Day 2

We are exhausted!
   
Day 2 and we are in full swing!   The morning started early at 5AM with some of the guys going to the market to purchase the weekly produce for CB.  Tom, George and Pete all went.  It is always so fun be around when the two trucks come back, loaded with the beautiful bounty of fresh fruits and veggies.  Just a great reminder of God's goodness and provision here at CB!

7AM  found Susan and Alyssa heading down to the baby house.  The house parents have requested that we send some women down for the whole day - this is a 7AM-7PM shift with 14 little ones, 9 months - 3 years old.  This is, in my humble opinion one of the hardest jobs here - it is very exhausting and a non-stop day.  Susan and Alyssa enjoyed it very much and shared with our team during evening debriefing how incredible the house parents and workers are in the house.  So true!  Our team is rotating  3 workers in the baby house every other day with the other team that arrived here today, a college group from Southwest Baptist University.

While a few of the men were gone to market, Mike, Josh, Amy, Stacy, Lindsey and Kristen all got started on the plumbing project.  They are breaking up the flooring in two bathrooms in the main building, and putting in a larger diameter pvc pipe for better drainage. so they started demolition in the bathroom.  They had a lot of fun breaking up tile with a sledgehammer!  When the other guys got back, they started in as well.  Trenches have begun, and after a slight issue where we hit a water line and water was temporarily shut off to the orphanage, all continued well!  Actually, even this little mis-hap was good, for Mike found a connection that was ready to blow apart and would never have been seen if this didn't happen - isn't God good?!  This saved a lot of grief if it would have busted apart under ground!

Jill (me) spent the morning with the toddlers of Casa Alabanza, and Judy helped out in the Alabanza house with dishes and laundry all day.   We have a rotation schedule to help out with this house as well.   While we were doing this, the other girls started sorting all of the jeans / clothes donations from our church.  What a blessing here!

Right before lunch something we were privileged to see something amazing - something that I believe is unprecedented here.  The Verbo church in New Orleans shipped a container to CB full of donations.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with the size of a container - think semi-truck huge.  And it was almost full!!  This church sent down a large box for every child at CB with brand new shoes (most boxes had two pair), clothes, belts, school supplies and other miscellanies articles.  There were bikes, some office furniture, electronics, ceiling fans, computers, monitors, toys, games, school supplies - truly - it was amazing.  I have never, ever seen our salon so filled with boxes upon boxes of donations.

We sorted and delivered all of the boxes for the children, and still have more to do tomorrow, as far  getting boxes down to the bodega.   Wow.  What a blessing!  We are all physically sore and tired from work projects and unloading/organizing boxes.  A good nights sleep will do us all well!  We are excited to see what tomorrow brings!  Thank you for all of your prayers!


Buenas noches a todos!
-Jill