Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Tuesday - Construction Day 2
Good day, good day.
Built 4 houses today. That brings the total to 7. Our goal is 11. As long as it doesn't rain, we're looking pretty good. The plan is 2 tomorrow and then come back to let people take a shopping trip nearby or just relax.
Today we didn't have nearly as tough a time getting in and out of sites. Heck, we even drove up and parked beside our last one. NICE!
Jeff feels better about himself today because when we left the work site, he turned around in the small truck with a three point turn. I, on the other hand, in a bigger, longer van filled with 12 people , took about 9 points. Small victories for small people,
Here's something many of you do not know. Jim Morgan is a very, very good guitar player. He has mentioned this to me in the past, but I'd never seen it until this week. he has played before worship both nights. Not that "Sweet home Alabama" stuff , either. Fancy stuff.
The kids keep coming out every where we work. We saw some today from yesterday's work sites, and they're not real close. We talked about that tonight as a group. Part of why they would come back might be the candy, but a large part of it is the attention they get and the love they feel. Their parents live hard lives and spend most of their day doing stuff to survive. Cutting the fool and making kids laugh is probably not something they have the luxury of doing very often. I can do that and work at the same time,so.....
We have a super group of people here this week. We haven't had to assign any duties around the house because everyone has just stepped up or chipped in. One of the real drags is loading the truck in the morning and unloading it when we get home. Haven't had to ask anyone to do it yet, because they go back and do it on their own.
Thursday night is when we will do food distribution. It has been my favorite part of the past two trips and I'm excited about it this year. I can't wait. The local church goes into a community and passes out approx. 200 tickets, 1 per family. Thursday night they show up with their ticket and go down the line with a bag and we fill it with a predetermined amount of food items. The majority of people are little old ladies and single moms with a ton of kids in tow. The feeling you get when you see their excitement and the looks of gratitude is something I have trouble describing. It hits you deep and stays with you.
The first year we did it, we really had no idea how it would shape up. We walked into a room with a thousand people in it, that had been waiting two hours for us. It gave me chills. I still remember passing out stuff with Christian Davis and doing stupid magic tricks for the people who sat near our spot in the line. He and I got someone to teach us how to say "God Bless You" in their dialect. We butchered it every time, but they smiled when we said it and that was good enough for us.
I don't know if you know who's here, so let me tell you
WILL DEAL/ JANE DODD/ McCALL DUDECK/ JON HILL/ WAYNE HILL/ ASHLEY JOHNSON/ ABBEY LEWIS/ DEWAYNE MALPASS/ JOHN MARCUCCI/ WALTER McCALL/ JIM MORGAN/ DREW PITTMAN/ TWIG ROLLINS/ KELLY SOFFE/ JEFF TANNER/ GINGER TAYLOR/ DON VIGUS/ NOT WES DAVIS(The daily Wes Davis HAMMER TIME #3) and me.
We're here and things are great but continue to pray for us. We need it and desire it. There are still great things to be done here and prayer is how it will be accomplished.
Thanks.
g
P.S. Check out McCall"s post. Without any prompting, she hammers Wes too. Gotta love that. g
Built 4 houses today. That brings the total to 7. Our goal is 11. As long as it doesn't rain, we're looking pretty good. The plan is 2 tomorrow and then come back to let people take a shopping trip nearby or just relax.
Today we didn't have nearly as tough a time getting in and out of sites. Heck, we even drove up and parked beside our last one. NICE!
Jeff feels better about himself today because when we left the work site, he turned around in the small truck with a three point turn. I, on the other hand, in a bigger, longer van filled with 12 people , took about 9 points. Small victories for small people,
Here's something many of you do not know. Jim Morgan is a very, very good guitar player. He has mentioned this to me in the past, but I'd never seen it until this week. he has played before worship both nights. Not that "Sweet home Alabama" stuff , either. Fancy stuff.
The kids keep coming out every where we work. We saw some today from yesterday's work sites, and they're not real close. We talked about that tonight as a group. Part of why they would come back might be the candy, but a large part of it is the attention they get and the love they feel. Their parents live hard lives and spend most of their day doing stuff to survive. Cutting the fool and making kids laugh is probably not something they have the luxury of doing very often. I can do that and work at the same time,so.....
We have a super group of people here this week. We haven't had to assign any duties around the house because everyone has just stepped up or chipped in. One of the real drags is loading the truck in the morning and unloading it when we get home. Haven't had to ask anyone to do it yet, because they go back and do it on their own.
