Construction Begins!

Hello! This is John, I’m a junior, and I’m sixteen years old. Today, the guys woke up a little bit late, and had about five minutes to dress and get ready for breakfast, which consisted of eggs and ham, three fruits, toast and butter, and some brown rice and beans, which were amazing when mixed with the eggs. After that, we had a little time to lounge around in the courtyard, which is absolutely beautiful, though it’s a bit too hot for me, as I’m used to the cold of Montana, but all is well.
                We packed into the bus and traveled for a little over an hour to Masaya.  We divided into two teams; I was on the new construction team.

We walked over about a quarter mile to a house that had the foundation laid and the posts and beams erected. Over the course of the day, we laid multiple rows of cinder blocks around the foundation.

 It’s amazing how the Nicaraguans can work in this heat and not waiver through the day; I certainly can’t. Lunch consisted of sandwiches - made last night by a group of us - chips, cookies and Gatorade. Then we went back to the house and wrapped up work for the day a bit after 4:00.

                Now I’m sitting in the church where we are to present our plays and skits this evening. The floor is concrete, so I’m a bit worried about falling on it during my play, but we will see how it goes.

John Jardstrom, for the team

Hola! Como estas? This is Kallee for the team. Today has been a hard and hot day so far. It puts a whole new perspective on working for God no matter how you feel. Today we arose early, ate some amazing breakfast and headed out to a village about an hour and fifteen minutes away. We were split up into two working groups. One group was to build a new house for a pastor and the other was to repair a home. I am on the repairing team.

Repairing the home wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be. What we did today was tear down the wooden walls, pull up the base boards, put new wooden beams in place and begin to put a new roof on. The heat of the day was scorching hot and it made it very hard to work.

An exciting thing that happened was when I pulled up one of the boards, a whole nest of termites came scurrying out! We tried to smash them with our hammers, but there were so many of them they went everywhere!

Anyway, the pastor’s wife was super-duper nice and very fun to talk to. Her name is Ana Maria and the house that we are repairing is her daughter’s house. She returns home today in a little bit. Ana Maria came and ate one of the sandwiches that Cara, Mackenzie and I had made last night.

I am soooooo thankful for Michelle. She is a blessing to have because she speaks Spanish the best out of all of us. I feel bad when I don’t understand what one of the locals is trying to tell me . . . that is why Michelle is so kind to help us communicate. J

In the early evening we attended a Nicaraguan Church service. It was amazing to hear God glorified and worshipped in another language. Roger, who is with Project H.O.P.E. shared an important and impacting message through Freddy, one of our translators, about a Father’s love. It was an amazing story and the Nicaraguans responded well to the message. It’s 7:45 and we are on the bus headed to the compound to eat dinner! And shower!!

Hasta luego mi amigos!
 Kallee Brownlee (the freakishly white gringo) :P