Long Day at El Ayudante

Tuesday we left our house at 7am to head to the mission site: El Ayudante so that we could work on the back porch. The team that we worked with in February got the framing done but not the rest. So we were putting in the 1x6's as a false roof. It had been really slow going. When we got there, there was a crew of 5 guys that were supposed to be painting the bunkbeds that were there, but since there was no power, they were unable to do that. So they came out and stood on the porch and watched us (which is very uncomfortable to have people just sit and watch you). But after we had set up and started working they pitched in and started working with us! So our team of 2 (Tristan and I) turned into a team of 7! The power ended up being off all day (we found out later a tree fell onto a power line) and so they helped us all day! Instead of doing maybe 50 feet of roof, we were able to do 100FT and finish that part of the roof! What a blessing. We were able to use Tristan's battery powered saws and then recharge it on the battery of the truck. The wife of the crew's boss came and we worked and talked most of the afternoon so I was able to practice my spanish as well - and she's going to give us two chicks next week so we can start our chicken coop :). I'd better find out how to take care of them before next week!

2nd part of the story: We left El Ayudante around 5:30 for the 2 hour drive back home. Well it turned into a 4 hour trip! On the main road entering and leaving the city from the north, a truck and a gas truck had collided, causing gas to spill all over - which shut down the road. Unfortunately there is no radio broadcast or way to say what happened, so we just sat on the freeway in traffic for 40 minutes, got tired of that so we followed the line of cars that were driving in the ditch as far as we could. We finally got to the top of the hill where we saw the road was closed, so we followed a line of cars onto some back dirt road and wound our way around the hill. Traffic was terrible because everyone was trying to just get somewhere. To make a long trip a short story, we went over the median of a road (praise God for our big truck) and finally were on our way home. We got home around 9:30 and I was exhausted from the tenseness of the day! But praise God we were able to get through and didn't have to go to back to a town and find a hotel for the night.

Everything else is going well. We're settling into our house. We now have a washer, dryer, stove, and fridge hooked up! And yesterday the internet guy came so we also have internet! Things are coming together. Spanish lessons is taking up so much time - but we are making progress which feels great - but I also see how much there is to learn and that is daunting.