March was a month of construction. Our first week in Palacagüina was more varied than solely construction, though. We helped with a few services at the church where we stayed. We also helped begin the foundation of a church on top of a mountain. Other days were spent helping at the pastor’s house, where he was building a guesthouse for future volunteer teams. I helped shovel out rocks from the septic tank hole. (Much more fun than it sounds.)
My team’s move to León involved a move to complete construction, 5 days a week. We partnered with a pastor from Managua who has a vision for a retreat center for the pastors of Nicaragua. The center is 20km outside of León, within sight of a volcano, El Hoyo. The first building to be constructed is the chapel. A team of 5 Nicaraguan men had laid the initial blocks for the walls before we arrived and continued to build up.
Our job was to fill in the foundation, as the chapel sat on a hill. We first brought in rocks from around the property. Then we poured dirt over them; the dirt was also dug up from around the property. The final step was to tamp down the earth, which we had to do every few layers of dirt. At the end of 3 weeks we finished filling about 45% of the space.
It was a lot of work, and we got to know Pixie, Diggity, Wheelie, and A-rod very well. No matter what we end up doing as ministry, team Adelphoi always manages to find the fun side.
