Day 3, 4, and 5

Hola!

Since arriving at La Union on Friday, we have all gotten pretty settled and used to life at La Union. After some hard labor on Saturday, we had Sunday off to rest and relax. We also had the opportunity to go to the church at the compound as well. Although most of us did not know what was being said or sung throughout the service, it was awesome to see and realize that even though we are so away from home, the people at the church were worshipping the same God that we worship. It just shows how big God really is which was totally awesome. After church, we had lunch (yummy lasagna) and then while others hiked around La Union, the majority of us stayed back to watch the girls’ soccer team from Vida Abundante win their game at a soccer tournament on the compound. The rest of the afternoon was spent resting, hanging out, playing Egyptian rat, or playing banana grams, which has quickly become a favorite game to play for some of us, thanks to Jack.

Later on in the evening, some of us got the chance to play with the kids. We got to teach the kids some card games and they were teaching us some games as well. However, it wasn’t until the cameras came out, that we got to have a lot of fun with the kids. We have some pretty funny pictures that hopefully we can upload onto the site soon.

After that, the group got together and had a night of worship and prayer. It was great to worship God together and just pray and praise Him as a united group. Plus, it was awesome to be in the mountains and underneath the stars. It’s sometimes surreal how much beauty surrounds us here!

On Monday, we woke up to have breakfast at 6:30 in the morning. Some of us are still getting used to the schedule here. The sun comes up before 6 AM and sets down around 5 PM so all of our schedules are a couple of hours earlier than what we were used to at home. Most of the time at night we overestimate the time by thinking it’s later and time for bed. But then, somebody will say, “It’s only 8:30!” Anyway, by 7:30 AM we started to do work at Vida Abudante. We continued our various tasks from the previous day, but we got our first experience with mixing and pouring concrete. It was different today because since it was a weekday we got to see the kids were in school. It was neat because it was a reality that the classroom we are building could potentially make a big difference in these kids’ lives. It would be awesome if we could finish this classroom by the end of the end of this trip! Because today’s labor was a bit strenuous our lunch break was very much appreciated. After lunch, we worked for another two and half hours. People were feeling much better, and we got a good amount of work done for the day. After that, we had the rest of the evening off to rest up. Resting up once again included banana grams. :)

Tuesday was a much better day in terms of how everybody was feeling. For the most part, most of us were feeling better than on Monday when we were pretty exhausted. We got more of the wall built up on Tuesday and also made a lot of concrete. I think it’s safe to say that all of us will come back a bit buffer because of shoveling concrete!

Although the work has been tough, it has been really great getting to know everybody too. Since we all work together, eat together, and then hang out together, I feel like everybody is getting to know each other a little bit better which has been good fun too :).

Hasta luego!