We left early this morning for a 20 minute drive to a nearby village called Parramos. We were going there to help an organization called “Arms of Jesus.” You can check out their website at http://www.armsofjesus.org/ We had heard that they had created a mobile home idea where they use beams and a hardyboard (kind of like drywall, but thicker and lots, lots heavier). We were told that a house can be built in one day using this method. We were all excited this morning as we thought we would be building a house from start to finish. Pastor Mike and Nancy dropped us off at 9:00am and said they would be back to get us at 4:00pm. So, let the work begin. We started by carrying sheets of hardyboard up to the second floor. These things were beasts, weighing about 180 pounds and very awkward in size.
Then, it was off to dig…and dig…and dig…and dig. We were digging holes for beams to build the second floor. We dug these holes for about four hours. They had to be 100cm long, by 50cm wide, by 1 meter 30 cm. Those are some big holes! (Check out Andrew’s video on his blog http://andrewmaas.theworldrace.org/)
Me working hard. Andrew not. (okay, not really, we were waiting for direction, not working yet)
Enough to come up to my chest, if I stood in the hole. We completed the first one in no time as the dirt was easy to move. Next, we moved inside and it was a little more difficult to maneuver around. We created a system using empty paint buckets. It worked well except caused me to have much dirt down my jeans from trying to fit in the small place. You know, that uncomfortable, I’ve been swimming-in-the-ocean, sand-in-my-bathingsuit-feeling. By the end of the day, we were covered in dirt and had worked all day with dust.
At this time, Candice was having trouble breathing as her asthma flared up. (She hasn’t had an attack in over 2 years.) She was without an inhaler. A woman at the organization offered to take her to a nearby clinic. Spano went with her as the rest of us prayed and waited for Nancy. Nancy arrived and we caught up to Candice and Spano. The clinic said that she needed oxygen and they didn’t have any so we needed to go to the hospital in the next city. We jumped in the van, found the hospital, and after an hour of oxygen she is doing great. So, we walked away from the day with more sore muscles, callused hands, covered in dirt, a trip to the hospital, still with smiling faces and confident in God’s faithfulness. We were planning to leave in the morning for Panajachel, but since it took us longer to get back and Amanda hadn’t returned yet (She got a temporary passport and will apply for a real one when we get to Peru. So, good news!) and we couldn’t our bus tickets. So, the lovely Watkins family is allowing us to stay an extra night. We are not sure if we are ever going to make it out of Antigua, but it does give us another day to work at the hospital and love on more children. Yeah!
Spano and I moving poles
