Third Work Day

 

We didn’t have gallopinto (red beans and rice) for breakfast this morning; instead we had rice and refried beans. For lunch—to give us a little variety--we had boiled whole red beans and white rice—along with a vegetable chicken-flavored stew that was surprisingly tasty. I got out my bag of salsa and chilero to share with the guys who like a little “heat” in their food.

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We eat in the same dining hall the children do. At breakfast we're usually there at the same time. It's nice to begin the morning seeing the smiling faces of the children. Many of them wave at us or call out "Hola!"

I finally got a photograph of Jason Schaad working in the shop. He's grinding the ends of poles so they can be welded as crossbars to the uprights of the panels.












Jason was obviously tuckered out after a half-day of hard work, because this is where I found him right after lunch.















Tom O’Donnell flew in last night to join the team. He worked really hard this morning drilling post holes with a power digger. He and his crew, Jaime and David and Karling—who live close-by—dug a total of 13 holes in their first two hours of work. We have reached an area of ground that isn’t quite so hard, so we don’t have to soak the holes with water to dig them deeper. To clear more of the fence line, another tree had to come down. Most of that was hauled to the far corner of the pasture this afternoon.





At the end of the day I noticed that the caregivers of the children were taking some of them on a little "field trip" to the chicken house. They all got to pet a chicken.

























From the chicken house they walked a little way up the lane toward the gate of the property and stopped to play a while in the woods.


























Tonight we shared a special occasion with Joel and Stephanie. They invited us to a cook-out at their house, which is next-door the the Los Cedros property, and Joel made the announcement that Stephanie is going to have a baby--their first. He told ME about it on Tuesday as I rode with him to Managua--right after Stephanie phoned and gave HIM the news. He had to share it with someone, and I was handy--but I promised I wouldn't tell anyone else on the mission team so he could break the news himself.

Here are the happy couple--Stephanie and Joel Estrada--shortly after the announcement. We lifted our soda-cans in a toast to them on this joyous occasion.






































The spread they provided was plentiful and delicious--three kinds of meat, salad, and twice-baked potatoes. But the very BEST thing was . . . no rice or beans!!


































At the close of the occasion the full moon rose over Joel's brother David's house next door, and the moon was so pretty I had to take this photo.


Today was a successful day. We accomplished a lot--more than some of us expected by mid-week. After devotions and a planning meeting we are relaxing until bedtime.