Southwest Christian High School - Wednesday
Today we returned to Casa De Luz and continued the work we had begun yesterday. A few stories from the day:
Some of us worked on finishing the kitchen. We painted the ceiling and the walls, but despite our efforts, the old paint on the ceiling kept peeling. It was really hot and swarms of flies surrounded us while we worked, but we pushed through and after lunch God blessed us with fans (the electricity was back on) and less flies! We kept at it and were able to finish despite the old paint peeling and now it looks great! Praise the Lord!
“At Casa De Luz, I spent much of the day playing with the kids. They were awesome and were a great joy to be with. There was one girl with Downs Syndrome that was especially fun to play with. She would copy everything I did. It was kind of like playing Simon Says. I lifted my leg; she lifted hers. I raised my arms; she raised hers, and so on. She tickled me and loved playing with my camera. When I had to say goodbye, she cried and wouldn’t let go of my arm. It was so hard to leave. She is an amazing little girl. God Bless the children that are at Casa De Luz and those who are coming in the future.” Ashlee K.
In the prayer garden, Kelly is our animal rescuer J. Yesterday we had an encounter with a tarantula that she kindly relocated for us. Soon after, we happened upon a snake in our work area and not only did she pick it up for us but she carried it around for at least 20 minutes. That was just a part of her animal adventures for the day.
Much progress was made on the wall surrounding the prayer garden, although we were not able to finish the job. The roof is not quite done yet either, but we made progress there as well. While we will not return to this orphanage, they have four men coming tomorrow to work on the roof and hopefully finish the job.
On the inside of the orphanage a farm scene mural including some pigs, a horse, a cow, some birds and chickens and even a spider was painted along the hallway inside. Groups of us were able to just hang out with the kids throughout the day, holding them, feeding them and dancing with them. It was very difficult to tear ourselves away from these kids when we were called to board the bus.
In the morning we will go to a sugarcane village and in the afternoon visit another orphanage for handicapped children. We will not be doing any work projects here, but will interact with the children and love on them for a little while.
