Wandering Jaimee: Explosives and Playing in Dirt

Perhaps you've come to expect this kind of news from me, but I'm having so very much fun! Yesterday we had an early morning and went to morning devotions with the children at the school and it was so inspiring to watch these kids that come from such hard situations sing and dance with so much joy. What a special thing to be part of.

Myself and Braden walked around the site and measured buildings and other infrastructure yesterday which was fun. I also had the opportunity to calculate volumes for the water storage tank and rainwater collection tanks.

Last night, it was Braden's birthday so our hosts here got him a cake. And then. . . they brought out the fire crackers. It is tradition to blow off fire crackers on someone's birthday here. They are these kind that you hold and light and then throw and they explode. I am telling you . . . if you want to see a room full of guys giggle like a bunch of school girls, just bring out the explosives. Our Guatemalan host was so excited to bring them out, he could hardly contain the surprise during dinner, and then told us there was to be absolutely no dishes done until the firecrackers were finished. He was just so pleased.

This property is guarded by guys with machine guns. Not to worry, they keep us safe. But we asked our host if we should alert the guys with machine guns that we would be setting off fire crackers so they didn't think it was gun shots, and he smiled, patted us on the back and said "My friend, it is no problem."

Today we met with the ministry to get some more details and suggestions on what the design should look like. Angie (the other civil) and I also dug holes for perc tests and took a look at some preliminary soil conditions which was fun, and I'm pretty sure the local's think we're off our rockers for digging holes and pouring water into them.

Anyway, that is all for now. Tomorrow we will be continuing design, and also visiting one of Impact's School's and clinic's.

Until next time,

Jaimee