The Church on a Hill Has a Roof!

As we ventured down the Escondido River, those of us who had returned sat there reminiscing about our February experiences... the anticipation was too much. We arrived at the Caribbean Dreams Hotel with the inviting front porch - it was like we never left! Once we ate breakfast and unpacked we headed out of town to the work site. We were welcomed by children at the top of the hill... their excitement was briefly interrupted after they examined the smaller group that emerged form the 15 passenger van... yes, they were excited, but some of their good friends from February were missing! The got over it quickly but the kids asked a lot of questions - our broken Spanish was good enough because they were so eager to re-engage with us regardless of who was missing!

Pinky (Dr. Dave... in the right photos on the right) & The Brain (Jim aka Grandpa by himself grinding away!) returned to the work site and they were truly a blessing because of the engineering challenges that faced us. Along with Pinky is the EverReady sidekick Josh (next to Dave) who would have no fear when it came to walking across beams and walls without a net or ropes - his cat-like abilities made some impossible tasks possible - that's Biblical, because it was only God that could have accomplished all that! In the right photo above, instead of the traditional "Cheese", Josh and Dave are saying the Spanish word, "Queso"... we found out that in order to get someone to smile in Nicaragua, you have them say "Whiskey"... OK, that's not Biblical, but it makes better pictures!

It was amazing how much work was accomplished by the Nicaraguans since we left in February... and from what we have heard, after we left, many Nicaraguans stayed to help finish thing up! On our last day, we had completed the full foundation for that wall. As of last Monday, the wall closest to you in the picture below was halfway completed - we finished pouring the last foundation the day we left! The shots above show the progress we made with the roof - by the time we left, all of the rafters and purlons (cross pieces to which the roofing material was screwed to)were in place and one section of the galvanized roof material was installed. A slight engineering call was made and agreed upon... the roof rafters were joined together at the same place - this gave the roof more stability and also lessened the airfoil tendency of the split roof design.

Thanks to the diplomatic engineering discussions that took place! We can't wait to see the finished product! We should hear a progress report from Rigo soon as he is in Bluefields this week! Stay tuned!