Day 5

Another beautiful morning, after the downpour we had the night before.

Today we were prepared for moving concrete blocks and pouring more concrete at Renacer.
When we arrived, our contractor's staff were still prepping work for us. After some clean up of some of the classrooms, we had a opportunity to interact more with the people in the neighbourhood, some of who are also students at Renacer. Before lunch we walked through the poorer part of the neighbourhood. Outside the school, Olivia and Samantha had made friends with some of the children and as we made our way down the narrowing street, we had a dozen of the children join us as we walked thru their neighbourhood.

It's difficult to describe the conditions that the people live in. Garbage in the street, clapboard shacks with corrugated metal roofs, dirty water running down the street gutter. Many families living in small 1 or 2 room shacks jumbled beside each other, many without running water or electricity. And yet most of the people are dressed in clean clothes and with smiles on their faces. In the midst of what to us is unimaginable conditions the people are happy. The people are dressed in bright clean clothes, hair neat.

Some impressions from our group: .......It is also interesting to note that in many places there is open evidence that The Lord is at work by the signs on the houses. One sign says, "happiness can only come through The Lord". These are encouraging signs that Christian education makes a difference.....all the young men and boys had their hair neatly trimmed .....the children are always smiling and laughing.......the people living in the poorest areas willingly show their homes, no matter how poor they are.