We finished another day in the barrio. The days are getting harder because our time is getting shorter. All of us are becoming very aware of how short our time here is. I am so excited to come back home and be with my family (and especially my wife), but at the same time I am torn. It will be difficult to say goodbye to Loys and his beautiful little girls. It will be hard to tell Anabel I´m not coming back into the barrio after Saturday. It will be very hard to say goodbye.
Yesterday was a mixed bag of assignments. They sent me, Kristin, Glen, Skylar, and the interns (Joy from Georgia and Emily from ASU) to Jenny´s house to put up the roof. When we got there, I didn´t see any supplies, so I looked around her house. Rolled up on the outside of one wall were three bundles of reeds that looked like they had been VERY weathered. As we rolled them out, they kept falling apart. This is what we had to use for her roof. Plus, we only had three of these to work with, and completing her roof would have taken at least triple that amount. Again, we made the best of what we had and just covered the more important areas.
Yesterday was a mixed bag of assignments. They sent me, Kristin, Glen, Skylar, and the interns (Joy from Georgia and Emily from ASU) to Jenny´s house to put up the roof. When we got there, I didn´t see any supplies, so I looked around her house. Rolled up on the outside of one wall were three bundles of reeds that looked like they had been VERY weathered. As we rolled them out, they kept falling apart. This is what we had to use for her roof. Plus, we only had three of these to work with, and completing her roof would have taken at least triple that amount. Again, we made the best of what we had and just covered the more important areas.
The roof was not one of our greater accomplishments in the barrio. It was so hard to make it all work. We setup cross braces for the reeds, but even the cross braces were flimsy. The material we had to use was very thin bamboo shoots. When we set the roof on the walls, it bowed down. Oh well, what can you do, right? It´s all we had. I´m happy we thought to use cross braces though. Otherwise, it would have bowed down A LOT more. Glen came up with the cross brace idea. Not nearly as crafty as his idea of putting arches somewhere on the roof, but definitely more functional.
After we got the roof up, we asked for a saw so we could clean up the edges of bamboo. As I walked around the outside, I noticed the wall we put up on Tuesday looked like was bowing out. When I pushed it in, it caused the roof to fall down! We all laughed so hard. We fixed the roof again, took some pictures, and then headed out to the next assignment.The next assignment was a fun one: concrete. Talk about some back breaking work! Load sand into the buckets, pour the bucket into the mixer. Load rocks into the buckets, pour rocks into the bucket, load concrete mix into bigger buckets... you get the idea. After that, the mixer prepares the concrete and Loys poured it into buckets that we would carry over to Esaiah and David.
Esaiah was on the ladder and would deliver the concrete up to David, who was sitting on top of the wall.
David would pour the concrete into the forms that made up the support beams we were creating for the school Loys was building. It was impossible not to get dirty.When I got there, Everyone looked pretty messy, so I joined in the fun. I put my bucket underneath the mixer and the concrete came out. A little bit splashed onto my shirt, but not much. After the second run, the same thing happened. Just a small amount landed on my shirt.
And then I went for a third bucket.
When I put my bucket underneath, Loys turned the mixer at just the right moment. The concrete splashed down and popped out of the mixer... all over me. My hair, my face, my arms, my shirt, my pants... everything was splatted with concrete. So nice. Luckily, no one had a camera handy.
Anyway, we continued to build the support beams and that job lasted past lunch. I don´t think Annita was happy with us that we didn´t eat when the food was fresh. Oh, I forgot to mention that the barrio has a kitchen now! Annita and her team are a very good cooks, and made our meals each day. We ate a late lunch and then had a siesta. Lots of ping pong! They really like their ping pong here! Makes sense though; it´s a cheap sport. I think the next time we visit here, we need to bring them new paddles and maybe a couple balls.
After the siesta, I got my first opportunity to teach my new lesson. There was another individual in the barrio that day. His name was Richard, a 60yr old guy from the church in Fountain Hills. When I told him we were teaching, he said he wanted to sit in to see if he could do the same thing in his barrio (his church is part of barrio 4; ours is barrio 1). We also had one of the interns and Nicole join us. We were expecting 4 women in a small group environment, but we ended up with 8. The lesson turned out very good. I was pleased with it. Even better, when Richard returned to the community center, he gave us raving reviews. I guess we did things right, huh? I love seeing God moving. He has really taught me to lighten up and let Him lead.
