The Work Continues: Projects and Baseball!

It was a hot day and we worked hard! The three groups rotated worksites today. The crews continue to work after we end for the day, so when we arrived this morning, both latrine sites had foundations laid for us to begin building. Youth learned how to mix cement and lay it along cinder blocks. The crew followed behind us to stack cinderblocks and make sure the building would be structurally sound. They crew members were very patient with us as we learned new skills!

Our painting team did touch ups on the house that was painted the day before, plus painted the windows yellow! Then we moved across the road to begin painting a second home (also pink and yellow).

Tomorrow we will complete the painting of the second house, and we will get as close to complete as possible with our work on the latrines. Kristin informed us today that we likely will not be able to finish building the latrines because the city water plant was shut down. Due to a lack of water, the crews weren’t able to continue making cement for the structure of the latrines after we left today. Kristin will be returning to the D.R. in August and said she will send photos and video of the completed latrines then. As mentioned, we will do as much as we can to get the latrines as close to complete as we can, given the circumstance.

Before baseball practice, we ate lunch at the community center and we stuck around and played games. We taught our translators a few new card games, and some of their friends came in to watch. At baseball practice most of the boys joined in the conditioning practice, almost all of us went down for batting practice, and those who didn’t played with the kids in the stands who came to hang out!

Teaching Natan the card game Uno

One of our youth, Ben Juarez, had a special moment on the baseball field that he wanted to share:

#bentakeover

¡Hola chicos! It’s your favorite redhead, Ben. I just wanted to take over a segment of today’s blog to tell you all about baseball practice, which was just as good, if not better than yesterday! (At least for those of us who decided not to take part in the conditioning.) We have all had our moments over these past few days, but today, I definitely had one of my own. While I was playing ball with the little kids in the field, I saw one of them wasn’t feeling too well. So, being the camp counselor that I am, I went and sat down with him for a little bit. But as soon as I stood back up, this little kid came up to me and asked if I needed water. But even after saying, “No gracias amigo,” he pulled a peso out of his sock to give to me. This little act of kindness really showed me how God weaves through all of us around the world and does some pretty incredible works. We continued to throw and bat and play with all the wonderful kids, and overall, we had an amazing time on the field. ¡Adios! – Ben

Noah and Ben at baseball practice

God continues to do amazing work in us and through the people that we are meeting in the D.R. Youth and chaperones continue to work hard and have dedicated themselves to these projects. We are feeling sticky, definitely smelly, and covered in dirt, yet we feel loved, welcomed, and very happy to be here!

Jacque

Caught sleeping!