Day Six

Yesterday we were back to the construction site. While we were gone on Wednesday, the crew had put the roof on house 1, laid the floors in both houses, and had the skimming/parging started on both houses. A few people jumped right in to help with the parging and found it to be quite difficult. A few of our guys were commenting on how they would finish a section and a crew member would come over and fix it :-) Jim K spent most of the day stirring the parging mixture. It's a very sticky substance so his shoulder could be paying for it today! As there was not a lot for our team to do, most of the team spent the day with the kids. Sarah spent quite a bit of time at the coloring station. Zach, Cody, and Josh spent quite a bit of time playing soccer with other team members jumping in and out of the game. Ken was pulling out candy and beanie babies, Josh was pulling out candy and dolls for the girls. Angie pulled out playdoh, which was a huge hit. One of the little girls in house 2 was having a rough day - everytime you turned around she was crying these big crocodile tears. Some were fake, she just didn't like that she wasn't getting all of the attention. One time she did fall and scrape her knee and landed on a bunch of biting ants that got all over her ankles. I can't wait until we can post pictures of the kids and the families that we're building for.

We left the site around 3 and came back here ready to shower and get up to the orphanage. There was no water. At. All. Nothing. It turns out they had diverted it somewhere else on the mission (to fill a tilapia pond for example). So a few did not take showers and those of us who were slower, ended up being able to take them. We then spent about an hour and a half with the kids up top. We handed out gifts to our sponsor kids and small tokens of affection to the others (candy). I just love these kids so much!! We ahve spent so much time with our sponsor family. I love the smiles on their faces and how they yell out our names and come running when they see us. Jim K has really bonded with Josesito (little Jose). He is the cutest and sweetest little boy. Jim D spent a lot of time coloring with a little girl (Norita - little Nora) and then finished the night rough housing with Wilmer. It was so hard to say good-bye to these guys tonight because we don't know if we will get back up tonight or not.

The mission has built an addition onto the cabana where they want to set up a little gift/souvenier shop. They have the goods, but the room is not finished. After dinner, they pulled out the tubs filled with stuff and we were able to shop right here! And they gave us great prices!! :-) After a bit of shopping, Josh led devotions and we ended up in a giant discussion of prayer. It was pretty awesome because I think most of us struggle with prayer. It has definitely encouraged me.

Today is the last day - we think we'll be painting - and doing the dedication of the houses. After lunch we hope to visit the village of Gualan, which is where our 4th funded house is going to be built. We're going to meet the family. And then we're going out to dinner :-)

Have a wonderful day! We love you and we'll see you soon!