Friday- Day 7

Hola once again!

(I should mention that the internet does not always work out here very well so it is sometimes difficult to get the blog updated on time. :) )

At the work site today, the scaffolding was put up around two of the walls. Window frames were put up and squared. The men stood on the scaffolding and had their large buckets of cement and the bricks on the boards by their feet. They began the bricklaying once again.

We also had to bring in dirt to build up the floor of the church and even it all out. Pete (which I should also mention is called Pedro by the people here) and Lisa dug dirt in the wooded area by the church. Francine, Irene and a member of the community took wheelbarrows and transported the dirt to the church where Ray used a rake to even it all out. One of the older men in the community used a pick axe to loosen the dirt and Pete and Lisa had quite the hole dug by the end of the day!! It took most of the day to transport all the dirt and lunch was a welcome break from the hot sun!

Lunch was more soup and a rice dish with chicken and salad and potatoes. The Bolivians here take the skin off the potatoes and tomatoes and laughed that we eat it all. The men played their instruments once again and then sang their traditional song…. And we sang some worship songs in English and then our anthem.

Carolyn sanded the rest of the pew benches and talked with some of the little girls. One of the little girls had a simple cloth doll and she wrapped it up in a blanket and then tied the doll up with another piece of cloth. It was cute because she was mimicking how her mother wraps the baby; all tightly wrapped in the blanket.

Irene and Carolyn also did a lot more of the spooning but because the scaffolding is in the way and the walls are getting pretty high now, had to wait until the men finished the walls up to above the window frames. Irene, Francine, Carolyn and Lisa then went up onto the scaffolding to spoon the walls up there.

It was neat again how some of the Bolivian men want to learn English. They point at things and ask us what it is in English and then repeat it over and over. One of the men was trying to tell Carolyn the Quechua word for tickle but it was becoming confusing and everyone had a different idea about what was going on. The word sounded like coochy coochy and everyone was laughing about this, even the next day. We all are trying to learn the Spanish for things as well so do likewise. Slowly we are learning from one another and communication is coming much easier!

Supper was chili and salad and many people from the community came over to eat with us. After supper, we set up a blanket as a movie screen and the projector to watch a movie. Marg picked the movie, ‘End of the Spear.’ We could not get the sound very loud so there were only Spanish subtitles to read. Everyone seemed to enjoy the movie and even though we could not hear anything and caught only a few Spanish words, we were able to make out the story line. Then it was tea time and off to bed once again :)