Accion de Gracias, Trabajo, y Familias

Post Thanksgiving soccer game


The Team


The Thanksgiving Bunch


Pumpkin Pie!


The house at sunset


Our Group with the Church Family


This past week has been filled with fun, hard work, and a variety of other experiences. Over the past two weeks we have been working really hard on finishing clearing the land where the rest of the lemon plants are going to go. We have spent many hot days sweating buckets trying to get it done. It is amazing looking back on when we first started and seeing how far we have come. The first week we started I could barely swing a machete for more than one hour. Now I can keep it up for a good six or seven hours without feeling sore in the morning. Also, when we first started I could barely lift any of the tablones that we carried out of the forest. But now I have started to master the Peruvian art of log carrying and it really isn't that bad. Although this is some of the hardest work I have ever done in my life I love seeing the progress and knowing that the orchard we our planting will help start the trade school makes it all the more worthwhile. So far we have planted 900 lemon plants with another 700 on the way. Also, this week we finally got to burn the 6 hectarias of land that the contractor had cleared. It was the biggest fire I have ever seen in my life. Some of the group was in Campo Verde which is 4 km. away and they said they saw the smoke! It didn't last long though because after about 4 hours most of it was out. One other thing we gave been working on is cutting good wood and transporting it to the house. We have had Alfredo, who is a chainsaw expert, at the house for the past two weeks cutting up the wood for us. He is a really nice guy and he cuts the boards so straight it looks like they have been run through a sawmill.
Another thing that happened this past week was the arrival of Kaitlin's and Tara's parents for the thanksgiving holiday. It was awesome to have people over and show them what we were doing on the project. For thanksgiving we had incredible food and lots of fun fellowship together. In the evening we played pit and just enjoyed being together.
This coming sunday we began another clinic just outside of Pulcallpa. We really need everyone's prayers because a three week strike is supposed to take place two days after our clinic starts. If that happens we could be stuck at km. 38 for quite a while. Also continue to keep the fundraising projects in your prayers as well. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and God bless!