Wednesday july 29th, the last work day.

One group macheted in the fields all of the days, we ended up clearing two plantain fields and cleaned up the soccer field. Macheteing is very relaxing because you can take out a ton of anger, but you get very blistered and scratched.

In the school, there was an unfinished auditorium. The work team was able to pour a cement floor. It started as just dirt but now it is a solid floor. All of the mixing and pouring had to be done by shovels in giant piles. Each pile consisted of 6 wheelbarrows full of sand, 1/2 full of rock, and 4 five-gallon buckets of water.

There was a kitchen that was still in need of completion. One work team had to transport about a foot to two feet of dirt for the perimeter around the kitchen. We hope that Veronica likes her new kitchen, and we hope that they can put concrete in the kitchen before rain season.

At two of the houses on the project, two work teams were able to build an addition onto each of the houses out of cinderblocks. One of them was a kitchen, and one was a bedroom for their teenage daughter.

The members from various workteams welded metal beams for the roof of the kitchen, and today helped to attach the beams to the structure..

Today at the worksites, many different acts of fellowship occured. After a huge downpour of water, the soccer field (dirt field) turned to complete mud. After the rain stopped a couple of guys dove in the mud and then about half of the group jumped in after them. After about almost an hour they were completely covered in mud from head to toe. The boys who had began it all, had soaked through their clothes, with their boxers, and skin coated with mud. We tried to hose down but we couldn't get it all off. When we eventually got on the buses to leave we organized into dirty and semi-dirty on our way back to camp.

The second major act of fellowship that occured was between the Nicaraguans and Americans. It was a game of futbol (soccer). We had divided into 3 separate shifts,

At the end of the day, we said our goodbyes or, "see you laters" as the people of Chacocente put it. Many of the adults of Chacocente made it very clear that their home was also ours. Some of them began to cry. It's amazing to realize how attached we could get to a group of people in 4 full work days. They sang us songs in Spanish. We sang a Spanish song and "Jesus loves Me" in English. When we sang, "Jesus loves Me", we watched the faces of the children at Chacocente looking right backm at us. Many of us began to sob. A lot of us couldn't even finish singing the song. After singing, we gifted Nelson, Pedro and Basillia three signed machetes. Amanda also gifted Nelson her Red Sox hat because the Red Sox are his favorite baseball team. More of us began to cry. After this, Gregg donated a small gift to each family to compensate for the daily work they left to work on special jobs with us. Finally, we left the people of Chacocente with good-bye hugs, a tradition at the project. Many youth who typically keep their emotions bottled-up, wept which showed how significant the connection was between us and our Nicaraguan friends. After hugs, the youth climbed on the busses, still crying. We watched out the windows as the families of Project Chacocente waved at us with tears in their eyes. Their faces were so hopeful despite their tears. As we drove away, the kids ran after our busses as fast as they could. We drove out the project for two and a half miles and watched a beautiful sunset all the way. We thanked God for the sunset and the symbolism of it. The sunset showed us hope for the families of the project and gave us an eagerness to hear more success stories about possibly 170 new families living in Chacocente. Thanks, God.

Family Group Wack-a-mole

Marissa, Emily, Shanna, Kirsten, Chrissy, Tyler, Sam and Josh