Day 6

This morning we spent time, visiting the house sites. We first went by Mary Luz`s house to give her the food that we picked up in Leon. Jessica and David were not there, because they were at school.

Next we stopped by Family #4`s house. Below you will see progress of the house. Note, most of the houses are further behind than the one we are working on, because we had more labor at our site.

Below we are blessing the same house with the family.

We then went to Family #2´s house to see the progress there. Below is a picture of the work done on the house.

In the picture below, we are blessing the house.

This is a picture of the 4 children of Family #2. They were not there on the first day. They were adorable and shy.

The progress of the house for Family #1 is shown below. This house is the furthest behind, because some of the materials showed up late. But we know that the house will be done.

And here is a group picture with Family #1.

There wasn´t much to do at the job site in the afternoon. But we did have to dig out the porch. The next few pictures show the team and there shoveling skills.

Group picture at the end of the day.

Tomorrow is our last work day. Time flies. It only seems like we just arrived. We will work a half day tomorrow and then have a party to celebrate the 4 houses at the Peace House. After the party we will be traveling to Las Peñitas and may or may not have internet access. So don`t be surprised if the blog isn´t updated for a while.

Mañana

Day 5

We´re still going strong. We started today out with some old friends. We invited Mary Luz, David, and Jessica to come eat with us. So, they joined us for breakfast this morning. If you remember, this is the family that we built a house for in 2008. It was good to see them. We have included a picture below.

Carrie Shirah and her family donated several Spanish New Testament Bibles to bring with us on this trip. Many have already been handed out. Below Carrie is showing one of the books to the daughter of a lady that cleans the peace house.

This morning the roof was finished. This is a picture of the last of the tin being put on.

Today the group worked the whole time on the cement walls. This meant that we needed a constant supply of fresh cement. So Johnny, Philip, and Brandon played a big role by keeping the cement coming. Below Philp is mixing a new batch.

Below Brandon and Johnny are working together to fill in the cement between the cement blocks. We had teams working on different stages of the wall construction to keep everything moving along. Someone would work on laying the blocks, someone would make the cement, and someone would fill in the gaps.

This is a picture of everyone working (except the cameraman Wes). There are some advantages to being the photographer for the group. You get to take pictures when everyone else is working.

Glenda found time to take a bicycle for a spin. The bicycle is a major means of transportation in this area of Nicaragua. Many times, two people are riding on a bike. I don´t know how they do it.

We had a short work day today, so that we could go into Leon and enjoy the city. We worked until one and called it a day. This is a picture of the house at the end of our day. It probably looked a lot different at 5 when Fernando finished working on the house.

This is a group picture at the end of the day. Some members of the team had walked back to the Peace House early so not everyone is here in the picture.

While in Leon, we bought some food for Mary Luz and her family. This is a picture of Wes carrying some of the food down the streets of Leon to the van.

Mañana.

Day 4

Well we had another wonderful day today. We started laying blocks for the walls and continued work on the roof. Today Arnoldo, Earling, Oscar, and Anna Maria came to the work site to help us with this house. It was great to see them again.

Wade climbing a tree inside the cow pen.

Wes and Philip are adding nails to the posts that will be apart of the walls, to give the cement something to hold on to and keep the wall from falling over.

Brandon and Denise are cleaning one of the footings before the first row of blocks is laid. That way there is good adhesion to the footing.

Glenda got united with Oscar. We met Oscar last year when we were building a house for him.

Denise and Earling are adding mortar between the blocks on a row. We also met Earling last year at the house we were building for him.

Johnny and Carrie are hard at work, laying a row of blocks.

This is a picture of Ninoska (the mother) and Yader (the little boy) . This will be there house.

At the end of today, we have three sections of wall in progress. and the roof is ready for adding tin.

The group picture at the end of the day.

This is a picture of the family from last year. From left to right, Anna Maria, Arnoldo, Oscar, and Earling. I got to go and see the house that we built last year. It looked great. Fernando did a great job finishing the house. We have not been able to complete a house yet, but we know it will be finished even if we are not here.

Hasta mañana.

Congratulations Kelly and Cliff

This post is for Kelly Johns (formerly Kelly Rainwater) and Cliff Johns. They were married this past Saturday. They are part of the church family at Trinity. The picture below is for them. We hate that we missed your wedding, but we were still thinking about you.

Day 3

Well we had another great day. Everyone worked hard and had a lot of fun. The first picture below is a shot of the group at breakfast this morning. This room near the Peace House is where we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have three ladies that cook all of our meals. Most of which is rice and beans. Everyone perks up at lunch when we have something differnet like fried chicken.

Today we began work on digging the footings for the cinder block walls. Below is a picture of Denise Moody and Tania (Our translater) digging on of the footings.

Below is a picture of Carrie Shirah working on digging out the footings for another wall. The depth of the footing trenches is marked with string. Carrie had a bad reputation of cutting that string as she shoveled.

Glenda and Brandon helped gather rocks for the footings. The volcanic rock is used as a cheap reinforcement for the concrete.

Johnny liked to deliver rocks by the sack full. We said he looked like a Nicaragua Santa Claus.

This is a picture of a complete footing. We are going to let it cure overnight, so that we can lay block tomorrow.

Wes is helping Fernando install the center cross bracing for the roof. He got tasked with this because he is Muy Alto (Very Tall).

Wade´s height was also utilized as shown below.

This was Philip working his hardest all day. Your welcome students. Use this any way you want.

In the afternoon, a baseball game broke out at the worksite. Everyone had a great time. Carrie is at bat and Denise is pitching.

This is the house at the end of the day. The footings were completed and the roof has been started. Tomorrow the wall building will begin and the roof will be finished.

This is a group picture. Everyone is present in this one.

More tomorrow. Good night.

Family Number Three

I saved family number three for last because this is the house that we are going to help build. This house is being built for Yader Caballero ( 23) and his wife Ninoska (18). They have a 15 month old son named after his father and a baby on the way. They are shown in the group picture at the end of this post in the front center.

Below is a picture of the site when we arrived at the beginning of the day.



Below is a picture of Johnny Kampis after moving a bunch of the volcanic rock behind him to the work site for use in putting the six posts that will support the house.



Wade Griffith and Brandon Harsany help Juan Pablo ( our driver) level one of the posts of the house before the add the cement to anchor it.



Keeping Hydrated. It´s Hot down here. So its important to drink plenty of water. Wes Stewart is helping Gelnda Hinson refill her water bottle at the work site. We have to buy big jugs of water, because the water is not safe for us to drink.



Taking a break. The group is taking a break right now. Glenda is not in the picture, she is probablly helping Fernando ( our foreman) and Juan Pablo (our driver) work while we are goofing off. This year we have some shade. Last year we were out in the sun, so we are lucky for a cool spot to rest.



Carrie Shirah and Philip Westbrook are hard at work mixing concrete for the posts. This is tough work and everyone took a turn at mixing concrete by hand.

The picture below is a picture of the house at the end of the day. We did as much as we could do today. We got all 6 posts upright. The concrete needs to cure overnight, so we can start putting the roof on tommorow.

This is a group picture at the end of the day. Everybody had a great time and everyone is in good spirits. It is exciting to be working in Nicaragua again! Wes didn´t make it into the picture, he is behind the camera.

More to come tomorrow.