From Sienna's Journal
January 28, 2008
This morning we had pancakes with syrup, bacon --well not normal bacon--refried beans, watermelon, one piece of pineapple. Then all the people who were going to Jazmon got in a group. Jazmin is one of the work sites. THen me and Meghan rode next to each other with Brittany and her grandpa in the very back of the van. Whe were were out of the truck we got to the site. We had to start the foundation. It was about 20 or 10 minutes after me, Meghan, Meghan's mom and a few other people took a walk. We saw a ton of different things.
Then we came back and there were kids there. We gave them some lolipops. They love lolipops. We gave them all balloons. Then we got out frisbees. We kicked the balloons and did frisbee for a while.
When Julia brought lunch for us it was homemade and it was great. It was tomatoes, black beans, homemade tortillas anda beef blob which I didn't eat.
After lunch we went to an old woman's house and brought her food because she only gets food when people bring it to her. They think she broke her leag five years ago and her foot is infected.
The lady's house was a falling apart shack. Boards were everywhere and nails were on the floor. Some people stayed to fix it while me, Brittany, Meghan and Brittany's grandma walked home.
One of the girls gave us a chocolate covered banana. It was really good.
One of the girls said "Blah blah blah coco." We had no idea what she was saying. We asked Brittany but she did not know. Then the girl said, "Blah blah blah coco. Blah blah blah coco." Then she moved her hand in a way that was like "come" she led us to her house.
Her older sister and her younger sister took a big axe-thing-a-ma-gig and whacked a coconut down. The axe thing was very long so they did not have to climb up the tree.
The mom hacked it with a different smaller big knife. The mom cut it and we drank coco le leche--coconut milk. I might drink it again. They let us bring one cocnut home. Me and Meghan each got to bring one coconut home.
Brittany taught us how to do Jacob's ladder--a fun game with electric pink string. Most of the kids were doing it. Me and Meghan got it down. Brittany can do it in under five seconds.
--Sienna
The day started off really slowly, and I was amazed what we accomplished by the end of the afternoon. There are a bunch of local dads and maybe some grandpa's who are leading the job. We started out having to dig a foundation--about 20 workers (volunteers and local guys) with six shovels. I sat that phase out and went on a walk with the girls.
Then we had to move rocks to line the foundation and when we finished that we had to wait for the bags of cement mix to arrive. The young teens took us on a short hike up a steep hill behind one of their houses. The view was amazing. We are in a small valley surrounded by mountains and so when we got to the top of this hill we not only had a birds eye veiw of our foundation, but we could see out to the mountain range. The mountains look a little bit like Kauai--tall, green and jagged. The whole landscape (at least in this area) is lush and filled with banana fields, sugar cane and palm trees for palm oil.
The school site--Jazmin--is up in the hills. Apparently 70 kids in K-6 go there and there are two teachers. The teacher, Juilia, who's sister has made us lunch both days, teaches the younger kids in a thatched open-air structure. The classroom that we are building is for her.
The guys get a kick out of us women. There are frequent good-natured snickers when we try to do something or especially when we carry something heavy. (Even three shovel-fulls of cement in a bucket is enough for me!) None of us speak Spanish well enough to converse, but s few people get the gist of what's going on.
I wish I could communicate with the kids. We brought up art supplies yesterday and Sienna and her H2H friends and the local girls loved painting and coloring. I had this one girl--Yeimi--attach herself to me. She kept on coming up when I was filling the blocks with mortor and trying to tickle me--then the guys would shoo her away.
January 28, 2008
This morning we had pancakes with syrup, bacon --well not normal bacon--refried beans, watermelon, one piece of pineapple. Then all the people who were going to Jazmon got in a group. Jazmin is one of the work sites. THen me and Meghan rode next to each other with Brittany and her grandpa in the very back of the van. Whe were were out of the truck we got to the site. We had to start the foundation. It was about 20 or 10 minutes after me, Meghan, Meghan's mom and a few other people took a walk. We saw a ton of different things.
Then we came back and there were kids there. We gave them some lolipops. They love lolipops. We gave them all balloons. Then we got out frisbees. We kicked the balloons and did frisbee for a while.
When Julia brought lunch for us it was homemade and it was great. It was tomatoes, black beans, homemade tortillas anda beef blob which I didn't eat.
After lunch we went to an old woman's house and brought her food because she only gets food when people bring it to her. They think she broke her leag five years ago and her foot is infected.
The lady's house was a falling apart shack. Boards were everywhere and nails were on the floor. Some people stayed to fix it while me, Brittany, Meghan and Brittany's grandma walked home.
One of the girls gave us a chocolate covered banana. It was really good.
One of the girls said "Blah blah blah coco." We had no idea what she was saying. We asked Brittany but she did not know. Then the girl said, "Blah blah blah coco. Blah blah blah coco." Then she moved her hand in a way that was like "come" she led us to her house.
Her older sister and her younger sister took a big axe-thing-a-ma-gig and whacked a coconut down. The axe thing was very long so they did not have to climb up the tree.
The mom hacked it with a different smaller big knife. The mom cut it and we drank coco le leche--coconut milk. I might drink it again. They let us bring one cocnut home. Me and Meghan each got to bring one coconut home.
Brittany taught us how to do Jacob's ladder--a fun game with electric pink string. Most of the kids were doing it. Me and Meghan got it down. Brittany can do it in under five seconds.
--Sienna
The day started off really slowly, and I was amazed what we accomplished by the end of the afternoon. There are a bunch of local dads and maybe some grandpa's who are leading the job. We started out having to dig a foundation--about 20 workers (volunteers and local guys) with six shovels. I sat that phase out and went on a walk with the girls.
Then we had to move rocks to line the foundation and when we finished that we had to wait for the bags of cement mix to arrive. The young teens took us on a short hike up a steep hill behind one of their houses. The view was amazing. We are in a small valley surrounded by mountains and so when we got to the top of this hill we not only had a birds eye veiw of our foundation, but we could see out to the mountain range. The mountains look a little bit like Kauai--tall, green and jagged. The whole landscape (at least in this area) is lush and filled with banana fields, sugar cane and palm trees for palm oil.
The school site--Jazmin--is up in the hills. Apparently 70 kids in K-6 go there and there are two teachers. The teacher, Juilia, who's sister has made us lunch both days, teaches the younger kids in a thatched open-air structure. The classroom that we are building is for her.
The guys get a kick out of us women. There are frequent good-natured snickers when we try to do something or especially when we carry something heavy. (Even three shovel-fulls of cement in a bucket is enough for me!) None of us speak Spanish well enough to converse, but s few people get the gist of what's going on.
I wish I could communicate with the kids. We brought up art supplies yesterday and Sienna and her H2H friends and the local girls loved painting and coloring. I had this one girl--Yeimi--attach herself to me. She kept on coming up when I was filling the blocks with mortor and trying to tickle me--then the guys would shoo her away.
1 comment:
You are both amazing!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences! I pray that you will be blessed as much as you are blessing others!
Thank you for being God's hands and feet in the world!
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