After we got back from the teaching, we found everyone back in the community center. I guess we were done for the day, and it was only 4pm. Ping Pong again. Loys was the champion this time. He´s very good. We also taught the Peruvians a game called "around the world ping pong" and they were really getting into it. I also played with them. Just as the game was heating up, I learned that we had another small group to teach. We headed out again to another house to teach again. By now, I had gotten a relatively good groove going. This lesson went better than the last. Kristin and I got smarter this time and gave all the scripture reading to the two interns that came with us. Mitch sat in on that one as well. He seemed pleased. The only bad part about the teaching was that Anabel arrived just as I discovered I would be teaching. I didn´t get very much time to play with her. After the teaching, we had to leave.
Last night was Mitch´s testimony. He did a good job, and didn´t cry... much. I think he was worried that he would. This is not a crying team. Mitch is the only one who has shown any emotion so far. Maybe we're just slower than him at opening up. All of the rest just continue to work and have fun and not let things sink in too much. We´ll see how good we do that when Saturday comes.
Today we are going into the barrio at 10am. We are leaving late because we are staying late. We plan to be in the barrio until 9pm. I guess this is a first for the mission team. The teams in past years have all left at 5:30pm. Today is the wedding. I am also going to give Anabel her backpack with all the gifts. I´m so excited to see her face!
I´m glad I´m writing everyday because there´s so much occurring. I would hate to forget any of it. I feel like I need to thank my wife again for putting the thought of a Peru Mission Trip on my heart. The blessings I´ve received here are immeasureable. I love teaching more and more with God´s wonderful guidance everyday. To think I was so worried about how it would turn out, and now I look forward to the next time. I love our God. He is so wonderful, and so present in the barrio. His heart and his song are written on the hearts and souls of these beautiful people, as well as in each of us. And right now, I feel like singing his song.
And then I went for a third bucket.
When I put my bucket underneath, Loys turned the mixer at just the right moment. The concrete splashed down and popped out of the mixer... all over me. My hair, my face, my arms, my shirt, my pants... everything was splatted with concrete. So nice. Luckily, no one had a camera handy.
Anyway, we continued to build the support beams and that job lasted past lunch. I don´t think Annita was happy with us that we didn´t eat when the food was fresh. Oh, I forgot to mention that the barrio has a kitchen now! Annita and her team are a very good cooks, and made our meals each day. We ate a late lunch and then had a siesta. Lots of ping pong! They really like their ping pong here! Makes sense though; it´s a cheap sport. I think the next time we visit here, we need to bring them new paddles and maybe a couple balls.
After the siesta, I got my first opportunity to teach my new lesson. There was another individual in the barrio that day. His name was Richard, a 60yr old guy from the church in Fountain Hills. When I told him we were teaching, he said he wanted to sit in to see if he could do the same thing in his barrio (his church is part of barrio 4; ours is barrio 1). We also had one of the interns and Nicole join us. We were expecting 4 women in a small group environment, but we ended up with 8. The lesson turned out very good. I was pleased with it. Even better, when Richard returned to the community center, he gave us raving reviews. I guess we did things right, huh? I love seeing God moving. He has really taught me to lighten up and let Him lead.
After we got back from the teaching, we found everyone back in the community center. I guess we were done for the day, and it was only 4pm. Ping Pong again. Loys was the champion this time. He´s very good. We also taught the Peruvians a game called "around the world ping pong" and they were really getting into it. I also played with them. Just as the game was heating up, I learned that we had another small group to teach. We headed out again to another house to teach again. By now, I had gotten a relatively good groove going. This lesson went better than the last. Kristin and I got smarter this time and gave all the scripture reading to the two interns that came with us. Mitch sat in on that one as well. He seemed pleased. The only bad part about the teaching was that Anabel arrived just as I discovered I would be teaching. I didn´t get very much time to play with her. After the teaching, we had to leave.
Last night was Mitch´s testimony. He did a good job, and didn´t cry... much. I think he was worried that he would. This is not a crying team. Mitch is the only one who has shown any emotion so far. Maybe we're just slower than him at opening up. All of the rest just continue to work and have fun and not let things sink in too much. We´ll see how good we do that when Saturday comes.
Today we are going into the barrio at 10am. We are leaving late because we are staying late. We plan to be in the barrio until 9pm. I guess this is a first for the mission team. The teams in past years have all left at 5:30pm. Today is the wedding. I am also going to give Anabel her backpack with all the gifts. I´m so excited to see her face!
I´m glad I´m writing everyday because there´s so much occurring. I would hate to forget any of it. I feel like I need to thank my wife again for putting the thought of a Peru Mission Trip on my heart. The blessings I´ve received here are immeasureable. I love teaching more and more with God´s wonderful guidance everyday. To think I was so worried about how it would turn out, and now I look forward to the next time. I love our God. He is so wonderful, and so present in the barrio. His heart and his song are written on the hearts and souls of these beautiful people, as well as in each of us. And right now, I feel like singing his song.
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