Day 4 - Work Continues...

We wake up this morning a little more sore and tired than yesterday.  There is a lot to do but it seems more obstacles pop up.  We are happy with the progress yesterday but are anxious to really get more done today.

Think of when you do a project at your house, you have to plan, find your tools, go to Lowe's to get supplies, get home, start work, realize you forgot something at Lowe's, go back to Lowe's, get started again and repeat 5 more times.  Now imagine you don't really even have any tools or supplies to start with (not even miscellaneous screws, etc), then you can't drive yourself to Lowe's, when you get there you need to figure out how to exchange money at the best rate you can so to maximize your budget, the Lowe's is a lot smaller and the shelves are not stocked as well with what you really need and when you get back and discover you forgot something it takes another 3-4 hours to repeat this exercise..... Frustrated yet?!

We have been planning as best we can.  There is so much to paint so we thought if we had a pressure washer, the prep work would go a lot faster...seems to make sense.  So we buy a Black & Decker pressure washer but there are problems at Casa Granja (the Farm) with the water.  The pressure is really low and there is an issue with the pump. Remember, we are also trying to fill the pool for Saturday baptisms too that worries us.  So this doesn't work as well as we would like. 

We get a lot more painting done now that we have the right type of paint and the right colors.  The language barrier made that a challenge.  We start painting the ballusters and we wonder how many there are so Lee disappears and reports back that there are 691!! We did about 100 and only started at 2:00pm so at this rate we just have another week or so to go.  It was a lot of fun though as most of the boys helped out and we sat around painting the never ending ballusters and talked away.  Lee with the help of Gino (one of the boys)worked after it got dark.

Kevin also was able to knock out some electrical work in between trips to EPA (think Lowe's or Home Depot in Venezuela).  The women were very thankful as he fixed the hot water in their bathroom.

We maintain a very positive attitude despite some of the challenges.  Our work will also continue next week as another mission team from Northpoint will arrive on Saturday.  So until then we keep pressing on....