Second Work Day

We had a good breakfast this morning: gallopinto,scrambled eggs, French toast with syrup and/or peanut butter, bananas, and . . . Nicaraguan coffee.

One of the ladies who works here was out bright and early doing the laundry. 

It turned out to be even hotter today than it was yesterday, and by the end of the day we were all glad it was the end of the day.

Joel had to run some errands in Managua, so I rode along with him. On the way into town we passed this ox-cart loaded with wood. 

We stopped at a hardware store to get some electric wire, metal-cutting discs, and other things. Then we went to an Ace Hardware (yes!) to buy a battery for the tractor. I requested a stop at La Union, a chain of supermarkets owned by Wal-mart, because I wanted to buy some salsa and hot sauce to spark up the rather bland meals here. That worked out nicely, because we had tacos for lunch and the "Chilero" bottle made the rounds of our tables. 

The children are why we're here, so it's important to show you photographs of them. This is Tatiana and Isabel . 














 

Jose, Isidro (in the Superman cape) and Joseph enjoy playing together. 

 Celeste and Juanita enjoyed the attention of our team member, Margaret Naylor, and she enjoyed pushing them on the swing-set. Even though we're a "construction team" we're allowed to interact with the children, and they love attention.

Mauricio loves to drive this little car, unconcerned apparently that the left rear wheel is loose.

Bud and Ted are cutting the metal pieces that will be tacked onto the upper part of the fence to fasten the barbed wire on.

Global Ministeries hired a mechanic to come out and work on the tractor, but our group paid for a new battery. The hope is to get the tractor to where it can be started without jumper cables to another vehicle. We still have a lot of tree limbs to haul off and we need it to haul water to put in the post holes to soften the ground.

That's not smoke, that's green paint Ted is spraying onto a finished fence panel.

 To prove to my wife that I'm not just down here in Nicaragua to take pictures, Ron took this photo of me stirring sand, gravel, and cement. This mixture, with water added, will form the concrete that keeps the fence posts firm in their holes.

 

Today the "outdoor crew" set the first two panels in the ground and poured the concrete. Additional cross-pieces will be welded between the panels to fasten them together, and then the chain-link fencing will be fastened in place. By the way, the tractor now works fine.

The "shop crew" continues to make progress cutting and grinding pipe, welding, and painting the panels that will support the fence.


This is how I work on this blog at day's end--on my mini-computer. I download the day's photos off my camera, select a few to show you, re-size them for internet, and upload them to the blog-site. Then I add narrative or captions. Fortunately they have wi-fi here at Los Cedros. In case you haven't noticed from the photos, Los Cedros orphanage is a very nice place. The full-time Global Ministries missionaries in charge take good care of it, and we are privileged to offer them a little help on special projects like the fence and, a few years ago, an addition to the boy's dorm.

 Funny I didn't see Jason Schaad all afternoon, but I noticed him under the thatch-roofed pavillion in a hammock, being served a drink by Margaret Naylor. Wonder why he doesn't have that tired look on his face that I see on the rest of the team?

Supper was leftovers--a lot of different dishes we had seen before. I was glad to see the cheesy squash again, and I enjoyed the new addition, very flavorful sliced cheese. I didn't drink Nicaraguan coffee tonight, because I don't want anything to interfere with sleep. After devotions and a meeting to discuss what's happening tomorrow and later in the week. I'm going to hit the sack early.