Day 5 halfway thru

Hard to believe it's Sunday and that we just have a couple days left to work. Today was a great day to relax, explore and reflect on our collective contributions and learning experiences so far. We still have sanding, staining and painting to do (turns out the stucco has to dry for a couple weeks before being painted! We learn something every day.), but we now have hinges on all the windows, cables run through most of the electrical connections, several rounds of floor cleaning completed, and a continually improving relationship with the community. We are still working on water access and sewer drawings, but hope to buy water and sewer piping and ceramic tile for all the floors tomorrow. We also plan to have a formal meeting with the foundation board tomorrow night (rescheduled from Friday).
Other escapades this past week;
We brought 8 suitcases up to the community on Saturday and distributed toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, tennis shoes and baby clothes to the children and mothers of the community. Probably the most exciting gifts of the day were the soccer uniforms, distributed to children from age 2-10, boys and girls, to form 4 teams. All 4 teams got dressed and played and were awarded prizes of nerf soccer balls to share and continue playing. We recognized the need to clear a better play space, but to see the kids in such fabulous uniforms was very exciting for all of us. Thanks to Darcy Hartman for her efforts in collecting these uniforms in Columbus! We distributed donations to about 110 children and as many mothers as could be present (about 25). The community was full of joy and vigor and showed us all kinds of love with handshakes and big hugs and kisses!
Ernesto, our fearless project leader, also learned that the inner community nearest the home is called San Rafael - seemed fitting since Ralph is called Rafael and has saintly patience for the construction process!
Saturday afternoon we attended a traditional Quechua music festival called Taquipayanacus, a kind of traditional jokester singing contest. We were surprised to be the honored guests and to be seated in the keep at the soccer stadium - the closest possible seats, and to be recognized from the stage several times. San Rafael radio was the sponsor of the festival, too. Rhonda was our official photographer - she is waiting on her press vest, but should have one by the next trip.
Sara and Ralph went to church and met up with Mike Timmer. Many contacts have been made in the past week and resources seem to be within reach.
Most the group will shop at the Cancha tomorrow for souvenirs and Ralph and Connie will shop for construction materials. We'll try again to get photos of the process loaded soon! David and Sarai send their love to Maria and all those at home!

Day 1 back to work

Day 1 here in Bolivia is complete and I'm about to go get coffee and likely find out how sore the group feels after such a day. We were thrilled to see the interior ceilings and walls almost completed with stucco and the door and window frames in when we arrived yesterday. We worked all day on sanding the windows and cleaning extra stucco off the floors and purchasing materials to paint. Ralph and Lisa got all the ceilings painted once (Felix was stunned that we didn't water the paint down and that we didn't plan to hire a painting expert - we have one already!). David (one of the neighbor kids) and Ronal spent the afternoon with us, playing and helping. The stucco workers spent the day as well. We now have a plan and supplies to paint the whole house and stain all the window frames (hope to complete this in the next 2 days). We'll venture out to buy ceramic tile for the floors. We got the scoop on getting access to water and electricity and now have to make a plan for the sewer. We also worked with the President of the community to call a general meeting for the community to deliver some simple supplies we brought as donations from the States, including tennis shoes for kids, shampoos for women and crayons for all. Should be another exciting day - I'll try to get a photo of Ronal up tonight along with some work pictures.