More digging

We had our first day at the work site today. It is immensely gratifying to see a place that was just a bare plot and a pile of rocks when we first encountered it, and which we left as a set of foundations with rebar towers sticking out at intervals, standing now as a shell of a building with real walls and windows and doorways. It is just a shell, of course, and there's a lot for us to do this week, but it is gratifying to see it start to look like a church.

The first thing we learned on the site is that they want a retaining wall at the edge of the property, on the downhill side of the church. So we needed to dig a trench for the foundation for that wall. I remembered digging foundations from last year, so it was easy to fall into a familiar rhythm: someone with more skill and strength than I have goes to it with a pickaxe to break up the clods of soil, and I follow with a shovel to clear the broken clods from the steadily deepening trench. About four of us formed a good rotation team on one end of the trench, while others were working similar tactics at the other end. When the two groups met I thought we ought to have a golden spike for the occasion, but there was no time for ceremony. Other tasks beckoned. A good deal of the rocks and dirt we took from the trench were wheelbarrowed up to the church by eagerly volunteering local children, where the soil was used as fill for the dais on which the church's altar will eventually be placed. A beautiful synergy emerged.

At one point in the day, Ted and Wolman, our Honduran foreman, built a scaffold that will be used for some of the roofing work. I don't think they'll be getting me up there at all. But I watched with real appreciation as a bunch of boards and posts became a scaffold at the hands of two talented builders.

It was a very sunny and hot day today--hotter than I recall it being last year; hotter than some who've been making this trip for awhile say they ever remember it being--so we all had to be careful about drinking enough water and checking our sunblock from time to time. We actually went through two big bottles of water by mid-afternoon; and by that time we were all noticeably flagging in energy, so the decision was made to knock off a little early and make sure we maintained our energies for the next days' work. It was a popular decision.

As we sat around the pool in the hotel, some with cold beers, some with cold soft drinks, some in the pool splashing about, we checked our emails and compared notes about what we were hearing from Staunton. Just how many inches of snow do you all have forecast for this weekend? We've heard varyng accounts. We all wish you the best with your snow emergency--but I'll be honest: snow is kind of far from my mind tonight. Sunburn and blisters are higher on our list of concerns.

May the Peace of Christ be with you,
Paul+