Roofing Day

I woke up early and attempted to catch the sunrise several times over the course of the week, but most days it was too cloudy.  Thursday, however, made it worth the wait. I do so enjoy being near the water and it was nice to be able to have my devotions on the dock several mornings that week.

"In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus"

We headed north up the coast line and then turned into the Rio Dulce and headed for a town called Baltimore where we would spend the day putting a roof on a school.  After a short trek through the jungle, carrying many of our supplies, we arrived at the school.  Not a cloud in the sky, it was hot, hot work.

 I was allowed to help with the roof so I spent my day helping send sheet metal up to the guys on the trusses and trying to make sure everyone up there stayed hydrated.  Tom told us later that day that it was structurally the worst roof he'd ever worked on in Guatemala.  The trusses were extra-far apart and not made of the straightest (or thickest) wood.  Everyone not involved in the roof did, you guessed it, more crafts!  They also played games with the kids out in the field as well.

After lunch back at El Faro we had several options.  There was a soccer game between El Farro and a team from Puerto Barrios, the ropes course, and of course swimming and relaxing.  My pastor and Seth both love soccer so they played in the game (they found it frustrating though because of the language barrier).  I wanted to watch the soccer game, but as expected the game started late and I'd felt bad that only 2 people were interested in (or physically capable of) doing the ropes course with Alex.  In the end, four of my teammates and myself all attempted the course.  I thought that since I was strapped in and hooked up the height factor would not be an issue, but boy was I wrong.  I desperately wanted to turn around after making it through the first section (there were 3 or 4 more and they didn't look any easier), but they convinced me to carry on despite 2 others already having turned around.

 I somehow managed to finish the high course and then also do the lower course before I was finally freed and rushed back to the soccer field in hopes of catching some of the game.  All the adrenaline from the ropes course had me feeling great, tons of energy despite the hot and taxing morning spent roofing.  I only caught about 10 minutes of the game, it was easy to tell when they were cheering for Seth because they would yell "Canche" (Guatemalan slang for blonde/blondie).

After dinner the women from the sewing program set up a bunch of their stuff for us to be able to purchase.  There was a plethora of beautiful items and it was incredibly hard to choose!  One of the missionaries was also selling the coffee that the Medina farm sells to El Faro at wholesale; they get to keep all the proceeds.  This coffee is apparently one of the Starbucks Reserve coffees, so apparently that's a big deal.  I'm not a coffee aficionado by any stretch of the imagination, but our pastor is and he said it's really good coffee. **Anyone interested in purchasing the coffee (with part of the proceeds going to the mission) can do so at Connect Roasters.**