Thursday night is when we will do food distribution. It has been my favorite part of the past two trips and I'm excited about it this year. I can't wait. The local church goes into a community and passes out approx. 200 tickets, 1 per family. Thursday night they show up with their ticket and go down the line with a bag and we fill it with a predetermined amount of food items. The majority of people are little old ladies and single moms with a ton of kids in tow. The feeling you get when you see their excitement and the looks of gratitude is something I have trouble describing. It hits you deep and stays with you.
The first year we did it, we really had no idea how it would shape up. We walked into a room with a thousand people in it, that had been waiting two hours for us. It gave me chills. I still remember passing out stuff with Christian Davis and doing stupid magic tricks for the people who sat near our spot in the line. He and I got someone to teach us how to say "God Bless You" in their dialect. We butchered it every time, but they smiled when we said it and that was good enough for us.
I don't know if you know who's here, so let me tell you
WILL DEAL/ JANE DODD/ McCALL DUDECK/ JON HILL/ WAYNE HILL/ ASHLEY JOHNSON/ ABBEY LEWIS/ DEWAYNE MALPASS/ JOHN MARCUCCI/ WALTER McCALL/ JIM MORGAN/ DREW PITTMAN/ TWIG ROLLINS/ KELLY SOFFE/ JEFF TANNER/ GINGER TAYLOR/ DON VIGUS/ NOT WES DAVIS(The daily Wes Davis HAMMER TIME #3) and me.
We're here and things are great but continue to pray for us. We need it and desire it. There are still great things to be done here and prayer is how it will be accomplished.
Thanks.
g
P.S. Check out McCall"s post. Without any prompting, she hammers Wes too. Gotta love that. g
I'll try my hand at this...
So today was another long day, but a great day! Our group built four houses today and that was sweet because my group built one and a half! Apparently I am not on team All-star, but don't get me wrong, I am on team Awesome! Two major differences between yesterday and today: no rain, and less of a climb. These were both huge blessings!
On my work site we ran into a minor problem...on top of the mountain we ran into the Nile River. Maybe not, but it was an unpleasant surprise to hit water so early in the digging process. However, nothing can stop Team Awesome or Jeff the resident engineer, so we just made concrete! What ingenuity!
Enough about the building...the best part of the trip are the Guatemalan children. Don't tell my parents, but I really want to bring one home! Today John got a soccer ball out or futbol as they call it and we played in the street. Did you know we are in the mountains? Yeah...that means the ball gets through the kids and it rolls and rolls and rolls. No worries. Fatigue is not a factor when I spend time with these kids. God grants energy and joy even in my moments of exhaustion. I really loved playing with them and watching the joy they received from a simple game of soccer or a piece of candy. It is amazing when you watch any member of our team play with the kids because they all reflect the love of Jesus. I absolutely love seeing God work through others so naturally!
At our last site today we encountered our first taste of Guatemalan animals other than dogs and cats. We got up-close and personal with pigs, cows, goats, and sheep. Ashley, Abbey, and I wanted to take a picture with the cow but we were afraid. The result: we stood within 5 yards of the cow and cheesed. Then, we saw a pig and decided it was less threatening...still not an easy picture. It was tied to a stake and we tried to pull it closer and made him mad. A girl tried to calm him down and before we knew it the pig took off! At that point we all looked the other way and prayed we hadn't just freed their dinner...oh well! We got to hold a baby goat which was fun, but all the girls did load up with hand sanitizer after the animal episode...safety first...well maybe I'll just do what everyone else does. I am not a clean freak, but you know it can't hurt to keep your hands clean in this environment. Speaking of clean...my luggage arrived yesterday and that was a huge blessing!
okay so it is time to go because now Gary is reading over my shoulder and putting the pressure on me to be a pro blogger...not everyone can be as cool as him. Maybe I won't go to bed super early because we only have to build two houses tomorrow!! However, team awesome likes to take their time so it could still be a long day. To be honest, long days aren't bad at all when you are serving the Lord and hanging out with some really wonderful people!
Love to all,
McCall
(take the time to note the rhyme)
P.S. I don't know Wes Davis, but according to Gary and Jeff I am pretty sure he would have cried because we worked until 6 o'clock for the second day in a row.
