Our 4th of July

We had a fantastic day today! Descriptions ranging from teamwork to productive to perfection were all words used by team members tonight to sum up the day. First, the weather was wonderful for working outside. Overcast nearly all day with a tiny sprinkle a couple of times and welcome ocean breezes at just the right time. We still sweat buckets, but the temperatures were balmy. Pray for that kind of weather every day! Next, we began our workday at the refinery to load trucks with medical supplies, dental chairs, and all kinds of equipment they were storing for the team of 30 doctors and dentists arriving today. We followed that with trips to a couple of stores to order the supplies for the house we're building. That driving around took a while, so then it was time for lunch.

After lunch was the best time of all. In less than 2 hours, our team, with the outstanding help of two neighbors, demolished the old, termite-ridden house standing on the site the new house will occupy. We enjoyed this crazy adventure very much despite close encounters with dangerous moments-like Annie's scratch from a nail (don't worry, Mom, she's completely fine, the handy-dandy antiseptic wipes, antibiotic cream, and bandaid were probably all overkill as far as she was concerned but I need to justify my huge first aid kit once in a while!)-- or the hammer that flew out of A.J.'s hands right into Alex's chest ( he's fine too once although a bruise may show up)--or the perfectly executed roll Adam did off the house's platform backwards to avoid falling badly as he pulled a section of the wall off to dispose of it. See, completely safe work we do! Once we racked and threw away the debris under the old house platform-and marveled at the size of the bugs we saw!-we began digging holes for the posts for the new house. Tomorrow we will finish that and begin building the house. Kathryn and Alexandria will put in some time in the clinic with the medical teams.

We returned to our hotel, had some beach time or pool time, showers, dinner, then had a meeting with the entire group of volunteers so we could all meet each other. We followed that with our regular daily team meeting, then walked to the store to buy more water and snacks. Finally we ended the evening with a rowdy card game of "31" with a couple of the doctors we've gotten to know. Thanks to Dr. Albeirto's suggestion, the loser of each hand had to sing and dance! The Hokey Pokey, Teapot Song, and YMCA were all featured tonight.

All in all, a pretty fabulous way to celebrate the 4th of July!