Friday, March 8, 2013

Thursday construction update by gbG (guest blogger Gary)

On Thursday work continued at the library/ education center job site. Amy finished painting the hall way and we both tackled the large room which will be the main public area of the library. All but a small piece of wall in the main room is done! The big push on Thursday afternoon was to get that highest wall done so that we were not in the way of the local welders on Friday. Our goal of primer painting the whole building is in sight! And I'm sure there are other side projects we can tackle.

Terry, Mary, Lynne, and Chandra continued work at a medical clinic on Thursday seeing about 85 people. Ask Chandra about her transportation adventures in getting to the clinic site!

Chandra and Mary have their last work day at the clinic on Friday as they head home on Saturday. Some team members are planning on leaving many of their trip clothes behind. And some are replacing that clothing weight with many pounds off Nicaraguan coffee. Nicaragua is the forth largest coffee exporter and Mary is single-handedly trying to get them to number three.

Terry, Lynne and I will be staying in country a few days longer until next Tuesday. Amy will be spending another week in country with the medical team and will be coming home Friday of next week.

I plan on doing the Managua airport run with Mary and Chandra on Saturday. We will certainly miss these two dynamic ladies from our team. Jinotepe is about an hour away from the Managua airport (depending on traffic just like any major city). Dr. Bill Kerns from Smithsburg will be arriving in country around the same time on Saturday, so we will be picking him up during the same run. As the medical team is here in Nicaragua for four weeks, their cast of characters is constantly changing as people rotate in and out for one week (or longer) stays.

More construction pictures below including Richard from Iowa as he is working on the library book shelves.

Note the duct taped double extension poles on the paint roller. It kept me off of scaffolding which makes my wife very happy as I do have a scaffolding story from my past adventures at a Mexican job site.

There are also some pictures of our hotel Casa Mateo in Jinotepe. (Note: Terry and Lynne have been roughing it with some other members of the medical team in Huehuete all week. I'm sure the would love a hot shower by this point.)

The last picture shows why we are here. That is a picture of a dump of the edge of Jinotepe a short, few minute walk from our hotel. There are usually ladies there scavenging for anything they can find. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in this region. Only Haiti is poorer. Scenes like this one make my mind race. They draw me inward to the reflect on the excesses of my own life and hopefully to action.

Continue to pray for our safety and health along with the well-being of our families back home. Without their support in the trenches on home front, it would be impossible for our team to leave home and serve the people of Nicaragua.






















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