Another rooster wake up call at 5am. Today was a special day, one of our team members had a birthday! London, aka "Lundee." Ron and Raul graced a lovely breakfast by shooting off firecrackers right beside our dining room patio. It was a great surprise for her and for the team. Loco Americans! ;) Lidia, one of our cooks, sang Happy Birthday in Spanish. It was beautiful and her voice could be heard for miles. It was so cute how the children gathered around the doors and listened. Feliz cumpleaños a tí Lundee! A few songs like that might change the way I sing forever. What an amazing way to spend your birthday!
Once breakfast was finished, we packed up our supplies again and loaded a chicken bus to Pabeya, a community about an hour away. Can you imagine about 15 people packed on the back of a pick-up truck standing and holding on to dear life! It was great and made for alot of laughs. Concrete stoves had been installed in that community 18 months prior so our jobs were to provide maintenance to the stoves already in place. Some of them needed chimney and firebox replacements and others just needed minor repairs.
Once we arrived, we split up in our teams again and set out with our guides. What I saw on this day was much harder than the day before. I didn't think that the walls or ceilings on the inside of a home could get any worse than what I had witnessed in Paquila but I was wrong. The first home we entered was pitch black and very hot. You could still see some of the whitewash on the walls from the first installation. The family was large, 7 or so, so I imagined they cooked alot. The stove was in place but looked pretty worn. The Onil stoves are designed to last 10 years but I could already see alot of wear in the galvanized chimney.
The first thing we did was empty out the old pumice stone, pulled out the broken clay pieces from the firebox and cleaned out the chimney. Wearing a face mask at this point didn't keep us from feeling a bit suffocated. The pumice and ash was hot so gloves were necessary. Tears kept coming to my eyes everytime I would gasp for air, I couldn't understand why people had to live like this everyday. I remember looking up at my team member Richard and walking outside for a few minutes. I think he also felt what I was feeling. I felt like my job was so important that day so I took a drink of water and went back in. I just kept working even when it was hard to breathe. I have alot of outdoor allergies so maybe it was affecting me more due to this. Regardless, I had a job to do so I pushed on. I know the family had a stove in place but the fact that it needed maintenance just got me wondering about the rest of community. I was relieved to learn that not too many stoves needed maintenance, not for the sake of avoiding work but my immediate concern was the longevity of the stoves. We moved on to replace other elements in several different homes and the more we did, the better I started to feel. It took alot longer to fix the stoves than to install them. It was like performing surgery in some ways. I have never been so careful with someone's possessions than I was on this day. I found comfort in the children and the happiness of the families gave me strength. You know that saying, "never let them see you sweat?" That stayed with me all day. When our level of stress increases, our rational thinking decreases, again I had to overcome any physical discomfort and remind myself that I had a job to do. I kept my focus on God, the project and the livelihood of the families. “My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
We had lunch this day at a church in Pabeya. Our cooks were kind enough to pack sandwich lunches for our team to take with us. It was interesting to learn that some of our very own team members built that church. It was much like the one we were sleeping in but much bigger. There was a little down time that afternoon to play with the children since most of the maintenance work was involved in the chimney's. Jesse was kind enough to pack suckers in his backback so everywhere we saw a green mouth, we knew he had been there. Ron was also great to purchase colas and share them with the children.
As we wrapped up the afternoon, we gathered our supplies and waited for the bus. It started raining so we were all thankful that we remembered to pack our ponchos. We had an enjoyable one hour ride back in the rain, one of those moments you had to see to believe. Loco Americans in multi-colored ponchos! HAHA! When we returned, it was great to find the children hovered around the church again waiting for us. Some of the guys offered to do a trash pick-up and have playtime with the children. They took off to the soccer field and of course took alot of the children with them. Boy did they come back muddy! I missed that activity but heard it was alot of fun.
After dinner, we were surprised to hear a knock on the church door. We had just sat down to have our evening meeting and in walked six children and our cook Lidia. Each child had a special message for our birthday girl London. They each presented her with a handmade gift and we listened to Lidia's beautiful voice once again. London welcomed the children to come in and join us. They sat Indian-styled in the front of the church as they watched Lidia sing. All of the children were special but I had an attachment to sweet Diego. He sat beside me on the floor and whispered in my ear, "I Love You Buddy Shannon." We had a special bond all week and I was starting to feel like this was my home. I was becoming part of them and something felt really great about that. They were always happy to see us and brought us such joy. After Lidia sang, she brought the children to the front to sing, it was adorable. Following that, we discussed the next day events and discussed the water filtration systems and how we were going to distribute vitamins and medicine.
Right before bed that night, we knew Ron had something fun up his sleeve. We heard some commotion outside and noticed he was shooting off more firecrackers! Made for an interesting night and the kids loved it. :) I was really anxious to get some sleep that night because I had tossed and turned alot all week. I took a few minutes to walk outside and can remember already starting to feel a heavy heart. I knew we were going to leave all this behind in a few days and I didn't want to even begin thinking about that. Each day grew us closer as a team and with the community. It was certainly not a time to be sad and within a few minutes, the children ran up and wanted to play thumb war. Still not sure who taught them that but they loved it!
Stay tuned for Day 5...
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