Peru 2009 - Entry 6: Power Tools

Another good day. :)

This morning began with a minor panic attack. My roommate, Tori, woke up with a blackish-brownish tongue--yes, TONGUE. We couldn´t figure out what it was from, so she Googled it and found out that´s a side effect of Pepto-Bismol. (We have to take two tablets a day while we´re here, because the food is so different than what we´re used to.) So we calmed down and went to breakfast... where, for the second day, there were mini roaches in our water pitchers. The day promised to be exciting.

We arrived and were told there was both construction and more house visits/gift-giving to do. Tori and I volunteered to do construction since we went to the houses yesterday, so while the others were off doing that, we installed drywall. I´ve never done anything like that before, so it was very much so a learning experience. We measured and cut steel for the inner wall panels and then drilled the drywall pieces into place. It ended up looking pretty darn good, especialy considering Tori and I have never built a house before!

After lunch we had an event for the women who are involved in the church community groups. Tori gave her testimony, Andrea did a teaching on prayer, and then the women designed prayer boxes. We had a really good turnout and it was so nice to see them having a good time. The women who came today are those who have been consistently involved in ministry activities for a while, and it was a good opportunity for them to mingle and relax a little bit. For most of the time after I was done interpreting, I was holding a baby boy named Jose. His mother was painting a box and was finding it difficult to paint and hold him simultaneously. He was the most content, happy, cute baby I´ve seen here. He just kind of looked around and giggled every now and then.

Now we´re back at the hostal, going to eat dinner, and I´ll prepare my testimony and lesson for tomorrow!

¡Hasta luego!

Spanish of the Day = (and I used to know this) paintbrush is ´pincel´for small things and ´brocha´for big things (ie: when we were painting the community center)