Happy Tuesday!

AT THE DUMP....
When the guys arrived in the dump this morning, there were about 30 people waiting with tools to help! The main job was to prepare the site where a community center is going to be built. As a little background, 20,000 people live in and around the dump of Guatemala City. They include a large portion of Mayan people, who migrate here from the north, looking for work. Many of them "work" for the city/government, sorting and collecting trash for pay. There is little if any running water and/or electricity, and most of the people have to pay to have showers, which they can't afford. But this morning, many of them were waiting for our crew to arrive, to assist with the work!

Shane ran the caterpillar machine, leveling the site, which is 20 feet by 50 feet. He also plowed [yes, plowed, in 80 degree weather] a path through 6 feet of garbage to allow access for cement trucks to arrive tomorrow. They built retaining walls at the top edge of the site, and also a 2 block high wall in the middle of what will be a split level building. Three of the people stayed all day to help, and worked hard. Most of the people helped until they were just in the way of the machine, and then got out of the way. Our guys shared their lunches and fruit with the many kids who came by to watch, and were thanked by the president of the community association at the end of the day. "We could not have done this, or afforded to do this by ourselves, and we can never repay you." It was quite a change from our last trip to have people helping, pitching in as needed. A few women even hauled buckets of water to mix the cement, filling 50 gallon drums for our use.

IN THE LIMONADA....
This morning, two truckloads of crushed rock and one of sand were dumped outside the Limonada, and our guys spent most of the day shoveling the materials into bags, piling them into wheelbarrows, and pushing them about 200 yards to a house, where they stacked the bags inside, to keep them from being stolen. As Craig was answering my question, "What did you do in the Limonada today?" I was thinking, "This doesn't make for very exciting reading!" But think about it. Our guys spent 4+ hours shoveling, pushing, hauling, and stacking sand and stone. This will eventually be used to build a retaining wall by the Christian school to provide more security and stability. Tomorrow, they are doing it all over again. As I sit here in the office, I can hear them all chatting and laughing about the day, and I am wondering how they can even be awake, much less happy! All I can say is, here we are more aware of God in the little moments than we are at home. Even as we were traveling here, the plans were changing, emails were flying, cell phones were ringing. But never once did we doubt that whatever we ended up doing would be exactly what God wants us to do this week. Sure, the guys are tired. Lots of coffee is being consumed, and I got a round of applause for buying the biggest bottles of Coke I've ever seen to go with dinner. But it's the best kind of tired there is, knowing that you have given your all to accompish God's will. It's an amazing feeling!

AT DORIE'S.....
Dorie's Promise was buzzing today! Ellie and Ron spent almost the whole day painting, putting two coats on the two downstairs bathrooms in Casa 5, and also putting the sealer coat over the concrete that was plastered on the walls of the isolation room yesterday. I don't know how they did it, because I walked down there to see how they were doing, and the smell of the sealer literally took my breath away. I had to go back upstairs and outside!

Jeff and Ed spent the entire day making a cement ramp coming out of Casa 5, which has been a long time coming. Alex, the young man who is in a wheelchair, has had be to carried in the chair down the two steps every time he leaves the house. Obviously, this is not easy for the Special Mothers, who are very happy to have the ramp built. [I think they'll be even happier to have the painting done, so the babies can move back into their bedrooms!] They had to cut the plywood for the forms with a hand saw, and mix all the cement in a wheelbarrow with a shovel and gardening tool, so it wasn't quick work, but it is going to be a beautiful, functional ramp when it dries tomorrow.

I think I had the most fun of anyone today, although I'm still tired from running up and down the steep hill from the guesthouse to the kids' houses all day. This morning I baked heart shaped cupcakes [a challenge in itself, since I've never baked in a gas oven, or had to convert F to C!], and then prepared four different colors of frosting and cups of sprinkles and candy to decorate with. The two and three year olds go to preschool here on campus in the morning, and they came up to visit me for their snack after school. It was so cute to see them all sitting around our two dining room tables, their little heads barely reaching the top of the table. One of the Special Mothers, Diana, thankfully speaks very good English, so she helped with the directions, and we were off! Frosting was being licked off of knives, fingers were being dipped into sprinkles, and most of the cupcakes were decorated in no time! Then, when they were done, they all put their hands down and waited for the Mamas to lead them in prayer, to the tune of Popeye the Sailor Man, complete with the "toot, toot" at the end. I actually got the prayer on video, we've been watching it all night, it's so cute! Not until they prayed did they eat, and then some of them took their time to enjoy every last crumb. One little guy looked at the Mama nearest him, and when it was safe, he picked up his plate and licked it, and put it down quickly again, checking to make sure he didn't get caught. When he saw me taking his picture, I got a big grin. When they were done, we took out some paper and crayons and sitckers, and had a lot of fun with them. Chelsea, about 3, made a picture and gave it to me for "su casa,", and when I showed her I would hang it on the wall, I got the biggest hug. These kids are just so special!

After lunch, I went back to the babies [of course], and my little buddy Jose was crying again. I picked him up, and he spent an hour or so with me, wandering around the orphanage, running errands for people, and checking on jobs. Desi told me today that he was abandoned on a city street and found by someone who called the police. A social worker took him to a state home, but they didn't have room, so someone called Dorie's, and an administrator and Abel went to pick him up. He is about 3-4 months old, and he's really cute, when you can coax a smile out of him he has a little dimple. Yesterday I though the Mama told me his name was Juan, but as usual, I misunderstood! I've discovered the best way to find out their names, feed them a bottle! The names are written on them! So I started out thinking I was just helping the Mama by taking the squawking baby out of the room, but ended up falling in love with a little guy whose mother left him on a city street like so much garbage.

Desi found a few more projects for us to do around here, including fixing a wall to a storage room that leaks, and painting a few more bedrooms in the baby house while they're still moved out. Lindsay is going to repaint a mural of a sand castle in the Isolation Room after the walls are painted, and she's also going to add some colorful decorations to the walls of a recently painted girls' room in Casa 6. Whenever we finish a job and think we can relax, Desi comes running up saying, "Do you need something to do?" I learned today that the majority of the mission groups coming here are comprised of teens, who don't have the expertise that our team has. So obviously, it makes sense for them to make use of us while we're here. That's WHY we're here, after all!

It's time for evening devotions and share time, which is always a lovely mix of laughter, sadness, and marvel. It seems every night we're going to bed earlier, and every morning we're comsuming more coffee! Desi had to make an emergency Costco run for more coffee tonight! Thanks for all your prayers, we really need them, and can feel them. The only thing I wish now, is that you could all be here with us, because there is SO much to be done, and SO much to learn. Stay tuned......

[Amy]