Finally got the internet to work long enough to get Fridays daily report.
It's Wet Here
It is official, this is the wettest Sucre mission ever. The biggest topic of discussion this morning was the thunderstorm that rolled through during the early hours of the morning. About 2/3 of the team asked, “Did you hear the storm last night?” It was a pretty impressive storm. I have to believe there were several lightening strikes near by. The rain started about 1:49am and lasted quite a while. At times it sounded like a cloud burst. When we got up for Mass the rain had stopped, but the clouds looked heavy with rain. Just after Mass it started raining again. It would continue raining on and off for the rest of the morning. Our rides to the barrios for construction and Water With Blessing came around 9:00am. With our experience of this last week of driving in and out of the barrios area and getting stuck in the ruts of the roads we decided to call off work for today. As much as we would have liked to worked, getting safely to the work sites is of prime importance.
One of the questions that was asked do we have a back up plan for rainy weather. In all of the years we have come on mission to Sucre we have had only a few days where we didn’t work because of weather. We do try to have some lighter days of work so we don’t exhaust everyone. Yesterday and today were those lighter work days. We’re in a high attitude and heavy work everyday can push people beyond their limits by the end of the first week. Getting that tired can make the second week a very long week. Another factor to consider is our request of our local partners to work with the poorest of the poor. The homes that we work on are usually made from adobe bricks (sun dried bricks) and are smaller that most bedrooms we have back home. Imaging a single room 3 meters by 4 meters that is your entire living space (kitchen, living area, and sleeping area).
Our lighter days are spent leveling the dirt floor to pour concrete and preparing the walls for yeso, a mixture of water and a gypsum power. This helps to seal the walls from exposure to bugs that live in the adobe brick. It also provides for a more air tight environment and it helps brighten up the room. Our heavy days are building new bathrooms (banos) and dormitories (bedrooms). This work involves digging the footings, mixing a lot of concrete, providing bricks to the bricklayers, preparing yeso, and pouring a concrete floor.
Bruce
Our Global Mission Sites
Sucre, Bolivia - Navajo Nation, Arizona - Bacolod and Borongan, Philippines - Kenya and Uganda, East Africa - Natural Disaster Recovery, USA,
"MissionX" High School Missions throughout the Joliet Diocese
Partnership in Mission is an outreach of the Office for Human Dignity