On my work site we ran into a minor problem...on top of the mountain we ran into the Nile River. Maybe not, but it was an unpleasant surprise to hit water so early in the digging process. However, nothing can stop Team Awesome or Jeff the resident engineer, so we just made concrete! What ingenuity!
Enough about the building...the best part of the trip are the Guatemalan children. Don't tell my parents, but I really want to bring one home! Today John got a soccer ball out or futbol as they call it and we played in the street. Did you know we are in the mountains? Yeah...that means the ball gets through the kids and it rolls and rolls and rolls. No worries. Fatigue is not a factor when I spend time with these kids. God grants energy and joy even in my moments of exhaustion. I really loved playing with them and watching the joy they received from a simple game of soccer or a piece of candy. It is amazing when you watch any member of our team play with the kids because they all reflect the love of Jesus. I absolutely love seeing God work through others so naturally!
At our last site today we encountered our first taste of Guatemalan animals other than dogs and cats. We got up-close and personal with pigs, cows, goats, and sheep. Ashley, Abbey, and I wanted to take a picture with the cow but we were afraid. The result: we stood within 5 yards of the cow and cheesed. Then, we saw a pig and decided it was less threatening...still not an easy picture. It was tied to a stake and we tried to pull it closer and made him mad. A girl tried to calm him down and before we knew it the pig took off! At that point we all looked the other way and prayed we hadn't just freed their dinner...oh well! We got to hold a baby goat which was fun, but all the girls did load up with hand sanitizer after the animal episode...safety first...well maybe I'll just do what everyone else does. I am not a clean freak, but you know it can't hurt to keep your hands clean in this environment. Speaking of clean...my luggage arrived yesterday and that was a huge blessing!
okay so it is time to go because now Gary is reading over my shoulder and putting the pressure on me to be a pro blogger...not everyone can be as cool as him. Maybe I won't go to bed super early because we only have to build two houses tomorrow!! However, team awesome likes to take their time so it could still be a long day. To be honest, long days aren't bad at all when you are serving the Lord and hanging out with some really wonderful people!
Love to all,
McCall
(take the time to note the rhyme)
P.S. I don't know Wes Davis, but according to Gary and Jeff I am pretty sure he would have cried because we worked until 6 o'clock for the second day in a row.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Monday- First Construction Day.
Today was .......tough.
The first year was a fairly easy once we got to the place we were building. It was in a paved village and we parked outside of our work sites.
Last year we had to get out and carry our tools but it wasn't that bad.
Today we drove an hour and 20 minutes to get to the site. Then we had to get out and carry everything up Mt. Dadgum Everest.
Not really, but we did climb a very steep and long hill, steep and long being the key words. Everybody was huffing and puffing at the end. We probably went up 150 ft. in elevation, steeply.
We built our first house there as one big group, so everyone could see it start to finish. After we built that, we split into two groups and one group climbed up and the other group went down some and then back up higher to build at different sites. That way we met our goal of three houses today.
Have I mentioned it's the rainy season?
Yeah...........
As we were finishing and getting ready to load up and carry everything down the long, steep and up to this point, dusty hill, it started to rain. Big honkin', cold rain.
Getting down the hill was very tough. Wes Davis would still be up there.(Daily Wes Davis HammerTime #2) Basically it was just one long slide down. There were 2 sketchy bridges we had to cross, too.
There was a kinda fun element to it, but at the end, it was just.."Finally!"
But God is Good. We did it with His strength and for His glory. 3 families got houses today. We managed to play with a slew of kids at each spot. Nobody got hurt.
Hope everything's good back home with y'all.
See ya tomorrow.
The first year was a fairly easy once we got to the place we were building. It was in a paved village and we parked outside of our work sites.
Last year we had to get out and carry our tools but it wasn't that bad.
Today we drove an hour and 20 minutes to get to the site. Then we had to get out and carry everything up Mt. Dadgum Everest.
Not really, but we did climb a very steep and long hill, steep and long being the key words. Everybody was huffing and puffing at the end. We probably went up 150 ft. in elevation, steeply.
We built our first house there as one big group, so everyone could see it start to finish. After we built that, we split into two groups and one group climbed up and the other group went down some and then back up higher to build at different sites. That way we met our goal of three houses today.
Have I mentioned it's the rainy season?
Yeah...........
As we were finishing and getting ready to load up and carry everything down the long, steep and up to this point, dusty hill, it started to rain. Big honkin', cold rain.
