It's a beautiful morning this Monday. I was up in time to walk up on top of the hill to watch the sun come up with Pastor Bob and Tim. As the sun came up it was covered with soft clouds which covered the clear view. I also learned after a few minutes too late that I was being eaten alive by the mosquitos.

We walked off the hill about 6:15 a.m. and there was already two children waiting at the gate. I went in and got the Frisbee so that we could play. The one was the little boy named Christian and I'm thinking his little sister. She kept saying 'tu-tu', which means she wanted up on my shoulders. She is absolutely gorgeous.

A few things I've learned about the children here:

1. They are very resilient with respect to pain... they play soccer in their bare feet on gravel.

2. One little girl watching a pickup soccer game in the street was lined in the face with the ball and she didn't cry.

3. They love the 'Gringos'-Americans

4. They love to tease the dog at our house name 'Oso' which means 'bear'.

Tim just yelled up to me on the balcony that it's about time to leave for breakfast.

It was our toughest day so far. We poured all of the cement in all three rooms of the home. Talking about the home, I just found out today that the home we are building is for our crew leader, Jorge. I worked with him all day getting the house ready for the concrete. I helped him to determine the correct height of the concrete. I then helped him to drag and float the concrete with a 'wood float'. This part of the job is pretty similar to working with my dad when I was younger. Again, Jorge and I don't speak the same language yet we communicate just fine when it comes to work.

Today was my first day of the 'magic ball' trick. It was a huge success. I started at the job site with a half of a cement bag. It worked well as the 'ball' would fall into the bag, dust from the cement would fly. I wish someone would have taken a picture. These kids were amazed. I think some of the workers were as well.

When I came back from lunch, a young lady was trying to explain something to me and of course I couldn't understand. She took me by the hand and led me to the little bamboo hut behind the home we were building. In a rocking chair was a lady probably around 30 years old holding a little baby boy. The baby had a very large chest, a little facial deformation and was really struggling to breathe. The mom had tears rolling down her face and she talked to me is Spanish. She was begging me... I could see it in her face that she wanted me to help her child. I think that she thought because I was an American, I could do the work of a doctor. I had tears in my eyes and just rubbed the little baby's arms and told the mother that I was very sorry but I couldn't help. This was weighing very heavy on my mind the rest of the work day. I wondered if there was something that I could do.

I found out a few ages of some of the children. Jessica is 6 and Christian is 5 years old. Christian is the young boy who insisted on helping me carry the rebar from the warehouse on top of the hill to the jobsite yesterday. Amazing!

It's 20 minutes until dinner time, according to Pastor Bob-or 'Gringo' as the kids call him. He keeps telling them in English "not Gringo, my name is Bob", it's funny!

We're ready for dinner now.

I just came back from the viewing of the little boy.... I can't believe he died! I feel just awful that I didn't do something. I'm crying right now, and every time I think about it, tears begin to flow again. I don't know what the problem was and I probably will never know. It's just so unfair that the young child had to die. I have to change the subject now.

After dinner tonight I went to call mom and dad and then called Nate. It was nice to talk to mom and tell her how much I am enjoying this mission trip. She said that she would call everyone to tell them that I called and mentioned that maybe we need to have a party after I get home for me to show all of my pictures.

Nate told me that he is now all moved into his new place and likes it. His job is going well but still hasn't received any 'payday'.

After dinner, I went to see Wombi, Dan, Jordan and a few others play soccer. I met a young girl name Sadie, 9 years old, and her brother Daniel, 10 years old. They are both learning English and so they introduced me to their friend Cara, also about 10 years old. Cara speaks no English and so Sadie translated for me. I taught Sadie and Cara the magic ball trick and before I knew it, I had 20-25 kids and even some adults there watching. It was so much fun! All of the kids were trying to speak to me from every direction. I taught them the 'Pittsburgh Handshake' and I even had some of the kids ask me to come to their 'Casa'-house. I had several of the kids walk or ride their bikes with us as we walked back to our house. As we would come to their home, they would proudly say casa. I would say "Pittsburgh" and they put out their fists to complete the hand shake. It's great!

I now have more kids call me by my name 'Da vee'. I like it! Also, Nelson is trying to fool me into saying some 'bad words' in Spanish. They all love to try to teach me Spanish. I've picked up a few new words:

1. Manýana, but I when I say it, it sounds like minyawna. Okay, they laugh when I try to say it, but they know that I mean 'tomorrow'.

2. chick elet definitely means 'candy'

While I'm lying in bed, I'm thinking of the amount of work that we accomplished.

Tomorrow we are heading to the beach for a day off. The temp will probably be even higher than our approximate 100 degrees we had today.

Okay, time for bed!