The PAIN!!/Teaching Trip

The men in the village had to work on a concrete floor with us the past couple of days. Mme Jo is going to lay tile on the floor but it was a finished concrete floor and the stucco(?) would not stick to the smooth floor so YES! we had to pick the floor to take off the smooth layer of concrete. The men used hatchets and hammers to get it off. I help the second day and thought I was going to die!! You sit there and hammer and hammer and after three or four hits a tiny little piece of concrete comes off. And it is a 340 sq ft building. Towards the end of the day I couldn't use my hands. If I was gripping something I could get my fingers off later b/c I couldn't straighten them out. If I was trying to grip something with strength I couldn't b/c I had none! And that was only one day. And my compassionate, tender wife had very encouraging words for me...I am tired of hearing you complain about your hands and how you hurt. You need to stop complaining! Ohhhhh how I love you in those moments! The men worked the entire day before doing this!! And they never complained!! They were very thankful to get the job and work! It reminded me of when me and my brothers would always get asked to do the nasty jobs when we were younger. B/c we were the only stupid ones who would do it! But here...it doesn't matter...you have them lined up to do the job! DIFFERENT! We one time cleaned UNDER the weighing scales at the Sale Barn. For you who don't know...that is where all the urine and poop go! from the cows and animals go while they are standing there being weighed! Or having to mow an entire yard with a straight down slope with only weed eaters...but thanks to Luke's generous idea to mow the straight down slope with a RIDING MOWER we finished that fast!!! After we pulled him off the upside down mower with the tires still spinning and the motor running!! HAHA Or when me and Luke crawled under a house with hardly no space to crawl and pulled all the insulation out a little hole at one end or the house. Or picking up constructions sites after the destruction of building houses. But see....half of these do not even compare to that work the other day!! And the men left smiling and willing to return for more! We even had to tell them that that was it and they could go home! Good stuff. Do all things without complaining and whining! in other words....So there you go!

Daniel

Hey! It's Brandi. I wanted to tell you about last Friday (July 16th, 2010). I teach at a school in the city and I teach one day a week in the ministry in the village. On Friday, I took my advanced students from the city school to the school in the village. Only one of the students from the school had EVER seen the village before! So, they were all super excited to go see a different part of their city. When we got there, there was a car that could take us up the mountain to the village school, but I gave the students the option of walking the mountain to see what these students in the village have to do every day to get to school. So, all but two of the students took off walking, and yes, I did too. When we reached the school, we all were just a sweatin', but they were so excited to be there. The students in the ministry received the city students so well and they gave them a beautiful welcome and they put on a drama for them and gave them cards, in English. It was so awesome. The city students brought 20 bags of food to give to 20 different families in the village, and they also brought clothes to give to all of the children. Afterwards, they all had the opportunity to teach an English class and they all did SO awesome! They gave the students in the village candy for doing "well" in class and stickers too, and we all just had a great time. Now my city students have to write a comparison paper, in English, describing their experience.

Next semester, my high school class in the city are going to do the same thing, and many of the teachers and students in the city school want to continue doing this. It was such a great experience, and I wanted to share it with you. :)

Blessing!

Brandi