Ok so I know I've gotten lazy with updating the blog. It's been a long week but a good nonetheless. Sunday we went to church in Mololoa. With 69 gringos we packed the place and the sidewalks outside. After church we went to lunch and then Didasko. If you remember a couple weeks ago I posted about the financial struggles that Jorge Castillo, the director of Didasko orphanage, was having. Palmetto Church of Christ and Mayesville Church of Christ decided to raise money specifically for the orphanage and together they raised $8,000. So we went out to the orphanage and decided to see their specific needs and which ones we can meet. Our leaders met with Jorge and the money is going to be a huge help for them. I'm not sure exactly how it will be used but it will help tremendously.
Monday we went back out to Mololoa and built 2 more houses. We had another long trek up the mountain but finally made it to the site. Then after carrying the wood down to the actual house site we got started. My team had a house right on the edge of the mountain, like if you fell, you were going all the way to the bottom unless a few rows of barb wire caught you first. It was intense but we got the house built.
Tuesday the group I was with had a few different things to do. First off, we went to the grocery store to buy bread, meat, bananas, cookies and water for over 200 people. We then made the sandwiches and headed to the dump to give them out to the people that live and work there. For those who have never been there, it is quite an experience and a place I love to go. Of course it smells terrible but you are giving food to people who literally have nothing. It's a place I wish we could go everyday. The little kids come running from everywhere all dirty and jumping over piles of garbage. It's a really tough place to go but it's a place that sorely needs hope. We fed just over 200 people. You want so badly to take the kids out of that place and put them somewhere where they will actually have a chance at a decent life. It's really awful. After that we went to the hospital for about an hour and then back to the mission house.
Wednesday I was with a group that packaged up food and went to Tres Rosas to deliver bags of food. It is a really, really mountainous area. We gave out about 225 bags roughly but it was a tiresome thing to do. After that we went to dinner in Santa Lucia and then back to the mission house.
Today we built another house out in El Peliguin which is in the La Tigra rainforest. The site was a little ways off the road so wood had to be carried but the build went pretty quick. We had the house built in 3 and a half hours. By 1:30 we had met up with the rest of the team that was delivering more bags of food in the area and we stole about 70 of their bags and went ahead of them to give those out. We were able to do a lot of great work today but I must say that I'm pretty tired.
We have also had Dr. Jorge Aguillera conducting medical clinics everyday this week. He has been working tirelessly in different communities seeing as many people as he can. I'm not sure how many he has seen but it is well up into the hundreds. It's awesome to be able to work alongside someone like him who has such a passion for meeting the medical needs of people.
Since Sunday I've been sick. First it started with my stomach and then it moved to my chest and head. My sinus' have been killing me and I've been coughing like it's going out of style. It's been a long week to say the least but today I feel I've turned a corner and am getting better. The bad thing is that a few others have picked up this cold, or whatever it is, from me. Tonight we are going to the Jesus statue after dinner so that should be fun. Today is Thursday and the thought is starting to creep into my mind that in just 4 days I'll be headed back to the states. It's hard to stay focused on the work at hand when you know it's going to be coming to an end for you soon. I want nothing more than to be able to stay here much longer but everything eventually comes to an end. I'm now on the home stretch, today marks exactly a month that I've been here. It's time to finish strong. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. Our team shrinks tomorrow. The Mayesville group heads back home in the morning and that leaves about 25 or so of us for the remainder of the trip. It has been a blast working with them again this year and hopefully things work out so we can do it again next year.
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