Kat

It's pretty ironic that today's post is titled "Kat" because that just happened to be the score of this morning's soccer game. "Kat a Kat" (4 to 4 for those of you who didn't quite pick up on that). For those of you who might have been doubting my soccer-playing abilities, I'll have you know that I contributed to my team by scoring 1 goal, nevermind that the goalie at the time was probably half my height, but that's not important. In terms of Pastor vs. the soccer game in general I believe the score was: soccer game: 2 (or 3, I lost count) and Pastor: 0. He suffered a few spills early on in the game and after about 10 minutes I turned around to find him on the sidelines. I don't blame him though because these kids were incredibly good at soccer and were probably pretty disappointed with the skills that I told them I had.  There was a pretty competitive game going on when we arrived and it took a little negotiating to get them to let our kids play.  After showing off a little I decided step out of the spotlight and let the kids shine. (Just kidding, obviously, these kids were unreal).  After Pastor and I stepped out of the game our kids that we brought to the field were matched up against the kids that were already there.  There were pep talks and coaching coming from a few of the guys that were there before us.  One of them told the kids to behave because there was a pastor watching; Pastor got a kick out of that.  Whenever there was controversey during the game it was like a small riot broke out.  These guys were definitely passionate about their soccer.  At one point one of the kids from the other team scored a goal and ran around with his hands in their air until a few of the older guys picked him up and swung him around.  It was very World Cup-like.   We finally packed up and headed back to the work site where one of the pastors from the church we went to held a short Bible study for the kids before we handed out juice, crackers, and candy that Pastor and I had picked up at the market before the game.  The kids listened very attentively to a story about Samuel and Eli and then another lesson about forgiveness.  The kids asked the Pastor some tough questions after the lesson, for example: If God created the whole world, why are there so many bad things in it? and When will all of God's people rise again?  It was nice to see know that these kids think about things like that but heartbreaking at the same time because some of them know too much.  One kid that Pastor hung around with, Evan, who spoke Spanish, pulled him aside and told him how his family didn't have any money and asked if Pastor Strom could get his dad a job.  It breaks all of our hearts knowing that these kids have to worry about issues such as money, something that I personally never even thought about as a kid.  
We brought 2 soccer balls to give to 2 of the boys.  These kept them busy for a few minutes before they were back hanging on all of us. I was really excited to see all of them again today.  Pastor told a few of them to wear the same shirts as yesterday so that he could recognize them.  As soon as I stepped off the van this morning I was bombarded with kisses on the cheek and hugs and a quick name test to make sure I remembered all of their names.  
In terms of our work progress today was definitely a step up from yesterday.  We split ourselves into 3 or 4 groups and that way we were able to work on 3 houses at a time.  We built all of the walls (5 rows up at least) on 2 houses.  After 5 rows of blocks the engineer comes to the houses and installs a reinforcing bar around the entire house to ensure stability.  One house's "re-bar" is almost completely installed minus about 4 feet.  Tomorrow I'm assuming that they will install a re-bar on the house that I was working on.  Hopefully while they do that we will be able to work on a few new houses.  We were way more efficient and began to have a sort of flow.  The houses that we're building are going to be consist of 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living area and 2 porches, one of which is sort of an outdoor kitchen. 

There isn't much more to write.  I'm currently sitting on the 2nd floor porch/balcony looking out over the ocean view that we have here at the clinic.  Rather than quenching our thirst with water after a long days work, the majority of us went straight for the fridge where the beer was.  Lutherans...  It's almost dinner time a.k.a. time for me to sign off. Thank you for your comments, everyone is always asking if people are reading and commenting so keep em coming please.  

More to come.