Monday July 19, 2010

Today we went to the Samuelito Daycare where Pastor Sheri spent time in March. They only had 1/4 of the normal kids because no one wanted to get out in the cold! Our hosts said La Paz had snow yesterday and last night and canceled school for the entire week! Yuneth, the director gave us a tour of the daycare and shared some amazing stories of how the existence of the daycare in that neighborhood is bringing real and lasting hope and love.After that we cleaned up construction trash, moved rocks and then had the opportunity to go spend some time in the classrooms with the kids. We laughed, they laughed. They showed us funny faces, and they argued over who was next for a photo.
"Mio!" (3 year old #1)
"No, mio!" (3 year old #2)
(Repeat last two lines ten times at ever increasing volumes)
"No mas fotos." (youth pastor ruining all the fun)

In the afternoon we moved a truck full of dirt into the new construction to make the ground level to pour floors. After we finished the truckload, we planted a little grass and headed home.
On the way home we stopped at la feria, the fair... which is a twice a week crazy shopping mall that springs up on the street in some places. Some one word descriptions from students:
Crowded, intense, epic, gridlock.
It is a crazy mass of people walking through thousands of shops, especially this week as they all try and get warm clothes.

We are having a great time and are all looking forward to being back at the daycare tomorrow.
Pray tomorrow for energy- we used a lot today!

Pray also for each student to experience Christ and community deeply. We have a great team and are having a great time, I just don't want us to miss the things the Holy Spirit puts out in front of us to see and do.

(Sheri: Yuneth's eyes lit up to talk about you when she realized we were from the same church. She wishes you were here and misses you a lot. All the ladies say hi and wish you had come! I kept waiting to take the picture of them opening the suitcases today, but they never had time to open them. I will try to get some tomorrow. Oh, and by being here in the summer, you missed out on Yolanda making api! Oh man... tasty!)

Micheal packing the sand that we were bringing into the new construction areas.

Casey and a little boy becoming friends over lunch!

Planting grass by clump instead of seed or US style sod! It goes against everything that feels right to us, but it's how they plant grass here!