On Tuesday we spent the the full day working, which meant more pole scrapping for me. (on that day we discovered that we had access to the pressure washer...hmmm, high pressure water that would peel the paper off in seconds..hmmm..)After a long day of work, we took the kids to Las Carmelitas which is on a mountain-top overlooking the entire city, beach, and ocean. It was an absolutely breath-taking view, the kiddos were astonished and kept mumbling "bonnnitttttaaaaa". Now we had like 30 people so it was a very long dinner and apparently they run the restaurant off of generators but at 10:00 they turn off automatically...guess who was still there eating at 10pm, We were, and it went pitch black! Now the stars and the view of the city was still beautiful and we just sort of laughed it off. Shaun even made everyone sing me happy birthday but I couldn't blow out the candle because it was our only source of light.
On Wednesday-We worked a half day at the mission, they guys began working on putting the roof together and we began mixing and making bricks/concrete. Even though we worked for a handful of hours we all worked hard and then we took the afternoon off and took the kiddos to the beach/pool at one of the hotels. Reminder - none of them ever get the opportunity to do anything of the sort and so we decided to experience it all together. It was a whole lot of fun, we ordered pizza by the pool, swam, walked the beach, and played games. Then for dinner we ate at the church whom we were working with and attended their Wednesday night service.
On Thursday - this kind of felt like the slump day, seeming like the rest of the week was catching up to us all. But we pulled through and worked a long day on the roof, the wall, and making and laying bricks. I personally helped to lay the bricks for the wall which was something new that I have never done before, but hey they wall is still standing...hopefully! =) The making of the bricks is horribly tough and the kiddos worked extremely hard with it, it involved shoveling dirt and cement together and then shovel that mixture into this machine that compresses it all within in minutes and creates a brick. It is definitely manual labor at its finest. After a very long day we all went to eat as this lovely restaurant on a cliff side right on the beach/ocean...and imagine this - the kids loved it. The food was great and then after dinner we went and hung on the beach for a minute and there was an abundance of hermit-like crabs - i found them sort of creepy but nonetheless we were all amused.
On Friday - this would be the last full day in PV and our last day working at the mission. We worked a "half-day" at the mission which involved more brick making/laying and roof work. We did not finish the wall or the roof but made great progress on them and made enough brick that other workers can get most of the work done in the coming week. Before we left the mission we had a last prayer all together and it was a great end to the working. After cleaning up we all went to eat lunch at this little taco stand on the side of the road and let me tell you...it was PHENOMENAL. (as was almost everything I ate there) but I had fish and shrimp tacos and oh my goodness they were so good. Then a group of us went downtown to the Malecon and walked along the beach and the shops and let all of the kiddos grab some souvenirs. It was blazing hot but a fun afternoon, we were so hot and so we decided to go back to the hotel and SWIM, we ended up also watching the sun set. We spent so much time doing these things that by time we were going to eat it was after 8 or so and we decided not to fight traffic or people and merely walked to Burger King. But hey we were all fine with it.. I had eaten enough guacamole, fajitas, chips, etc that week that some nice french fries and a burger sounded pretty tasty. We then had to tell the kiddos bye...which is never a fun thing to do. Matthew and I crammed in the van and rode back to the house with them and Shaun to drop them off. Shaun talked to them and then we gave many hugs and said bye.
On Saturday we all flew out at different times and said various goodbyes with all of the different people working with us.
All in all, this was an incredible week...it was sort of a mission within a mission. We had a purpose there to help and serve the Calvary Chapel church in Puerta Vallarta and at the mission school. But we also desired to take the older kids from Casa Hogar Elim on a trip like this to let them be able to experience new things and see new places outside of Nuevo Laredo. Matthew and Shaun and I began discussing this about a year-ish ago and the thought of taking these kids somewhere so they could serve and do things that we have previously done FOR them.
Most/all have never been outside of Nuevo Laredo, where Casa Hogar is located, or flown in an airplane or seen the beach or anything away from what they have always known. These kids know Jesus and have been taught to depend on Him and love and serve him and it was awesome to sit back and watch them do things for other people that we had previously done for them. They are some of the hardest workers I have ever seen. I loved, absolutely loved, getting to hang out and build even better relationships with the older kids.
Normally when we spend time at Casa Hogar the older kids are the ones in charge and they are the ones cooking, cleaning, working, attending school, etc and so we do not always get to see them much or if we do they are quite busy and focused on their responsibilities...but this week they were responsibility free and instead of working for them we were able to work with them. It was awesome, truly awesome. These guys have such a special place in my heart, not to mention they are absolutely hilarious. The week was great, I have tones of pictures and funny stories to go along with them. I hope to post the pictures tomorrow (some) and add a link to the rest of them. Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes. Thank you Lord for granting me these opportunities.
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