Tuesday Nov 18th...contributed by Dan Matwey
We’re trying hard not to lament the fact we’ve been deprived of sub zero temperatures back home, but once again it was a hot beautiful day here in Nicaragua, so we’ll just have to try and live with it. Today was essentially a continuation of the projects that have now been underway for a few days. Mind you, no routine is ordinary in this environment and as a newcomer to this group; I can now understand what was meant when we were told that.
The construction site was a hub of activity in the morning, as we continued working on the warehouse, which is progressing well ahead of schedule. More so than our first day, we also got to work alongside our counterparts from Nicaragua today, which was really quite a treat. It became evident that language isn’t a complete barrier to communication as well, judging by their laughter at the antics of the KPC goofballs they were working with (these guys really do keep me entertained). With a delay in getting a supply of more panelling, we found out quite literally what it’s like to work in the trenches today. Not that there was one there when we arrived, but upon leaving a 50’ trench several feet deep was ready to accept the piping from the warehouse to the septic tank. A pretty messy job all and all with virtually nobody recognizable by the time we were done (Jim’s somewhere under that layer of dirt).
We’re trying hard not to lament the fact we’ve been deprived of sub zero temperatures back home, but once again it was a hot beautiful day here in Nicaragua, so we’ll just have to try and live with it. Today was essentially a continuation of the projects that have now been underway for a few days. Mind you, no routine is ordinary in this environment and as a newcomer to this group; I can now understand what was meant when we were told that.
The construction site was a hub of activity in the morning, as we continued working on the warehouse, which is progressing well ahead of schedule. More so than our first day, we also got to work alongside our counterparts from Nicaragua today, which was really quite a treat. It became evident that language isn’t a complete barrier to communication as well, judging by their laughter at the antics of the KPC goofballs they were working with (these guys really do keep me entertained). With a delay in getting a supply of more panelling, we found out quite literally what it’s like to work in the trenches today. Not that there was one there when we arrived, but upon leaving a 50’ trench several feet deep was ready to accept the piping from the warehouse to the septic tank. A pretty messy job all and all with virtually nobody recognizable by the time we were done (Jim’s somewhere under that layer of dirt).
We were back to the Barrio for the afternoon and it’s really quite amazing how quickly the new sports field fills with children within moments of us arriving. Again we were there for a few hours engaging them in a variety of games and there were a few hundred kids there by the time we left. The smiles (see the pictures) on these children and the simple joy they experience by having a group of men come to spend time with them astounds me, but they don’t get half as much out of it as we do. Tomorrow, a couple of us will begin touring the Barrio with a translator and sharing our stories with some of the adults, so a comfort zone that’s already stretched beyond what any thought it might be, will be pushed a little further. We’re all going to try and do a bit of that before we leave.
As always, the fellowship and chance for us to get to know one another continues to be one of the real blessings of this endeavour and I think it’s fair to say we’re bonding into a pretty close knit group and drawing strength from one another and drawing a little closer to God in the process.
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