Progress...

Hey everyone! I realized I haven't blogged much about the actual work taking place here at El Monte! You were probably wondering if we were getting anything done! :) These pictures are of Tim and the kids at the "bathhouse". This is basically just that - a bath house with sinks and showers near the soccer fields. Tim is working on getting numerous buildings wired and ready to go, and then the wire can be pulled later. He's also working on sort of mapping out an electrical plan for the many many buildings in the plans. I don't have very many pictures of the work projects because the camp is much more spread out than I expected, and I have no transportation to get around. I hope to get a chance to follow Tim around a little more so we can get some good shots of all the progress. But he pretty much works all day every day on the buildings and comes back to the house dirty and exhausted! He's having a great time working with the staff and is learning lots of Spanish, as some of the workers are from Ticuman.

The other picture above is of garden hose sticking out of a concrete wall....garden hose is what is used for conduit! Yep!

Before we came, we were warned that some days the plans go out the window because something else will go wrong, and things take much longer than planned. Tim is finding this out! On Tuesday, the whole mountain lost one phase of it's power. So everyone's lights, appliances, etc were waning in and out of power. Tim ran around on the four-wheeler most of the day trying to figure it out and at least get refrigerators and freezers working. That wasn't part of the plan, but it had to be done! (And I don't think he minded all the off-roading on the four-wheeler, either).

Another example of plans going awry happened on Monday night, when the water supply pipe to one of the toilets in our house broke! There was a mirror which fell behind the toilet, and basically guillotined the supply pipe. You can imagine the water....Tim and Ed Somerville (the other family on the mountain) searched for a shut-off, DUG for a shut-off...to no avail. The house was built with NO shut-off valve. They called Ezekiel, and the three of them finally found a shutoff up at the offices and apartments...which meant the offices and apartments also had their water shut off. Thankfully, there was a drain in the bathroom, so the water didn't flood the house. But it was still a crazy mess. The next day, everyone said that things like that are par for the course and that something similar happened just a couple of weeks ago! One of the staff told Tim that you know you're having a good day at El Monte if you have power, water, AND internet! Anyway, the pipe was fixed and everything is back to normal. "Normal" is becoming something completely new. :) Whew. Oh, and did I mention that the next night there was a tarantula in our shower?

The kids and I have spent the week at the MK "school", which is a house in town that El Monte rents. A great college grad named Lisa works with the kids here at the school, helps them with their work, and plans lots of activities for them. Our kids have LOVED doing P.E. with her! I've gotten to work with the kids learning some songs....they LOVE doing four part harmony and pick it up super quick. And a couple of the girls have wanted to do some voice lessons. They are some great kids! It has been great to get to know these missionary kids and find that kids are kids...no matter where in the world they are! They have shared their fun, creativity, and friendship with us.....and also skills on how to pick up tarantulas and gila monsters!

Our days left here are becoming fewer. Although it will be good to be home, there will be much missed here at El Monte. I know that there are things I've learned here that have changed me...not all easy lessons, for sure!

Thanks again for checking in....miss you all!

Love T