Well, the rain started around 1:00 am and seems to be slacking off now at 7:00 am. I am tired, deep down to the bone tired, but the funny thing is I want to get out there and work on that home for that family. I am such a blessed man, I have three beautiful, wonderful children, three sisters who would do most anything for me, my mothers smile is still one of the most joyous thing I can imagine and a woman who really makes me happy and loves me. Yet even with all these blessings I get wrapped up in the daily hubbub of life and forget how fortunate i really am. But I guess it all comes into perspective when you see that tiny little house we are building, the 6 people who will be living in it and the gratitude they show everytime we help them. I'm not sure if they have jobs, or how they earn money to buy food and what we call the "necessities of life",but they manage. Every day we need to realize how good we have it....
Today at the work site, our two builders started working on the windo and door frames on the home, while the other five of us went to work on a house that was recently finished, but suffered some damage in this latest rain. The house hasn't been lived in yet, thank God because we had to redig some of the septic tank sides. The septic tank consists of an inverted cone dug into the grounds out 8 feet deep with river rocks lining the walls, the waste water flows into the tank and the water leeches through the rocks back into th soil. Guess who was the lucky guy to climb into the bottom of the septic tank? Yup, yours truly. After that we had to dig a trench around the entire pit, about 12 feet on each side about a foot deep so they could place cement blocks to support the cement lid they have to add to cover the septic tank. After we dug the trench we had to mix cement to fill the trench and bricks. We got an amazing amount of work done today, it sure felt good. I have never sweated as much as today. It was like a wet t-shirt contest for us, we were soaked from head to foot. I mean drenched!! At lunch time we went back to the main compound and ate our pb&j's drank our Gatorade and started playing with the kids. Playing with the kids consists of soccer, frisbee, bouncing the balls, jumping rope, basically spending time with the kids. (Come to find out that alot of the kids don't even know who their father is. Most of the kids come from a single parent (mom) family. So any attention they can get from a male figure is craved and needed. It is a very sad thing to see. All the kids love " Miguel" the missionary, they especially like him to play soccer with them, it's not that he is great or teaches them moves, what it is is that he hugs them, roughhouses around, and gives them attention. He is a very loving man towards the kids). Pretty soon the soccer field cleared and a game developed, the local kids against the gringos. We have 3 really good soccer players with us, one played in college, 2 others in high school, these three were our only redeeming grace, the rest of us just plain were terrible. But we had fun, and the kids had fun. There were 2 injuries during the course of play, of course old graceful me sustained both of them. The first was when I tripped on the ball and instead of taking the hit to my face, I took it to my hands and left knee. Scraped and cut, still staying in there. The second was when I stole the ball from a kids and again tripped over the ball, this time I banged my head really hard against the concrete wall. I banged it so loud that one if the kids was concerned and asked Mike if I was ok, Mike replied " he's still standing, I guess he is ok". I was still standing, thank God I have a thick skull.the game finally fizzled out, then the real fun began.
I had a molar pulled.
I had a molar that the temporary crown had fallen out of about a year ago. I couldn't afford to get it fixed, (1000.00) so I decided to get it piled along time ago. I never had the time or inclination to get it done. The other missionary team has two dentists and a complete dental office in a suitcase. He offered to take it out so I said sure. I had a friend take pictures of the chairs they used and the dental process of removing the tooth. The dentist had to cut the tooth in half, then pulled half out, and then had to cut the half in half again to get it the rest of the way out. All in all not the most pleasant afternoon. After that we came to the dorms and showered and ate dinner. I'm gonna cut this short now and go to bed, I hurt all over, knees, back, hands, and mouth. But that's ok, I would do it again in a second.
But I am a blessed man having the ability to be here, assisting in Gods work, hopefully inspiring the kids thru our actions.
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