It's Wednesday!

Well, a couple of days without internet access and I could write a book. But ladies are waiting to sew, so no book, just highlights.

Monday the men built a retaining wall in preparation for a set of stairs that will be installed today. The ladies sorted clothes for the La Providencia store in the morning, and prepared the sewing room (which is normally the pharmacy) in the afternoon. The afternoon also had us meeting Holly, Israel's wife, and their four delightful children. And...a little shopping excursion:) You can klnow four ladies were in heaven. We went to the fabric store where we purchased 80 yards of beautiful fabric. Then we had to go to another store to get the interfacing and thread. Each store here is a specialty store for such things. The bargaining process was fun. We whittled the price of the fabric from $2.50 per yard to $1.80 pre yard. I almost feel guilty. Then, because we had only American dollars, he charged us a little fee to exchange before we could pay. The man was so excited, we got a bargain, he got a bargain, and everyone went away feeling like they had won. He even, in his very best English, sent us off with a "God Bless You.'

Asa, Holly's oldest, was hungry and made sure all the ladies knew that. He says, "I've heard that the ice cream store can make a pretty purple milkshake." So... we decided that we should be mythbusters and check out this vicious rumor! The Kob does, in fact, make purple shakes, they are, in fact, beautiful, and they aslo serve a meancoffee flavored ice cream. Yummy. So we all had ice cream and sat in the park in the center of town watching the kids play. I think the guys may have been a bit jealous that while they were sweating, we were eating ice cream. We'll get them to the ice cream store soon, though.

Dinner was at a nice restaurant in town called Fred's Place. The menu was much like the menu at Chili's. Great food, and we loved watching the group of Episcopalians that are also here as they came in carrying their red cooler fuul of wine bottles:) They were a fun bunch. You'll have to ask James about his encounter with the pastor from that church.

Early to bed, as we were all very tired.

Tuesday was fun. More construction, moresorting of clothes, and our first sewing classes began. We had four ladies and the doctor here, Bertha, came, as well. The ladies are eager to learn, and picked up very quickly. They were especially thrilled when we told them that they could keep the first bag that they had made. The afternoon nclass was larger, and equally as exuberant. Douglas, our handler, also tried his hand at sewing and made a bag for his fiance'. He then laid down the gauntlet to the other men, so we may have a men's class before the week is out.Their quality is superb and their attitudes are amazing. And, as all good teachers do, we gave them reward for a good day's work. It seems that Honduras has the equivalent of our Blow Pops in multiple flavors, including Mango. MMMMM. The Hondurans in La Providencia do not really get those kinds of things because of the expense, so it was a real treat.

We are all blown away by watching the families come into the store and use their earned La Providencia dollars to purchase clothing and supplies. God really is blessing us by seeing the fruit of our labors in the states played out.

Yesterday also contained a soccer game between all of our men and the first grade boys team from the school. I bet you can't guess who won! Thos cute little guys, some who could walk under the legs of our guys waxed them cold!! I think our "boys" want a rematch today. They will also be meeting the adult soccer team at 3 pm, so we have been recruited as cheerleaders. They might need more that that, though. Steve, our fearless leader, was se;ected as goalie, and has now earned a new nickname - Swiss Cheese. Too many holes.

We had great devotions last night/ Chris Ullery brought a CD player and music, so we all worshipped with Chris Tomlin for a while. Sweet, sweet time. The evening finished with a friendly game of cards. I have decided that I should keep my day job, as I might be the unluckiest person I know:)

Our day here has begun, with one room of guys waking for breakfast as they heard us leaving. I'll leave it to you to decide which group that might be.

Hope to post more later.

Cindy