Day 5
Today was very much like yesterday. We started with breakfast this morning with a traditional Ecuadorian breakfast- mashed and cooked green plantains topped with peppers, onions and beef in a gravy. Devotions were after breakfast and we discussed how going through hard times helps us to grow. We quickly loaded up the trucks and headed up the mountain to Lote Tres.
Work started as soon as we got there with part of the team stopping at the school to play with the children and the rest of the team starting work at Lote Tres. Several team members headed into the kitchen to help prepare lunch, a few of the team members going to the onion association to help clean onions again and the rest of the team went to work on the milk house project. There was a lot of painting to be done on the metal beams that will be used to support the new roof to help prevent rust from forming. The paint we used was an oil based paint, and the people in Lote Tres have discovered that it will not dry quickly in the altitude and humidity so they mix it with gasoline which made for some very smelly painting- fortunately it was all done outside today. These large steel beams were welded together and then hauled to the milk house. We also needed to straighten a bent beam- which took some great team work.
After lunch part of the team prepared for VBS. Today we had almost 65 kids show up for the program! This was a very large group of kids and were so full of energy but were able to play games, see a puppet show that talked about how Jesus can change us, make a craft and be loved on by a lot of our team members. At the same time as VBS, the construction project continued, and they were able to lift 3 of the large beams up and secure them in place to the top of the milk house. Jim, Mark and Jo had some more discussions on farm related topics with community members as well.
The trucks showed up at 4pm and we headed down the mountain. It rained for part of the trip but cleared up as we got to town and headed into town for some delicious ice cream. After ice cream we headed back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before dinner. Our after dinner activities included packing up supplies we need for Thursday’s activities in Lote Tres as well as a great game of Fruit Basket Upset led by Jim. Everyone enjoyed it immensely and there was a lot of shared laughter between our team members and our Merge staff.
