Our First Chances To Serve Outside Ken's House

¿Hola cada uno, cómo es usted?

The past two days have been a little different that this weekend where all we did was sit around and hang out with the guys at Ken's house, so I thought I would post about it. 

On Monday we learned how to take the bus with Ivan, one of the boys from Ken's home. Although he seem slightly confused as to what we were supposed to be doing so rather taking two bus's the entire way we walked for nearly the length of the first bus ride and caught the bus for the last block and then transferred to the bus which took us to Ken's house. Now traveling on a bus in Bolivia is totally different than in Canada, In Bolivia they will continue to pack people on the bus as long as they have money and since it is the main form of transportation they get quite full. So although it can get cramped, it is still a pretty fun time. That being said other than knowing the bus numbers we need to get to Ken's house, we are still quite unsure of how to use the bus system. 

The rest of Monday was spent at Ken's house hanging out with the guys. Once we arrive we helped one of the guys make lunch, whose name I cannot quite remember. It was homemade hamburger patties, rice, potatoes, and a salad. It went quite well if I do say so myself, and was also a lot of fun. Then in the afternoon we spent tons of time playing fooseball and fútbol. We played a two on two fútbol game in the backyard with 2 feet wide nets, which was super fun and hacked around on the road in front of their house. Once that was all done we went to the market and picked up bread for supper which we found out after was the entire supper. The bread was extremely sweet and ended up being one of my favorite meals so far.

The this morning we got up and went out to help with an El Jordan project. El Jordan is a ministry in Santa Cruz which primarily helps families and is run by Corina and her husband Marco. Marco picked us up at around nine and we went off to help a family build a new house. And by house I mean a single room brick house instead of their single room wood house which leaked when it rained. The family consisted of the father Gary, the mother Mary, and their three kids: Gary Jr., Christian, and Monsurat. This was super exciting and once we got their we realized we really didn't know how to help but they ended up having lots of other work for use anyways. We mixed sand and cement for the mortar they used on the house, leveled the ground on their entire lot as well as leveled the slope for the "driveway" which our shovels so that a car could make it up. Later on we also ended up "mowing" the lawn, I say "mowing" because unlike in Canada, they use a machete to cut the grass and then raking the loose grass away. We finished the job but I'm sure it was not nearly as nice as if they had done it and took 5 times longer, but that's all right I guess. 

During the day we were also able to play with the families three kids, a lot, which was by far the best part of the day. We joked and laughed and had a merry old time. We taught them some English words and they taught us some Spanish ones and then Tim went for a walk with them while I finished up the slope on the driveway. On the walk they asked Tim to buy them a pet duck from a lady sitting in her yard, they cost the equivalent of 42 cents each, but Tim decided against it since he didn't know what their dad would think, still an interesting fact though. I feel so blessed to have spent the day with these kids who were so full of joy, it was an awesome experience  and I had a lot of fun. Oh on a different note, for lunch we went to a small restaurant nearby and had some chicken soup in which their were the chicken feet, good times. Also along with the soup we had a dish of chicken and rice, just thought I'd add that.

And that my friends is how our last two days have went, it has been a wonderful time and I am so blessed to have gotten to come to Bolivia, and I know Tim would say the same. 

Finally I would let to ask for your prayer in the following areas:

1. The ability to quickly get a hang of the Spanish language
2. That Tim and I would both stay healthy while on this trip
3. That we would have opportunities each day to grow and teach others.
4. That it would not rain until the family we worked with today has time to put the roof on their new house. Also that God would bless this family, they are an amazing group of people. 
5. That Ken would start to feel better as he is still dealing with the residual effects of Typhoid as well as some issues with a boy who used to be living at Ken's home.

Gracias Y Dios Bendice