Today was piso de cemento hoy – cement floor day.
Ready for cement day!
Doug had this to say about it, “We all worked really hard today and got a lot accomplished. Mostly doors, windows and some trim left for tomorrow. Our family (Doug’s team) consists of a momma, Iris, and two teenage daughters. They carried cement buckets with the rest today, as did Iris’ elderly mother. They are so excited for their new home. Daniel (Ne) came back from the City today with gift baskets containing a perfect assortment of basic household kitchen stuff. We’ll present the gifts to them tomorrow along with the new mattresses. They don’t know about either of those so it will be a fun surprise.”
Bags of cement and screened sand await mixing.
Greg can tell you, those bags aren’t light.
This is how they mix cement in the Dominican Republic.
It’s not an exact science.
Ready for hauling.
It’s a lot of work!
The bucket brigade in action.
Every able body chipped in to help.
The Coronado daughters were pulling their weight on the bucket brigade.
Building some arm muscles!
That smile tells me that this beats high school any day of the week!
Gloves come in handy on days like this.
Tanner must have been tasked with collecting the buckets and running them back to the mixing pile. I’m sure he was kept hopping!
I think Sandy would rather be gazing at those beautiful flowers in the background than hauling heavy cement.
Making sure everything is in order.
As you can see, it takes many buckets to fill even a small area.
I hope they made sure to leave a way out of the house.
Screeding the concrete.
Not sure what the blue stuff is. Anyone?
A clean and tidy perimeter.
Later in the day, the ladies shared some Bible lessons with some kids at school.
The VBS team in front of the class of kids. From the left: Sandra Knee, Melissa Walters, Kathy Miller, Krystal Seeling, Emmy Seeling, and Noell Grose.
Noell handing out crayons to the kids.
Krystal helping a little guy with his VBS project.
School children working on their VBS project.
In general, it seems like most of the women on the team are becoming close with many of the children that seem to constantly be around the sites. There are some great relationships being formed and there are sure to be some tough goodbyes coming very soon.
Emmy getting her hair braided.
Emmy and the village kids.
Fernanda braiding Krystal’s hair. Paola is on her lap and Maria is next to them. They were teaching her spanish, even writing out words for her to see the spelling.
Emmy with more kiddos.
Anjolouis (on-ho-louis) on the left and Rubio with their apple-hauling truck.
Anthony and Krystal with even more kids.
Oh, and did I mention there are some awfully cute puppies hanging around?
Los Perritos – puppies
Franchesca and Krystal as los perritos on Snapchat.
And what would a trip to the jungle be without a local Starbucks?! For those who love coffee, they have been given a rare treat. Cafe Abuela (coffee grandma) sells coffee beans from her shack, of which she is very proud. Each day, using a mortar & pestle, she grinds the beans and makes coffee for the crew. I’m told it’s extremely good!
Cafe Abuela – Coffee Grandma
Cafe Abuela’s Starbucks shack.
Saturday is sure to be wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time as the homes get dedicated, the families receive their gifts, and everyone says their goodbyes. Please keep them all in your prayers.
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