Getting down the hill was very tough. Wes Davis would still be up there.(Daily Wes Davis HammerTime #2) Basically it was just one long slide down. There were 2 sketchy bridges we had to cross, too.
There was a kinda fun element to it, but at the end, it was just.."Finally!"
But God is Good. We did it with His strength and for His glory. 3 families got houses today. We managed to play with a slew of kids at each spot. Nobody got hurt.
Twig had Baked Spaghetti and a Salad Bar for us at Supper tonight. Everybody is whipped, but it's that good type of whipped.
After worship, some went to bed and some stayed up and played 3 THINGS IN A HAT. After that everybody pretty much turned in. Hope everything's good back home with y'all.
See ya tomorrow.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
In case you're wondering.....
....unlike last year, This is not going to be a repeat of "8 days, 7 Nights, 1 pair of underwear".
They were the first things I packed this year.
They were the first things I packed this year.
Wes Davis is not on the trip this year..............
so that means he'll do as many dishes this week as he did last year in kitchen duty.
Check back here every day for more Hammer Time on Wes Davis.
Check back here every day for more Hammer Time on Wes Davis.
......What else could we want?
We're here.......too bad McCall Dudeck's luggage isn't.
The flights were good and we got to the Guat about 20 minutes early.
We got out of the airport and on the road about 1:30 Guatemala time, which meant 3:30 stomach time. So when you're in a foreign country with Don Vigus, guess where your first lunch stop is gonna be?
Say it with me........McDONALDS!
After a quick rundown on the whole 8 quetzcal"s equal one dollar setup, we ordered lunch. I got a numero uno combo(grande!) and was in business. It was alot of fun because all the employees were smiling and happy, which isn't really the vibe at get at MickeyD's USA too often.
They run a serious ketchup operation. When you walk up to the ketchup stand, one of the McDonalds employees was there to pump it for you. Every time. Without fail. I know because me, Jeff and Jim sat on the other side of it and watched "Kandy" do it.
Then it was back on the road and headed to Chimaltenango. Our vehicle arrangement is one small 4-door truck and a Nissan "Urvan", which is a Guatemalan 15 passenger van. That means it's half the size of an American 15 passenger van. Fun.
I'm the driver so I've always got a decent seat.
When we got to the house , it was basically relax and take it easy. We went and checked the tools and toolboxes to get ready for tomorrow. We'll have a worship session tonight after supper, which is going to be Guatemalan meatloaf, Guatemalan buttered noodles and Guatemalan Chocolate cake.
All in all, it's shaping up really good. I know most of the people, but some I didn't know at all, which is cool. Two years ago, I had never laid eyes on Candace, Eric, or Mary Dyer. Since that trip though, I've done tons of stuff with them and they've been a huge help on Tuesday nights.
The flights were good and we got to the Guat about 20 minutes early.
We got out of the airport and on the road about 1:30 Guatemala time, which meant 3:30 stomach time. So when you're in a foreign country with Don Vigus, guess where your first lunch stop is gonna be?
Say it with me........McDONALDS!
After a quick rundown on the whole 8 quetzcal"s equal one dollar setup, we ordered lunch. I got a numero uno combo(grande!) and was in business. It was alot of fun because all the employees were smiling and happy, which isn't really the vibe at get at MickeyD's USA too often.
They run a serious ketchup operation. When you walk up to the ketchup stand, one of the McDonalds employees was there to pump it for you. Every time. Without fail. I know because me, Jeff and Jim sat on the other side of it and watched "Kandy" do it.
Then it was back on the road and headed to Chimaltenango. Our vehicle arrangement is one small 4-door truck and a Nissan "Urvan", which is a Guatemalan 15 passenger van. That means it's half the size of an American 15 passenger van. Fun.
I'm the driver so I've always got a decent seat.
When we got to the house , it was basically relax and take it easy. We went and checked the tools and toolboxes to get ready for tomorrow. We'll have a worship session tonight after supper, which is going to be Guatemalan meatloaf, Guatemalan buttered noodles and Guatemalan Chocolate cake.
All in all, it's shaping up really good. I know most of the people, but some I didn't know at all, which is cool. Two years ago, I had never laid eyes on Candace, Eric, or Mary Dyer. Since that trip though, I've done tons of stuff with them and they've been a huge help on Tuesday nights.
Plus, Jim Morgan is here.........
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