Oh gosh, it’s been a crazy day. Crazy good.

We’re sitting outside under the thatched-roof open-air hut reminiscing about our great day. We’re all laughing so hard we have tears running down our faces. So here’s our attempt to recap what went down today.

The day started with a French toast breakfast with pineapple and watermelon. There’s always an assortment of tasty jellies for the toast, including from grape, guava, coconut. We’ve been blessed with coffee and orange juice each morning, also. After breakfast we had a short devotion from Tanya about committing our plans to the Lord, and He will establish them. We divided the team up, some going to perform eye exams and the rest traveled to a rural preschool to leadd Vacation Bible School. The medical group traveled about 20 miles through redlight district to get to the Quetzalquaque library. The team tested about 25 patients, giving out 17 pairs of glasses. That team had stories about one elderly woman who could barely see when she first arrived, was given a pair of glasses, and left rejoicing that she was able to see her granddaughter again. The woman gave each of the team members a hug and a kiss out of appreciation for what they had done for her. Her life has been forever changed by the works of these team members.

The other team traveled over the river and through the woods to a small pre-school named El Jardincito Preschool. The preschool’s head teacher/principal/after school worker/janitor/head cafeteria worker/maintenance worker – well, she does it all. Her name is Ramona. She’s actually a volunteer who has been loving on preschoolers for 12 years. The school was built by the El Ayudante project, to assists with training children. There were 37 kids at that school this morning who greeted us with ear-to-ear smiles and traditions hand gestures which we did not understand (but later figured out.) The kids were all very well behaved. The team performed a skit, sang some songs, helped with coloring pages, and gave away snacks. Near the end of our time together, Ramona gave us a tour of the classroom where the kids learn all kinds of letters, numbers, stories, etc.

Upon arrived back at campus, we enjoyed chicken with barbequed veggies sauce, cabbage salad, pineapple and watermelon. For drink we’ve been offered Coke Zero or Regular. Our lunch today was a short one, since the teams all had many projects planned for the afternoon.

Again, we had 2 different teams: construction and medical team. The construction team continued to dig the hole for the latrine, along with building a brick wall for the kitchen. The guys were jumping in and out of the hole, taking turns. Once the hole was deeper than the guys are tall, they began to use a bucket with a rope to remove dirt from the hole. Russ, Wes, and David were trying to out-do the locals in a digging contest. Not sure who one that contest, but by the time they left the jobsite, the hole was about 8 feet deep. Todd and Brett man-handled a “Wackypacker” (AKA Jumping jack). It’s basically a stump with 2 shovel handles attached on the sides, and it’s used for compacting dirt to pour a slab. Rachel, Leslie and Tanya helped to haul dirt and fill crevices in the brick wall.

On the medical team, they blessed the construction sites home-owners with a trip in the campus where we stay in order to have all of the family member’s eyes examined. The kids were bursting with excitement to get to ride in a vehicle for their first time ever. Some family member didn’t need glasses, but other ones did. The mom received reader glasses, and one of the children will have custom made glasses send to her from the ‘States. The medical team also performed eye examinations for 13 children from the afterschool program on campus.

The teams all returned to the campus to experience typhoon type rain. We were all drenched before dinner. Speaking of dinner, we had chicken with whole-leaf lettuce salad, pineapple and watermelon.

After dinner we received a kind word from Courtney regarding God being evident in our lives.

Quotes from the day:

Todd: “Is Troy ironing his pants?”

Tanya: “Need some Preparation H to hold you over?”

Brett: “Steve is returning a better favor than I gave to him.”

Wesley: “Russ, you have ‘man-hands’.”

Steve: “Everything is bigger in America.”

Courtney: “If you need to pee no one will know because you sweated so much.”

Anna: “Dear Lord, please give us farts, (quickly changed to) hearts to follow You.”