We were up for breakfast (cereal and sticky buns) around 7 am. The milk for the cereal is from New Zealand so it tastes a little bit different. I wouldn’t just drink a glass of it, but it’s ok on cereal.

We had another devotion by Larry and then off to work around 8 am to start repairing the framing. A lot of the wood on the roof had rotted away and wasn’t stable to walk on, so you really had to be careful where you were stepping. There were huge carpenter bees that are about the size of a humming bird. They bore holes into the lumber on the house that looks like someone drilled a perfectly round hole about an inch in diameter. They leave their eggs and a worm in each hole and then seal it up. When the egg hatches, the new bee eats the worm and then bores its way out. There were several of these holes on one of the beams over the water pump, so we had to replace the whole beam because it sounded as though it might be hollow from all the holes and boring.

We had egg salad sandwiches for lunch, then back to work. Some of the roof started getting some Metalplas (corrugated plastic roofing material) on it. Larry and Sandy were working very well together while Gerry and Jim were struggling to get anything done. Jim was cutting the lumber and handing it up to Gerry who would then nail it into place. We called it a day around 5 pm and headed back to shower and eat dinner.

The two best parts of the workday are going to lunch and going to dinner. This is because you have to cross a river to get to and from the job site, so you take off your shoes and wade across perfectly cool and refreshing water. It feels so good on your feet. There is a part near the village shore where the rice paddies drain into the river. For some reason it is about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the river. That’s the best of the best.

Nilo hung around the job site pretty much everyday. He often came over with Liezel when she brought merienda (snack). He asked her one day, “Are you going to feed me today?” It broke her heart, but he’s known as the village beggar, so we were instructed by the missionary to not perpetuate his tendency to rely on handouts to survive.

Richard discovered my PSP and has not stopped bugging me to play it since. I let him play it one evening, and when his dad walked in, Richard called for his attention, “Look, Dad, this is Playstation! It’s so cool!” His dad replied to him, “Well, enjoy it while Casey’s here, cause I’m not buying you one!”

Andy and Sam were playing chess and we had a disagreement about castling on the king’s side. A seasoned player cleared it up and said I was wrong, so I decided to get a second opinion. After further review, the call still stands with me being wrong. I must have been taught the wrong rules back in 6th grade. That’s not too hard to believe.