Work, coffee, soccer, and RAIN!!

Hola! Well we had plans today to go and work on Lucia's house. However, there were some complications concerning what we were planning on doing and the RHI team said that they needed to have more conversations before we did anything there. So instead we went to some other homes to finish some projects. One group went back to Cassimero's house to put up some more gutter and play with the kids. Another group went back to Amelia's to help with a leak in her faucet, the structure of her home, and holes in her roof. While we were there looking at her back room the roof almost fell down on us. We were limited in what we could do because her house really needs to just be rebuilt. It is so piecemeal that it isn't safe. However, the RHI team would have to have talks with the landlord to get permission. Even then the landlord may decide to raise Amelia's rent because the property was improved and then Amelia wouldn't be able to afford to stay there. It is a very hard balance between helping and hurting here and the RHI team does an amazing job of walking that line. We would just want to come in and fix everything and make it "better" for them but in the long run it could be much worse. The other group went to Katarina's home to work on her house also.

It was then time for lunch. We came back and ate with the RHI crew. Then some of us went to the coffee shop. It smelled so good in there. The owner is from the States so we got to talk to someone in English!

Then it was time for soccer. We were playing with the kids again. Some of us played soccer and some of us just played with the kids on the playground there. And then the RAIN hit. We waited for a long time for it to slow down and finally just had to go. The streets were absolutely flooded. It was like driving in a river. Thankfully Michael had a fire going at the house and everyone could warm up and dry off. The RHI team said that it doesn't usually rain that hard. It just made us think about Amelia's house and all of her leaks and how she survives this. Things are seen through different eyes.

Fajitas were on the menu for dinner and then a break before the real soccer (futbol) game. The guys were planning on playing against Cassimero, Marvin, and some of their friends but the rain kept their friends from coming. So the guys divided up into two teams, old guys vs. young guys. It was a really good game. The old guys won by one (depending on whose clock you are using). It was a lot of fun.
This was our last full "service" day today. It was busy and hard to say goodbye to these families that we won't see again until Glory. Thank you Lord for all of this.