Wednesday

Wednesday we all woke up very tired. We have been running from 7am to 10:30 pm each day, and it is really starting to wear us out. We had pancakes for breakfast, and Taylor said they were delicioso! I agreed.

We piled onto the bus at 9am, and as we were waiting to leave, these two very obviously American boys climbed aboard. Their names were Steven and AT. Steven is 18, and he is living in Mexico for a while before going to college in September. AT just graduated from college, and he is traveling the world until he figures out what he wants to do. He was just accepted to Peace Corps, and he has 10 days to decide if he wants to go. I can´t remember where he would be going, but someplace in South America where they speak Dutch. I´m sure that narrows it down a bit.

They were both living with a missionary family in Oaxaca, and the family sent them to help us with the construction. We are always glad for the help, though sometimes we have too many hands for the job (or not enough ladders).

The teams were split up again, and my team had Brandon, Jeff, Kimmee, Kelli, and myself. We also had Abram ( a Manos de Vida worker) and AT. Our team arrived at the sight, and we figured out that we would be framing out a roof on a small brick house. The brick is actually a light pumice type stone mixed with a lot of sand and very little cement. The blocks are surprisingly light, and a bit crumbly.

I was a bit unsure about how exactly we would be making the supports for the roof, since the beams were all 8 feet long, and the house was about 15 ft x 25 ft. (It would be housing 12 people) I learned a lot about construction in Mexico, however, and here is the secret. Splicing! A lot of it. Kimmee, Kelli and I pounded nails for a long time, and we were good! The men were impressed we could actually pound nails with accuracy, and we were pretty fast as well.

There was a little boy about 6 or 7 years old (he didn´t really know) who talked to us nonstop the whole time we were working. He didn´t seem to care that we didn´t understand most of what he said. He tried to teach us Spanish, and he showed us many times how strong he was. He was totally cute.

By the time lunch rolled around, we had framed out the roof really well, and it was surprisingly strong. Abram was able to hang his whole weight from the beams, and he was at least 250 pounds. We presented the food box and bible with the apron, and headed to lunch.

We ate lunch at one of the churches in the colony. It actually was one of the churches that Gloria and Felix preach at, and where Mixie teaches English classes to children and adults. The other group had been working on building a small house on the church property where a family and a small child would be staying. I didn't understand what happened, but they were homeless, and there is no work for them. They were crying when we prayed for them and presented the food box and bible. The little boy reminded me so much of my son that I had a hard time not crying. I played with him with a little hot-wheel car.

We actually left the projects on time today, and got home around 4pm. We showered and all headed out to the market to look around and shop. Dinner was at the Zocolo again, and then we headed back to the hotel to practice our skit for the bible club on Thursday. It was pretty funny, and we were laughing so hard that some of the workers came to watch. I got burnt on my face, and many other people got a lot of sun as well.

We headed to bed relatively early, around 9:30. Thank goodness....I needed it.