Tuesday

Like usual, today started out with breakfast and heading out around 8 am. We always have different foods at breakfast, and today we had a new, odd one to try.. It was called "grenadine" and resembled fish eggs, fish eyes, and crunchy snot (these are all ways it was described). It tasted sweet but had a very slimy texture.

At the orphanage, we continued working on the projects we started yesterday. For the concrete slab, we finished clearing out the sod and and mud and started filling the area in with large rocks. There are two wheelbarrows at the orphanage. One, however, has a broken tire. And the tire on the "good" wheelbarrow ended up getting a severe leak to the point where we weren't able to use it. Sooo, that meant we had to carry rocks from a large rock pile to the concrete slab area where Mr. Kuester was placing them (about 150 feet). At one point we had an assembly line, consisting of "throwers, loaders, and mules." It took all day, but we got all of the rocks laid into the 60x10 foot area for the concrete slab. At one point, the boys put boards on ladder and piled rocks on there. Rain also started pouring, but they worked through it for a couple hours! Luckily, we got a new wheelbarrow and new wheel around 2:00 in the afternoon, which helped a lot! Finally around 5:00 they had finished placing all of the rocks. Now we will be laying the concrete tomorrow!

Mr. Hart, my dad and Jeremy (one of the long-term volunteers) worked on the drainage system. They are still trying to figure out what would be the best thing to do to fix the problem.

The mothers did a lot of cleaning around the orphanage while the kids were at school. I went inside a little bit before lunch to help make lunch for the kids before they came home. Since I was already in the kitchen, I ended up helping make our lunch today as well. Karissa (one of the founders of Bless An Orphan) made us soup, and some of us had grilled cheese too.

After lunch, those who were working outside continued on with their projects. Inside, I helped the kids work on homework. Although the homework typically isn't too difficult (most of the kids are under 10 years old), but it is usually hard to keep the kids on task.

The boys were scheduled to teach the boys at the orphanage how to play soccer, but unfortunately the rain interfered with that. Instead, we decided to play "pato-pato-goose"! It was a little bit different than the traditional duck-duck-goose, but we made it work. : )

Later, our group ate a pot roast (that Karissa made) with the orphanage. It was delicious! So far, all of the food we've had down here is really good!! We stayed after to visit with the kids; we played around with them and sang a few church songs while Mrs. Lundy played her guitar. At around 8:00 we returned from dinner. Some of us kids went down to "Tienda Nacional" to buy ice cream. A few of us played cards, and then we had another prayer/reflection service.

Since we were able to use the internet tonight, some of us have been on our devices sending updates back home. According to one of the hotel owners, they will be working very hard to get the wifi to work. Say a prayer that we don't lose internet again tomorrow! :)

¡Ciao! (today we learned that that is the traditional way to say "bye" here!)
-Kaitlyn