The Work Really Started Today!

Did I mention before that we were really tired from working so much? I was young and foolish! I think that we worked harder today than I have ever worked on a mission trip before. 

More about that in a minute...

We have been doing really well working with the kids at VBS in the mornings and, after a few tweaks daily to streamline things further, we are feeling more ready than ever. Challenges come up (wind, kids coming late, torn pieces of paper-it's devastating to a 4 year old, reluctant participants...name it) we've dealt with it. Our youth are unflappable! Jumping in to help where it's needed and finding, in some cases, talents that had been dormant for a while. Soccer skills came back into the arena. On my first mission trip to Mexico I was told by the director of our group, "Soccer is the game! If you throw a soccer ball into the field where we are working...fifty kids will show up!" We did, they did, a good time was had by all. 

This year we did more advertising and were lucky enough to work with the same church we'd helped before, so the kids showed up ready to go. The whole group is doing well and it is fun for me to watch the CPC youth become more comfortable with the kids and the activities. We sang three songs today and each one was designed to go faster and faster until it was just a jumble of syllables, giggles, and body movements. Our group did a great job of getting the reluctant ones to join in. (I even saw some pre-teens doing some singing...even though singing like that is sooooo five minutes ago....like this expression)

We made crafts today that the kids just loved. They were a little complicated and involved, and the kids were always happy to see the way they turned out. The outside crew (sports) played soccer and a leader (not mentioning names) was apparently quite adept at 'headers'. It's always fun to see the two cultures come together over something unifying like art and sports.

We were given a bit of a shock today. We did such a good job with helping them get their roof ready, added to the people from the church who seemingly worked endlessly, that they didn't need us for a work crew after lunch. That meant that we got to go back to Agua Viva and lounge around sipping 7up and orange juice out of cups with little paper umbrellas in them. Wait, that's the exhausted delirium talking. Back at the rancho we were told that there were two teams needed. One for construction and one for clearing a new path. Since the thought of me wielding a machete chopping down bushes and small saplings made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, I chose construction. Actually they didn't say "construction" they said "woodworking" so I thought: Great! I'll hammer a couple boards together slop some paint on it and call it a day. I couldn't have been more wrong.

We were greeted with, Measure these exactly because we will be bracing to build the second story of this two story building. Unlike other projects I've worked on in Mexico, this needed to be exact. We measured, cut, carried, fastened, swept, and even used a nail gun. Like a real gun! You load .22 caliber shells into this contraption, put a nail into the end, press it up against the wood, and pull the trigger. Bang Bang! In fact, whenever we got to the place in the job where we needed the nail gun, our foreman would yell, "BANG BANG!" to let us know to get ready. I have to admit that it was pretty fun using it! It is difficult to explain just how heavy these 20 foot 2x6s really are, but when you have to move them from place to place it wears on you.

The construction team measured, cut, braced, fastened for most of the day. The path clearing people finished that job around 4 and told us they were done and that two of the girls got to use an axe to chop down things in the way. We were just hitting our stride. 5 rolled around. Still we worked. The dinner reminder came and went. Just two more beams! We got it done. We are now ready to do even more work tomorrow. Yikes! I better get some sleep!

I'll try to have the kids write soon. Cross your fingers.