We paused for about 30 minutes at lunchtime, then went right back to working. By 6:00 PM, I was 'whipped.' I decided to take a walk, and I took some more photos of our workers as I went. Up on the roof, where some of our group was working, I found Nelson now helping Armour Cribbs. Nelson looked up and gave me that big smile of his.

Dinner is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. so we're quitting for today. As we walked off the hill, I had to make a stop to see Jorge, my construction crew Leader from my trip in March. I bought him a present that I couldn't wait to give to him. When we arrived at his home (one that I helped to construct in March), Jorge's mama was very happy to see me and gave me a big hug and a kiss. She said that Jorge was working and maybe he could come visit me later. (I'm not sure exactly how I knew that she was saying this but that's what I got out of our conversation.)

On my way back to go to dinner, Jessica took me by the hand, leading me to her home. I walked in and there were plastic chairs set up, candles burning and pictures of Jesus on one side of the room. Jessica's Aunt was crying and then she picked up a photo and handed to me to see. It was Jessica's grandmother that passed away. They made me sit down and then brought out food for me to eat. I was warned that we are not to eat any food prepared by anyone except by the restaurant, as it is prepared using bottled water. The food was pretty much forced on me and I didn't want to hurt their feelings and so I took several bites. I explained that I had to leave for dinner and so I offered my condolences and left.

At dinner, everyone was very tired from the long day of work. I sat with Shirley, Nate, and Mike Kelley, the guy from New York. By the way, Mike is leaving early on Friday as he has stuff to do to get ready for his wedding in two weeks.

While we finished dinner, the rain began to fall again. We walked back to the house with the kids holding our hands. As I made it to the gate, Nelson, Alberto, Arno and one other boy got wind that I handed out some Greensburg YMCA shirts. "Camisa" they kept saying. So I went in and found one for each of them and was able to sneak them through the gate. Now most of the kids have their new YMCA Camisas on and it looks pretty neat seeing the familiar tee shirts here in Urraco.

The rain has been very heavy... the thunder and lightning hit knocked out the power. It's only about 9:00 PM and I'm writing this using the light from a flashlight. I'm tired and it feels good to lie down. My muscles are sore but the room is really hot. We don't have a fan blowing. Here are a few more last-minute things I want to share:

Today, Jessica came out wearing her new 'flip-flops'and outfit bought by my friends Darcy and Sandy. She is so proud of them-- but I had to keep reminding her, "Shhhhh-secret."

These kids love candy. Someone gave Nelson a pack of Smarties and he offered to share them with Shirley and me.

I was happy to see that some of the kids, when given candy, remembered to take the papel- paper- and put it in my pocket, not throw it on the ground.

It gets dark very early as they don't have a daylight savings time.

A few new Spanish words for me: Lasso- jump rope, pequino- little, gorro- hat, gordo- fat

Sunday, September 18, 2005
It's 5:00 a.m. and the roosters are crowing. I was first up this morning and when I came downstairs, all the lights were on from when the power went off last night. Mike Kelley got up just a few minutes after me.

I had an interesting night last night. I'm rooming with Tom Ross and Michael Moran, an actor and stay-at-home dad. Tom is Michael's father-in-law. Tom has a bed, and Mike and I each have a mattress on the floor. It's actually pretty comfortable. Last night, I heard Michael start talking, so I sat up in my bed. All of a sudden he threw his covers off and headed for the door. Tom and I both tried telling him that he was having a bad dream, and finally we convinced him to get back in bed. It was kinda scary, but everything ended up being okay.

It is a beautiful morning, with the sun rising from behind the dark rain clouds. It's not raining at the moment, but rains seem to 'pop up' pretty quickly here.

The plan for today is for all of us to get up on the roof to scrape off some sort of roof coating. Although I haven't done it yet, the other guys told me that it is a very tedious job. We are about ready to leave for breakfast and then be up on the roof before 7:00 a.m. Someone just said that the gate is locked so we can't leave, but our translator, Josh, will wake Benigno to get the key. I really need a coffee!

One of the boys that I gave a YMCA shirt to showed up at the gate to show me that I gave him a small shirt instead of a grande- large one. I was able to find one that fits him better and now he is happy.

I'm a little disappointed that I haven't taken nearly as many photos as I took when I was here in March. I guess with the kids not working alongside us, and us working from basically daybreak to sunset, there's just not enough time.