Day 4: Water and Coconuts

The team had a later start today.  We had pancakes and fruit for breakfast.  The yellow van transported us through the Dominican traffic to our work site.  The spare tire fell of the back when we were navigating a treacherous mud road.  The car beside us got stuck and our driver's son stayed to help them.  Also due to the intense rain last night there were two inches of water in the second floor where we had to work.  So Lucas, the foreman, and Jose hacked a drainage hole out of which the workers herded water with brooms.  We did much of the same work as yesterday - passing buckets of concrete from person to person along the ground, then a Dominican worker pulling them up on a hook to the second floor.  From there some team members would pass the buckets up to whoever was pouring the concrete. The empty buckets were thrown down into a tractor tire covered in cement bags for cushioning.

The Dominican workers have been busy upstairs preparing the plywood molds for the horizontal beams.  They work much harder and longer than we do but they are payed 500 to 700 pesos a day, which is about $13 to $18.  The weather today is similar to yesterday.  The temperature is about the same, and just near the end of our work day it rained a little bit.  I cannot tell the difference between temperatures here.  Victor says that nobody here checks the weather forecast, only sometimes in the rainy season.

Pete and Leah worked on installing the basketball net in the morning.  A few kids shot some baskets, but their break was just ended.  During our lunchbreak some of the workers were playing.  Victor surprised us all by making some long shots.

Another interesting thing today was that Pete and Leah and Victor went out to get some coconuts.  Victor prodded the tree with a stick and some came down, bending a furniture makers tin roof and nearly hitting some men working on plaster construction.  Lucas used a machete to get the outsides off and we had a taste of fresh coconuts and coconut water.

We had a dinner of fried chicken, rice with beans and mashed potatoes.  Afterward we had a lively discussion about how skeptical or gracious Christians should be towards homeless people, knowing that many people are illegitimate.  It was inspired by our devotions of the question Jesus' disciples made about whether it was the parents fault or the mans fault that he was born blind.  We sang three songs and said a prayer together.  The team thanks all of our readers for their engouraging comments and for your prayers.  And by the way, I forgot to say before: the guitar did indeed come.  It has been very useful for our singing time.  Now Dad can sleep at night.

Comments


Other Stories


Our team met at the home of Peter and Minnie Herfst on January 14 to go over some final arrangements for our trip.  We...

Read More

Read More

The team met this morning at 3am at the church to leave for the airport.  Keith Oosthoek, Sharon Postma and Hank Bax drove us. ...

Read More

This morning the team got up for our breakfast at 7:30.  Afterwards we received information about COCREF schools that are with the one we...

Read More

We worked hard at the school today using the technique we have perfected.  We finished the last 12 columns of concrete.  Harley took a...

Read More

Before going out this morning the team ate a breakfast of ham. eggs, bread, fruit and juice and sang together the song "We Receive...

Read More

At the beginning of the week, Victor asked our group where we would like to go for our day off. We, as a team...

Read More

Happy Sunday to our "Community" family! This morning we headed to the church that Mario Matos attends and helps pastor. Mario is the director...

Read More

Today we started the day going to breakfast.  We shared the meal with the group from Iowa that has been in Haiti and will...

Read More

Our day began with a breakfast at 7.  We drove to the work site for some more concrete work, this time in Daniel’s silver...

Read More

There is no working today.  It is our last full day here in the Dominican.  We ate a late breakfast and then hit the...

Read More

This morning after breakfast and our devotions discussing the week, Victor took us to see two more schools - ones that have been sucessful...

Read More

God is Good, all the Time, All the...

Read More