Day 4: Tuesday, February 22

Today didn’t start with construction, which was perhaps a good thing, considering that we may have started a bit too quickly for our own good yesterday… Instead, we went to visit Villa Esperanza, the Thrivent community with 75 houses that was recently finished. Marti actually volunteered here before much of it was completed, so this was a chance for her to see the result of her hard work.

It was a really neat thing to see. Many of the houses, especially the ones that were completed in earlier stages of the development, had absolutely beautiful gardens. And, of course, so many things were in bloom! One of the homeowners was even generous enough to invite us in to see what the houses looked inside, and to see their backyard. They were growing all sorts of amazing things—pineapple, papayas, cashews, bananas, avocados, and beautiful geraniums!

In addition to the houses, Thrivent helped build a community center and a daycare center. We got to go into the daycare, where we watched them have a toothbrushing lesson before we had playtime! Kids are wonderful—there’s no need for any real language skills when playing with Play Doh!

When we returned to the site, the blocks were being delivered. We helped unload the truck, sorting the blocks by types and putting some of the blocks inside the house to be easily accessible as we build up the wall.

Following lunch, we got to laying the bricks! Don double-checked procedure with Saoul, and then we were able to have two crews working. This led to us being able to lay our entire first course of bricks before the end of the day, well ahead of the goal.

We also had a lot of fun with the kids today. Carolyn started yesterday quizzing the kids on basic math, but today we abandoned actual lessons for playing around with barnyard animal noises. There’s nothing quite like random clucking and crowing sounds throughout the day! Many of the kids have an amazing ability to whistle and then run their fingers over their lips, creating a parakeet-like sound. Carolyn and I are determined to learn how to do it!

Back at the hotel, we were relaxing, some of us were sitting out on a porch talking, when, at about 9:00, an earthquake hit! It was not very strong, but still rather disconcerting, especially for those of us who have never been in an earthquake before!