunami relief work for a fortnight near Galle in Sri Lanka.
Her diary will continue next week in The Irish Times