It still doesn't seem like we should be on spring break, let alone in Mexico. And yet, today we finished building 2 houses and tomorrow, we're headed back to the U.S. The last two days have been really, really busy and we've accomplished a lot.
Today, we got to the worksite around 8a.m. and got to work right away. We had a team doing sofit, another mixing stucco, two teams working on drywall, a team doing trim on the doors and windows and a final team doing the stucco on the houses. The whole work site probably looked like an ant hill as we ran around, getting jobs done and watching as the houses continued to come together.
Stucco is something you either love, or you hate with a passion. Our stucco team today was amazing! We had a minimum of 6 people, but usually quite a few more, working on the houses at a time. As soon as someone was too tired to keep going, another person was ready and waiting to take the trowel and get to work. With 12 of us working, we had the first house done in under 3 hours. It was amazing. Emma, Dakota, Lauren P, and Nicole have the edging and the wall tops down to a science, and Kevin R. learns quick. He was a "pro" after 2 seconds of training (or so he says). The stucco team was quick at learning and had the perfect mix every time. Hannah, Kelly, Kayla, Matt and Kelsey has perfect consistency for the stucco every time and Ryan was quick to have the wheelbarrow full for us to use each time.
The drywall team worked all day long to get the drywall hung. It took longer than we anticipated, but Becca, Kevin L., Casey, Megan, and Joe stuck it out until it was done, with help from Scott and Nicole. Peter and Jenny got the lighting, ceiling fans and working outlets into both house, and the wiring was done safely, not with loose wires all over the place like you usually see.
The families we were building for made us lunch today as a thank you. They made us chicken in a somewhat spicy sauce with tortillas and rice with corn and peppers. They also had 2 different sauces for us to try. I would tell you what it was exactly, but my Spanish is horrible. It was so much fun to eat with them and they were thrilled whenever anyone went up for seconds.
After lunch, many of the jobs for the house were done except for the drywall. Cassie, Lauren P, Emma, Kelly and Trista started playing with the little girls who were playing on our site. Cassie will be studying in Costa Rice this summer and is already practicing her Spanish, so she was able to translate (roughly) for us what the kids were saying. We gave them piggyback rides (they liked it best when we were having a running race, being chased by someone else or sneaking up to tickle attack someone), played with water balloons and danced. Jim, Ryan, Drew and Brett wound up spending most of the afternoon playing a game of basket/foot/baseball (all with a soccer ball) and water balloons.
Vincente also taught Jim different words in Spanish and enjoyed having some of our snacks. It was really fun to have time to play with the kids and spend time with them. We were probably weird gringos to them (scratch that, we were weird gringos to them), but it didn't matter. They always had a smile on their face and we loved getting to play with them. The sound of little kids giggles is one of the best in the world.
We dedicated both houses late this afternoon. We spent some time praying over both houses, and singing worship songs and then we started the dedication ceremony. We gave both families a Spanish Bible that we all signed, 2 sets of keys to their house and nailed a Casas plaque on the roof. We prayed with each family and then gave the kids soccer balls and jump ropes. The little kids especially loved the $5 sunglasses a lot of the students had bought at Wal-Mart in El Paso, so the sunglasses stayed on the kids heads when we left. Vincente, one of the boys, wound up with Brett's hat, Nate and Kevin L. both gave their hats away too. It felt so odd to leave these kids, even though we haven't known them for that long. They've made a difference in our hearts, because they put a face to the stories that you hear.
We came back to our host church and got cleaned up. (Most of us still haven't showered. We're working on plans to shower in the US tomorrow after we work at the Casas por Christo compound.) While dinner was underway, many of the students went outside of our host church to have a worship service. Hearing the music come through the windows and doors while we were cooking was so nice and refreshing, especially when they sang "Desert Song" a perfect song for this week.
Everyone is doing well. There's some blood blisters, banged up thumbs (Megan's is in a constant OK thumb position), splinters, etc. which are all normal for a building site. We're tired, but so excited about what we did this week.
We'll be in El Paso tomorrow with strong enough wifi to upload photos to the blog for you to see. We have a couple thousand, but we'll just post a few.
We'll talk to you tomorrow when we're back across the border. Thank you for your prayers - we love you guys!
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