Monday at Palo Blanco

Our day today was spent at Palo Blanco. Eight members of our team spent the morning helping with a construction projects while the other three members of our team helped out with various projects in the school. Those of us on the construction crew were working to help build a two story, concrete block building on a piece of newly acquired land that allowed Palo Blanco to expand their property. The building will hold a woodshop on the first floor and some classrooms on the second floor that will allow people to learn and practice a trade

(The new building in progress at Palo Blanco.)

We had a little bit of downtime between our morning and afternoon activities and some of our team went outside to play with the kids, while others got ready for the afternoon Bible lesson.  Bianca found a little friend in the hallway the sat on her lap until it was time to go to class.

(Bianca with little Fan Fana Fanfan – yes, that is really her name!)

We spent the afternoon giving a Bible lesson to some of our sponsored kids and passing out gifts to about half of our sponsored kids at Palo Blanco. The kids seemed really engaged in the Bible lesson and of course loved getting their gifts from their Madrinas and Padrinos (sponsors).

(Alondra, the little five year old girl sponsored by Chris and Rachel Russell.)

After passing out the gifts we were able to enjoy some time playing and coloring with the sponsored kids. It was so much fun getting to interact with them and getting to know some of them individually.

We did have to cut short some of our construction time due to some heavy rains in the afternoon. We are scheduled to spend the day on Tuesday doing more construction so we are praying for some nice weather. Even in the rain it was still nice enough for part of our team to take a walk around town in flip flops and capris. We could get used to this weather!

We are winding down our night early tonight as many of our team members were tired early! I think Rose was in bed by 7pm and was followed within an hour and a half by Chris B, Chris W, Karen and Joan.  Chris R, Bianca, Bobbie and and Bianca are playing cards while the rest of us just relax. We start our day extra early tomorrow (Tuesday) at ANIJA where we will get to see them participate in their daily opening ceremony to start the school day. After that we will be back to work at Palo Blanco. Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. We are having a great trip and praying that we are being a blessing to those we come in contact with.  We ask you to pray specifically for the young girls at Palo Blanco as we learned that recently many twelve year old girls have been dropping out of school to get married. These girls often feel trapped because of the need for someone to take care of them due to the poverty level and many boys and young men prey on them. The hope that being sponsored gives these girls is a big start to opening their eyes to possibility of a different future. We ask that you pray for these kids daily that this cycle can be broken!  

(P.S. -Sorry but the internet connection was terrible so I couldn't get any more pictures up. I had several more for this blog! I will try again later if I get a chance!)