Wednesday Jan 26th

This was another of those adventurous days and it started off with most of the male contingent of the team pushing our transportation out of the driveway.  If there is one thing you learn in the DR, it is to be flexible.  As you can see the van was in dire need of a kick start.  It also needed propane.

This little setback was not going to hamper our plans.  The team Macgyvered a solution .. Donna pulled out a black rolly suitcase and that was the new home for the chop saw.  The team picked up all the tools and started the 15 minute walk to the job site.  Pastor Ryan was quite the trooper with a >50 lb bag on his back and a backpack on his front.  He certainly leads by example -  we love him!!
Fortunately, for some of us, the 15 minute walk was cut short when a second vehicle caught up and gave us a ride.  Even encumbered as he was, Pastor Ryan and a few other faster walkers did not benefit from this ride.

We worked for a few hours and then made the presentation of Dale's quilt to Mirabel, the widow with 3 kids and soon to be new home owner.  This was the most amazing tribute and response and my words would be a pathetic attempt to convey it.  We did not get video of this as the ZNN news truck had also broken down (that's a joke!!).  Michele made the offering to Mirabel and the extended family (grandma, grandpa and los ninos) and she was choking back the tears as she expressed our gratitude in being able to bless the family.  Mirabel then drew out any fluid that was remaining in peoples eyes by declaring that she was so undeserving of this gift.  She said she prayed like Daniel – 3 times a day for so long and she never thought her prayers would be answered.  She is a humble woman who gives a lot of herself and it was extremely emotional to see this hero express herself.

Between the tears and the heat, it's really easy to get dehydrated here.  So it was a major milestone to be able to get the roof on today.  That's what we were doing, along with siding for today.  Big Mike had tonnes of fun shopping the DR way.   We need 'plywood' to finish the inside of the house and a simple 30 minute run to Home Depot, turned out to be a 6 hour adventure for Mike and Donna.  The funniest thing was – okay not funny as we were hungry and tired and the truck didn't arrive till well after 7pm – the rear doors on the van do not open from the outside and the plywood was inside the van.  To access the unlatching mechanism, we had to get someone to crawl under the plywood which was resting on the benches of the 15 person van.  Somebody wasn't thinking when they loaded the plywood and then shut the doors!!.

During our working time, we often stop to play with the kids.  We've played soccer, catch, marbles and Ryan has even attempted to bridge the communication barrier with the kids.  Here are some candid shots of the kids with a few earlier shots of 'my' Georgeli (HEE-ORRRH-HEL-EE) playing games on our pizza day.

Oh yeah, I managed to find a picture of me on a Moto-concho...motorcycle taxi.  This was truly one of my fear factor highlights of the week.  As Tom said, we had no idea where we were going and we weren't  within sight of each other, either.  I did have a subsequent ride, because as any frequent Home Depot patron knows, you invariably need a second trip to get what you missed.  On this second ride, I was more adventurous.  I insisted that we do a 3 person ride with Pedro and myself as the passengers.  Pedro weighs half as much as one of my legs and with me on the extreme end of the Moto-concho – let's say there was bottoming out of the fender as we navigated over the few speedbumps they put in busy areas.  I have a 2 minute video of my first ride which I will treasure for some time!!

Here are some shots of us working today.  Even the young lad was up on the roof.  It was a great team effort and we made significant progress today.  The doors were put in and locakble, the roof is on, and the siding is done on 80% of the house – the 80/20 rules applies here as well, since we've reached the peak and that is the difficult portion.

The house is looking amazing and several of us had commented as much.  We didn't know how it was going to turn out, but so far so good.  Even with the beauty of the new house, you have to see the conditions that these families live in, and we only got a taste (or more accurately- smell) of this for a week.  There is a stagnant, fetid 'river' behind these houses and we were shocked to discover it wasn't septic discharge. Even the dirt road that the houses are on is quite filthy and littered with refuse and liquids of unknown origin.  The dichotomy is mind blowing in that the ultimate in human recreation – resorts and golf courses- are minutes away from conditions that most of us would find unlivable and would likely deem a health hazard.  Please pray for these folks and our continued relationship with Montellano.  We have so much to offer these people and they in turn can teach us so much.  Their kids and the people seem to be so happy with what they have …