Busy and sore bodies dragged themselves to a delicious breakfast this morning. There, our bodies consumed delicious pancakes, fresh fruit, and “pigs in a blanket”. We were quite stuffed! Arriving to the worksite this morning we were welcomed with a swarm of stubborn and scary honey bees. Overnight, they decided to settle in one of our tractor beds.
The “home” that they created set back our plans for quite a bit of the morning. The tractor that they were nested in was the machine that we needed to transport concrete to create walls and to stabilize the foundations. The bees seemed to enjoy the water that we tried to squirt them out with, and the branches that we fanned them with. NOTHING seemed to work to get them out. Though, some of us took advantage of this setback. One of the group members won a Frappe by being “brave” enough to touch a spot that the honey bees were at, while some relaxed in the hot sun.
Without the help of the tractor, the group wheel barreled numerous amounts of cement to be then transported using ladders and five gallon buckets. This process made up a majority of our day but finally created a nine foot wall of concrete and six rows of concrete columns. Many hands, legs, faces, and even mouths were covered with cement by the end of the day.
After work was over, and the lack of a shower, the group members piled into the van to go hang out at the barrio. This consisted of playing games with children, many scrapes, and pretending to know how to speak Spanish. Some of the kids laughed at our poorly speaking Spanish skills, while we commended their excellent English skills. Even though we speak different languages, we were reminded that we could still have fun, laugh, love, and worship the same God.
All in all, today was a day filled with many memories, yummy food, and great conversations. Thank you to all who have been following our blog, and for continuing to support us!!
Gina
Great project! Fun to see the progress with the cement mixing, and the wall looks straight and level. It will also be fun to see what the columns look like when the forms come off. NICE WORK.
ReplyDeleteForming up cement is like taking young people who do not know each other well to PR and mixing them up in that environment for a week and then seeing who they are when they get back to school and what changes have been made:)
what's all the buzz about!! :) way to stick with it you guys!!
ReplyDeleteWe are happy to hear that you are being very well fed - need to keep up your strength to endure the demands of building cement walls & 'bridges' to the community. Precious lives are being touched while you are being the hands and feet for The Lord! I hope the bees were not a bother today but gosh, bees like tractor rides too;-) Your loved ones miss you but are so proud of your accomplishments!
ReplyDelete-Tiana's mama and family :-)
WAy to go team and being flexible is what it is all about. We have moved a bees with smoke before.
ReplyDeleteLove your interaction with the community there.