Monday

Whew! I am writing this blog 9:40pm and we are all very thankful that the electric and power came back on in the house so that we could take showers. We played hard and worked hard and sweat a LOT…..and then came back to the team house to no electricity which means no water and ten smelly people.

Ok, let me back up a little bit. Our day started out at Palo Blanco care center, with a quick stop to change dollars into pesos on the way. The guard in the money changing booth with the huge gun is actually quite friendly!

At Palo Blanco we learned that our construction progress for the week was to help build the leach field for the new bathroom on the trade building. This involved lots of mixing mortar in piles on the ground, lots of filling buckets with dirt and lowering them into the huge pit, and lots of laying brick and cutting rebar. Needless to say we are a little worn out and have some sore muscles…..and sun burns! And let me tell you, no one is complaining about the sun burns since we heard that it was 12 degrees in Goshen today!

 

(Chris B, Lucas, and Mishael (a Dominican worker) laying block.)

(Randy and Tyler cutting rebar.)

 

Of course we managed to get in lots of time with all of the rambunctious kiddos! Everywhere we turned there were shouts of “Americano, Americano!” from hopeful brown-eyed kids trying to get a piggy back ride, someone to play tag with, a baseball partner, or someone to go down the slide with. Lucas was a favorite on the ball field with the boys and was in his element throwing the ball around and doing drills.

(What a beautiful view behind the Palo Blanco ball field! Notice the CCW sponsorship banner on the backstop!)

(Lucas and Neil playing "pepper" with some of the Palo boys.)

 

After we left Palo we headed back to the team house (and didn’t shower!) and gathered up the gifts for the Ark kids. We went to Jeff and Ann Vandermolen’s (missionaries) home and enjoyed (ham and corn pizza was a popular choice), jumping on the trampoline, playing volleyball, getting an art lesson from Neil, and passing out gifts. The kids anxiously waited for their name to be called so they could get their gift bag, get their picture taken, and see what goodies their padrinos (sponsors) sent for them. Once the gifts were passed out chaos ensued and the volume in the room rose considerably as the kids proudly showed their gifts to their friends. What a fun night and such  privilege to get to be the ones to hand out the gifts!

(Neil giving the art lesson to the Ark kids.)

 

****And now we would like to ask you all to join us in prayer for an urgent need that arose this morning as I am posting this blog.**** A young, 15 year old girl from Palo Blanco went missing last night and is thought to have been abducted. Carnaval, a festival that is centered around a lot of evil spirits, is going on and it is an especially scary time for this young girl to be missing. Please pray for her safety and quick return!!