Juarez, Day Four

Tuesday, April 5th

Tuesday came early for Erin and me. My hand was hurting so bad I couldn’t sleep and Erin couldn’t stand the noises. The noises I am referring to occurred because all 24 of us were in one room trying to sleep at the same time. Noises like snoring, she counted at least six different culprits, dogs barking, cocks crowing, buses and cars driving by and apparently there were train tracks really, really close to the church. So at around 2 AM, Erin and I headed out to the vans. We got in, me in the drivers seat and Erin lying down in the back at 2 AM. We knew it was 2 AM because we turned the van on to see what time it was, 2:22 AM. I know Erin hadn’t slept a wink until then and I may have dosed off once or twice but nothing substantial. We got a few good hours of sack time and life was better when the sun came up.

After everyone else got up, around 7, we started to munch on breakfast, make our sandwiches for lunch and get dressed for another day of work. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits but by the time we arrived at the work site we were a bit sluggish, especially Matt and I. I didn’t think the day would ever end, but of course it did.

Tuesday was the day we saw the most change in the house. We put up the walls on the concrete, put on the blackboard, put on the chicken wire for the stucco to stick to, put up the roof, shingled the roof, installed the windows and doors and got the insulation in the walls. There is an incredible transformation of the plot of land from the end of day one until the end of day two. Everyone felt real good when we were done on Tuesday.

Tuesday night we crashed again, took our showers, cold this time, and ate a wonderful meal again prepared by Erin and Sara; this time with less pepper (inside joke between the chaperones.) We had a not so successful devotional with 6 similar questions as the previous night and went off to slumber. I say not so successful because there were only 5 students awake by the time we had our discussion about the day with our reflection questions. Erin slept well with some ear plugs that Pete had with him and I slept well with a combination of Tylenol and Benadryl. It was good.

Thank you Lord for giving us another successful day on the job site and providing safety for us. You are a good and loving Father.