Late yesterday we were going over the list of items that were to be accomplished this week...and realized that we should probably get started soon. So we broke into teams and hit the ground running this morning.

...I realized I left out a pic of the front of the new offices. While the front is small, the building is fairly large inside and takes up most of the lot.

Over breakfast Fabricio walked us through a few of the points from his sermon the night before. His topic was faith and one of his illustrations was the example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel.

...then it was time to get started. Nate and Don jumped on building walls early. By lunch they had most of the framing done...

...and by the end of the day doors were hung and the first coat of mud was drying.

Meanwhile Mike, Bob, and I started on one of the bathrooms.

First was tearing out a wall, ceiling, light fixture, and prepping the new wall. Most of this was fairly routine...other than figuring out the electrical system. There were wires running in several directions and breakers controlled odd combinations of lights & outlets. We finally figured out that we needed to take some time and try to map the system.

Then came the real fun. We needed to tie into the exiting drain to the septic tank and had a feeling it was somewhere under the tile floor where we were going to put the bathroom. So we started and exploratory hole. By the end of the day we had a small canyon...complete with holes in one water line and two drain pipes. We successfully capped the water line and are going to be able to use it for the bathroom. Tomorrow we tackle the drains!!!

On a different note, the living conditions are not bad at all. The beds are comfortable, the food is quite good thanks to Joelydia's cooking. Last time I was in Nica, I gained 5 lbs...it may happen this time as well.

The electricity has been pretty reliable but the water really has not. It is supposed to come on around 8 pm and run until 6 am. This means showers usually involve dousing yourself from a bucket and refilling the barrels when the water is on. Last night it came on at 3 am and was gone again by 5 am. However it came on early tonight and we were all able to get a shower under running water! Ahhh the simple pleasures!

Well, it is about that time...we will get an early start again tomorrow. Goodnight all!