Day 3 - Many Experiences

Today was a very busy day.  We had a number of different groups going many different directions  Let me try and recount them all:

There is a subset of the group that was going to stay behind this morning to participate in the feeding station at the church site.  This is a program that runs during the week to provide food for the kids in the area that may not be getting any kind of regular meal.  Unfortunately, at the last minute, we found out that as per yesterday, there was not enough water in the well to hold the feeding station.  So, those folks jumped back into their dirty clothes and came with us to the work site.

At the school we had a tough day planned.  As it has been since we got here, it's smoking hot!  The temperature on the thermometer reads about 32 degrees; however, the app on the iPad indicates it feels like 40.  You pretty much require a sunscreen of 60 to not spontaneously burst into flames.  We made room in the farthest class and put the 7 wheel barrows full of sand, 7 bags of rock and 7 bags of cement on the floor.  Then we gently turn it over to mix it together, creating a rather large volcano like structure on the ground.  Then add 8 buckets of water and the fun begins churning it all together into what looks like soup.  Once it's all mixed up, the shovel it into 5 gallon pails (only about half full) and we hoist them up to the the guys on the scaffolding.  By hoist, I mean lift and then hold it above your head for the guy to grab it.  This went on for the entire morning.  I believe we mixed about 8 of these in order to complete the cement beams on one side of the building.  Let me tell you - that was plenty!  After lunch we did some odd jobs to get ready for tomorrow.  Looks like it might be another hard day on the job site.  Once again, God's hand was upon the team - no serious injuries.  We have some minor sun-burn and the odd scrape from re-bar.

Mixing cement

More mixing cement

Having some fun with Noel, our foreman.

Lorraine had an interesting experience today.  She had offered to help Esther (Pastor Ed's daughter), with a physical education class for a few of the grades.  Lorraine had somehow brought with her a "Zumba" tape that Esther thought would be fun - so the two of them practiced here a few nights and delivered the Zumba class today.  It sounds like it was a big hit!  We managed to sneak a little video of the project, but it's a little too big to share on the blog.  You'll have to ask us to see it when we are back.

Lorraine and Ester busting a move!

Another sub-group went out to Casa Materna to deliver some of the items that we brought with us for this mission.  When we were here in 2009, Casa Materna was a 14 bed facility that is close to the hospital and is for mothers from outlying areas with complicated pregnancies.  They come it from these areas and can be somewhat attended to while they wait for their baby to be born.  They might also come out of the hospital and spend a few days there as well, recovering before the head back to home.  If you have been helping with this back at SHBC, you will be glad to know that some of the items you have made/donated have been given out there today.  The facility is now houses 37 beds in relatively cramped quarters.  These stories are not always nice.  One girl who was there was 12 years old and a victim of incest.  The youngest they have had there is 9. The group that went did indicate that the place did need some work including things like bed sheets and curtains etc, to spruce the place up a little.  We will look to see what can be done over the course of our stay.

Another group took some of the food hampers that we built and Pastor Ed guided them to a place where the people harvest oysters,  The group could hardly contain the fact that there were piles of oyster shells higher than anything they had seen before.  Oyster shells were everywhere.  The people were warm and welcoming and invited group members into their "homes".  This is not exactly what you and I might call a house.  For the most part we probably would not park our lawn mowers in these buildings.  But, this is where the live and what appears deplorable to us is every day for them.

Pastor Ed and Monica Praying with a food hamper recipient

Piles of shells 

Local bakery where we picked up bread for dinner tonight

Lastly, another group went out in the evening with Miss Margaret (see previous post for Miss Margaret description) to help teach some of the local ladies how to knit.  It sounds like this was an amazing time for those who attended.  

 Shirley helping out with knitting lessons.

Once again, it was a very busy day.  We hope you are enjoying the blog.  If you are, please leave us some comments as we would love to hear from you.

Curt (last man up again tonight)

(for the Nic Team)