Tuesday- "Day 3" Building at Sites and School

Jack here! Well it is my birthday today so I get to do the blog. The day started out as such a beautiful day down on the lake. This place is so beautiful, especially in the morning. Today the schedule was much like yesterday. Morning Devotion at 7, Breakfast at 7:30, head to the building sites at 8:30 and then leave to lunch at 12. Back to the church to hang out with the kids at 2 until 4 and then back to the hotel to clean up, have a team meeting and dinnner at 6.

We had a great start with Kristen and Tracy sharing their experiences in Guatemala over the last several years. We had a great and proper breakfast from Kristen's perspective. Huevos (eggs), black beans and tortillas with all sorts of fruit. I have been anticipating the fruit down here to include the Patilla or Dragon Fruit [photo]. This is a far cry from the fruit buffet in Bratislava (that is another story). We rolled out to the four sites and tried our new streamlined distribution system to maximize time at the sites before lunch.

At the Chuk Muk site, the team is working on construction of an enclosed kitchen and some water drainage control for a single mother. They made a ton of progress and also started working on the floor to raise it up and avoid future drainage problems. Holly siezed the initative here and came up with a great solution for the problems at hand.

At site 1 in Cerro de Oro, we are building a structure for a family of 9. Cruz did a lot of work in the afternoon yesterday and we left with the last row of blocks started. Yesterday, we noticed that Cruz and his 5 year old son (Cruz Jr.) were in desperate need of shoes. We dug through the donations we brought and found some shoes that worked for them and his second oldest son Jose (17). They were very appreciative of the new Zapatos. Baudilio and Pablo bought 3 peaches from a wandering vendor for 1Quetzal (4 cents each).

At site 2 in Cerro de Oro we are building a house for an widowed 20 year old with two little boys. They made a lot of progress sifting dirt to make sand for the concrete. It takes a lot of work to shovel the dirt onto a 2 x 2 frame with a simple screen on it, shake the screen to seperate the larger rocks and then dispose of the larger items in a seperate pile. Repeat this process until you get enough sand to add to the concrete and make the mortar for the bricks. Lillie also identified a rash problem with one of the neighbor kids who apparently has an untreated yeast infection on her neck. She bought some medicine this afternoon at the pharmacy and hope this takes care of the issue.

Another group went to the Cerro de Oro mission building and did crafts and played Veggie Tales for the pre-school kids and the older girls (in this community, the girls go to school in the afternoon). 25 kids came and looks like they all enjoyed the play-dough and beads.

A process improvement over yesterday's ride back to town is related to the little store where we stopped to get our Diet/ Regular Coke fix. They had put some of the preferred brands in the cooler so that they were actually cold. Maybe tomorrow we can further improve and get everyone's favorite in the right size and type of container. This small step is huge for morale and is a boost to the economy.

After lunch we headed back to the school and hung out with the kids at the El Buen Pastor school. We sang songs and danced for a while then taught the story of Noah and God's promise to never flood the world again. The kids made crafts of rainbowed change purses and also played with the giant parachute in the courtyard. After 4 pm, some of the kids stayed around and we played basketball and soccer in the same area - kindof chaotic but fun none the less. Some of the team walked back from the church and enjoyed the day.

It has rained the previous couple of afternoons. It was really weird weather, it is beautiful and clear in the morning, but it downpoars at around noon. Tonight we did a team meeting and started the prep for tomorrow. Same basic schedule but we will be doing an evening movie for the community at Cerro de Oro since they do not have theatre or the means to go. It was really cool last year, so we will see how it goes tomorrow.

Tonight I had a cool surprise at dinner as they made a cake for me and the bus driver Josue set off firecrackers outside of the restaurant. The owner gave me a cool Posada Santiago shirt as well. It was really cool- thanks to all.

Thank you all for your support of our team financially, through prayers and your home land support of the rest of the families. We are not only doing good work here, people's lives are being changed physically and spiritually. Jenn told us a story of Manuel who is working on the 2nd Cerro de Oro site project. He was moved by the testimony of an elderly woman (Barbara) who we built a home for two years ago. She has been sharing her testimony and story leading to her baptism last year. People are leaving their Mayan Gods and idols and turning to our God. We have been encouraged by this story and remain focused on our mission at hand.

Stay tuned....for the rest of the story.

~ Jack