Day 7: Monday, July 5, 2010
Los Palmas is my favorite village thus far. Just as we’ve done all week, we left right after breakfast by boat to Los Palmas, the closest of the three villages. When we first arrived we saw a sloth, pet to one of the families in the village.
There are two other teachers on the trip and Lea is studying to be a teacher, so naturally once the welling digging is in motion they drift off to locate the school and talk to the teacher/principal about sharing. I’d felt led in all the other places we’d been to help with the well but today I went to the school (which was actually only 50 ft from well).
I fell in love with the wooden one room school building and the sweet teacher. There is something romantic and enchanting about a one room school in the middle of the jungle. Inside I was quite surprised to find such adequate materials. The walls were colored with maps, and posters, much like an American classroom. The students sat in very well made wooden desks that were arranged into three groups (clearly age groups). I noticed a small closet to the left that seemed to be a library/resource closet which came as quite a surprise. Many of the students also had books and colored pencils and paper, another rarity. I was however quite shocked to see their communal cup and bucket of “water” – filthy, dirty water from a stagnant pond that I probably wouldn’t even bath in is what they were drinking. I realized how much of an impact building a well can bring. It’s quite difficult to lead dead people to salvation.
Praise the Lord for allowing us to find water and we only had to dig about 50 feet deep. There was definitely a need for God to provide this water and I’m so glad that he used us to accomplish his purposes.
We also finished much earlier than any other time and were actually back to the farm around 2:30. Because I had been bit by mosquitoes the first night I tried to take a shower in the dark, the rest of the week I swan in the river with a bar of soap for my bath. But today, since we got back so early and for the benefit of anyone with nostrils in a 5 miles radius, I decided to try the shower again. It was mostly successful, only minimal bites and no bats. Haha!
It was nice to chill and hang out with the team instead of being dog tired or running to our tents from the mosquitoes. Nate, the Harvard grad from Minnesota, taught a few of us a card game called, “Dirty Clubs”. It’s quite complicated but I won the first game quite quickly. Then we added more players and the game lasted like 4 hours before we all just quit. But it was fun. Card games is a universal way to get to know people.
Los Palmas is my favorite village thus far. Just as we’ve done all week, we left right after breakfast by boat to Los Palmas, the closest of the three villages. When we first arrived we saw a sloth, pet to one of the families in the village.
There are two other teachers on the trip and Lea is studying to be a teacher, so naturally once the welling digging is in motion they drift off to locate the school and talk to the teacher/principal about sharing. I’d felt led in all the other places we’d been to help with the well but today I went to the school (which was actually only 50 ft from well).
I fell in love with the wooden one room school building and the sweet teacher. There is something romantic and enchanting about a one room school in the middle of the jungle. Inside I was quite surprised to find such adequate materials. The walls were colored with maps, and posters, much like an American classroom. The students sat in very well made wooden desks that were arranged into three groups (clearly age groups). I noticed a small closet to the left that seemed to be a library/resource closet which came as quite a surprise. Many of the students also had books and colored pencils and paper, another rarity. I was however quite shocked to see their communal cup and bucket of “water” – filthy, dirty water from a stagnant pond that I probably wouldn’t even bath in is what they were drinking. I realized how much of an impact building a well can bring. It’s quite difficult to lead dead people to salvation.
Praise the Lord for allowing us to find water and we only had to dig about 50 feet deep. There was definitely a need for God to provide this water and I’m so glad that he used us to accomplish his purposes.
We also finished much earlier than any other time and were actually back to the farm around 2:30. Because I had been bit by mosquitoes the first night I tried to take a shower in the dark, the rest of the week I swan in the river with a bar of soap for my bath. But today, since we got back so early and for the benefit of anyone with nostrils in a 5 miles radius, I decided to try the shower again. It was mostly successful, only minimal bites and no bats. Haha!
It was nice to chill and hang out with the team instead of being dog tired or running to our tents from the mosquitoes. Nate, the Harvard grad from Minnesota, taught a few of us a card game called, “Dirty Clubs”. It’s quite complicated but I won the first game quite quickly. Then we added more players and the game lasted like 4 hours before we all just quit. But it was fun. Card games is a universal way to get to know people.
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