Day Eight - Final work day

The Lote Tres Church

Monday
On our final work day at Lote Tres, Nikki gave the devotional.  It discussed the idea of not being able to see all of our projects to completion.  We’ve been able to do many things here in the mountains of Ecuador, but we may never see the completed bathrooms or milk coolers.

Ricardo de Jesus Franta

A mist blanketed the area, dropping a small amount of rain on the terrain.  Part way up the mountain, our bus began to slip a little.  Nelson backed down and tried the road again, spinning out another time.  He backed up further as the entire group loaded onto the back of the bus.  This time, he was able to slowly climb up the slippery part of the road and made it to Lote Tres.

At the church, projects for our final day were sought out.  The wonderful paint art the children did before had found its way onto many surfaces.  Now brightly colored were some doors, a couple walls, the benches, and a couple dogs.  Jerry, Tony, and Keith took up the task of sanding the paint back off the benches and restained them.

Mark and Jim met with more people from the community to talk about their agricultural potential.  Several ideas were presented that would benefit them, including the ideas of micro loans, the formation of a coop, and developing markets for cheese and guinea pigs.

A couple days ago the dump truck filled with sand got stuck.  The next day, the truck deposited its load at the bottom of the newly formed road.  Terry, Matt, Nikki, Richard, and Philip began the huge task of moving the sand.

The first attempt was to fill the wheelbarrow and move it up the hill.  Two people tried pushing, but it was too full and slippery for the load to make it.

Moving sand bag by bag

Alternative methods had to be found.  The blue bags donated by the MOPS group came in handy.  Bit by bit, shovel by shovel, the sand mound began moving up the mountain.

Children and community members began helping.  Children would take 1-2 shovel fulls of sand, while adults would carry 4-5.  Horses were brought down to help, greatly lightening our load.    

Sue helped shovel some sand early in the morning, and then did her final workshop at the school.  Today focused on multiplication and division.  She also gave the teachers a much needed gift: long underwear.  Sue had noticed the school building was also frigid, and the teachers were always wearing their winter clothes.  The students, however, were accustomed to the cold temperatures, since they lived in Lote Tres while the teachers lived down the mountain.

At the end of the day, the hill of sand was almost gone, but not finished.  Nikki’s devotion came into perspective for those who had labored all day carrying heavy loads of sand on their backs.

This evening the group discussed the things they had learned and the blessings they had seen during their work at Lote Tres.