The kids were coloring on the suitcases that we had brought the T-shirts in for them to paint. Later they found that the truck made an even better surface so they stood and colored on the truck.
Here is the clinic that Rick set up for the day. He had a lot of antibiotics and vitamins etc to give to the people to help with whatever was bothering them.
Here Grant is working hard at pounding the bricks level. We mixed all the cement by hand on the ground.
Here are the houses we were helping to build. They are located at the base of the Andes Mountains--very beautiful scenery.
This past Saturday we went to a village called Guaracal. Guaracal is village in rural Bolivia, about 1 1/2 hours from Santa Cruz. During the flooding earlier this year all 12 families in this village lost EVERYTHING. WGM constituents responded to the need, and much money has been given. Twenty-four of us spent a day there to help with the construction of 12 new homes (all of them already started). Some of the group did kid ministry and painted shirts with the kids from the village (there were a lot of them around 60 I think). Grant and I both did construction work and trust me laying bricks is not as easy as it looks.To get to Guaracal you have to have a 4x4 vehicle because you do a bit of off-roading. You cross rivers which was fun because I've never driven a vehicle through a river before. The homes that we were building were to replace the homes that were washed down the river in the flood. The people were sleeping under tiny tarps with all their belongings under the tarps with them. The government had given out tents but took them back after a few months leaving the people stranded. We gave out coloring pictures to the kids and there was no place anywhere for them to color. They don't own the first table or chair. They have a community cooking pot over a fire and they sit on logs. There are no toilets, showers or running water. We were getting attacked by this annoying little bug they call a mariwee. They just crawled all over the children and they didn't seem to mind anymore. I helped a little girl color after the guys were cleaning up getting ready to go home and she asked me if I was an art teacher. :) I laughed and said no I don't know much about art. We had a medical clinic as well going with a couple from our group being nurses--it was a neat way to serve the village.
