Fly Work Live

This Christmas I had the joy of going to far away Peru for 18 heat filled days. The flights alone should scare anyone and landing at 1 Am local time makes the first days of your visit seem foggy. I went with a wonderful group of 58 others, all of us with the goal of building 2 churches for local congregations.The poverty in and around Lima is stunning. The children with bellies distended by worms and malnutrition, the drinking water they consume smells of urine, the air is clogged with grimy smoke from burning trash and the houses contructed with plastic bags and rusted iron are enough to make the strongest gape in awe. Over 500 thousand people live in the sand dunes around Lima.






Day 1 -After a brief nap we wrangled ourselves into two ancient buses and hauled ourselves to the work sites where we learned to lay block and got a lay of the land. On our site in Pachecutec (say that one 5 times fast!) we had an ocean view and a breeze that kept us somewhat cooled during the sunny, smoggy days.

This is the first block we laid on site. Ray led the way and got rolling fast on putting up the walls. Our foreman, Art, taught us well. None of the walls feel down. Jericho could take a lesson from us!Day 2 - A full day of work on the site got us up to course four of blocks. FAST work! I got to work on grouting with a team of magnificent crazy people, including the two monkies you see below, Annika and KK. Finished early to prepare for Sabbath.Day 3 - A long bus ride to church and we were almost the first ones there! The church we built will replace a pole contruction with plastic bags for a roof, and solid dirt for a floor. I must say though, having a dog sit next to me in church was a new experience. Also new for me..shaking everyone's hand on the way out the door of the church!









Day 4 - Back to the grind. Made it up to course 7 of blocks on one half of the building and I believe up to course four on the other half. Had sprinkles of rain on site today. It helped keep the dust down a bit, except for the dust being flung about by the saw we used to cut block with.



















Day 5 - A full day of work on the site. Lost three of our team members to illness, which left us all pulling harder to fill in the missing gaps. The younger ones started to wear out earlier in the day. Lunches consist of sandwiches and carefully purchased chips that were full of MSG. Yeah for MSG! We celebrated Christmas today with sandwiches (surprise!) on site and handfuls of fake snow thrown on us by my lovely roommate for the trip, Dawn. Dinner was a huge affair with singing and an elegantly prepared dinner with tableclothes and centerpieces. Lotsa hoopla! The kids (18 and under) all got purses or hats to celebrate the ultimate Gift.

Day 6 - Fatigue had by this time started to hit us all. Wednesday and rafting were approaching and we were all ready for the "Time to go!" call. Our foreman, Art, whom I lovingly call Artimus, would have worked all night if we would have let him. Achy muscles and short tempers all become a part of these trips I surmise, but we had worship nightly and everyone the kept lack of sleep and lack of energy greatly under control.



The rest of the days will soon be added. I just wanted to start posting before mayhem breaks out for me not telling people what happened!