Hola,
So it happened. 2 of us got sick. Zach got a fever and John got some sort of stomach thing. Luckily both are on the track to recovery and doing well. No, John didn´t get Giardia, just some slight issues. But, other than that we are doing just great.
Our projects so far this week haven´t been too huge, but we have been learning lots of new skills. On monday we built a patio down by the all purpose courts. We forgot to mention this in the last post, but saturday we cleared the area for the patio and did some manual compacting. Being the lack of bulldozers or any form of heavy rollers, we got to use a nice homemade compactor to level the ground and make it hard enough to support the bricks. This precious little gem happens to be a 100lbs of cement poured into a square, with a rebar handle sticking out. It worked like a charm, but led to a decent upper body workout for most of us (Cam literally turned it into a workout by each round doing either squats, shoulders, or dead lifts to move the compactor).
So, back to Monday. We headed out there pretty early and set up our general idea for the patios shape. Since Zach and Al are both Calvin engineering students, they were quickly able to analyze the situation and develop a prototype. Just kidding!!! This is Bolivia, land of bootleg construction, so we threw up some stakes, ran some line, and started laying bricks. The end result is a great patio near the court that has lots of character (i.e. some unlevel spots, crooked bricks, etc.). Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will put in some rebar columns and a tiled roof to complete this new hang out zone. A little side note, monday was scorcher, and we were pretty low on sunscreen. Zach played it safe with a shirt, while Alex and Cameron decided that they had browned up quite a bit so going shirtless wouldn´t be too bad for the first hour or so. Wrong. Both ended up a little pink (or red), but don´t worry, its a nice golden brown now.
Tuesday we moved onto a new project (with 4 able-bodied men we get stuff done pretty fast!). When Peter and Delia moved into this new home, it came with a pool. Well, not so much a pool, but a cement pit. Peter did end up turning it into a pool with a light, and some nice new edge tiles and a filter. It was in dire need of fresh paint and some filter/pump work by the time we got to it. Our tuesday morning consisted of Zach and John scraping the old paint chips off, Cam weed whacking, and Alex doing random other things to keep busy. After about 2 hours or so of John saying ¨this is the worst job ever¨ and Cam getting attacked by biting ants, we had the pool/pool area ready for paint. So, after lunch, we headed back out and started to lay down the paint. About half way through the painting Peter went down to the animal area to check on his honey bees. A few minutes later he came running back up, past us hitting himself. On his little jog he brought a few of his bee friends with him, and they set their eyes on John. This led to the funniest moment of the trip so far. It consisted of John yelling not in a scared way, but in an angry tone while running around the pool (missing all the wet paint luckily) and Alex and Cameron crying in laugher at John. John was the only one who was being chased as he literally ran circles around everyone else. It was hilarious.
That night we got invited to dinner and paintball with another family that runs a small orphange. So we went over to their house, and it was great. They have 8 kids they are watching right now, but all are under the age of 6, so they have their hands full. One of their kids has a full blown case of AIDS, while their newest baby was found by a local in the river, in a plastic bag, with a cracked skull. Its unbelievable the stories some of these kids have. Anyways, we played with the little ones for a while then piled in the car and headed to a paintball place...in Bolivia. This ended up being a great time, and only cost around $5.50 for 6 games, ammo, and suit/equipment rental. Ridiculous.
So finally today rolled around, and both John and Zach were too sick to work so Cam and Alex manned up and did some landscaping on their own. They cleaned up the swing set area and moved a whole bunch of used concrete and bricks. Fairly simple job, but it involved filling the awesome Nissan van and driving it to the local dump (Bolivia doesn´t really have dumps, so its basically just a spot down the road where people throw their crap), so it was a fun job. Peter gave us a half day so we went back down to the market and found a few dvds. Seasons 5,6, and 9 of friends for about $5 a peice. John also found some sunglasses. When he got them, the lady selling them asked him if he wanted them cleaned, and of course he did. So the she proceeded to spit on the lense and wipe them on her not so clean dress. Perfect. After wandering for a while we met up with all the kids at Burger King in town for cheap ice cream and the tube zone (a big deal for the kids). After slopply finishing the ice cream we went for a walk with the kids, each of us with at least one kid on our shoulders and one holding hands. It was great. We went running through the grassy parks and just had fun. We then squeezed all 23 of us into the 12 passenger van and headed home. It made for a very fun day.

As we said before, we are really getting attached to these kids, and we want to tell you their stories. These next couple days we will try and do a kid to 2 kids a day. We will start with Milenka.

Milenka is around 5 or 6 and a real cutie. She came to the orphanage a couple months back after being found wandering the streets of Bolivia while her mother lay passed out after sniffing glue. The funny thing is we can totally see this little girl wandering the streets because she is always off in her own little world. She is a real sweet heart and loves to give you sweet little kisses on the cheeks. She reminds us all of Dorah the Explorer and has earned the nickname ¨dos bolsas¨, which is 2 purses. This is because she is ALWAYS carrying 2 purses. We have no idea what is in them, but its her signature fashion statement.

Unfortunately the computer won´t let us upload any pictures right now, but hopefully tommorow we can throw up a few pictures of the kids and tell you about them.

Thank you guys so much for supporting us and praying for us, we know we need it. Again, please keep in mind the upcoming elections and future this could bring these children.

Love, Cameron, Alex, John, Zach.