Everyone, I have an announcement to make: I am now at war. And
I don’t mean with poverty in Central America, or corrupt political leaders, or
the unjustness of society and the gap between the rich and the poor. It’s none
of these things. And it’s not something religious either like the devil or sin
or anything like that. What I’m facing is much more serious, much more heinous,
and much more devastating. And that thing is… ants. The ants that rule the 22
acres of this orphanage have wrecked havoc on my feet for the last three weeks,
and I can take it no more. No longer will I put up with these itchy red bumps
all over my feet that won’t go away and constantly seem to reproduce. It will
be a lifetime of work I’m sure, but there’s nothing I want more than to smash
every ant I can find, and make them pay for all my discomfort. And the mosquitoes
too for that matter. And maybe the flies, cause they can get pretty annoying.
In fact, we can just get rid of every bug in the place for all I care…
Okay though, but other than my war with the ants, life is
going pretty well down here. I arrived at the orphanage about three weeks ago,
and since that time I’ve been getting to know the people, beginning to work
with the maintenance team, and generally just adjusting to the rhythm of life
down here. I can definitely say things are a little bit different than the
college life of TCU and the boat life of a merchant mariner. When I was at TCU,
I normally rolled out of bed at 9:45am, just in time to thrown on a pair of
pants and walk into class a couple minutes late. Now I roll out of bed
significantly earlier, to the tune of 5:45, just in time to brush my teeth and
walk over to the chapel for morning prayer. At TCU I spent hours everyday on
the internet checking my email and reading articles on espn.com. Now I’m lucky
to get to check my email once a week, and normally it’s more infrequent than
that. In the TCU cafeteria, my regular diet was cheeseburgers, sandwiches,
french fries, fruit, pizza, and maybe a couple vegetables here and there. Now I
eat beans and rice at virtually every meal, and sometimes only those two
things. Life is a little more simple here.
And speaking of the simple life, I’m learning how they do
maintenance south of the border as well. On the ships I worked on, we had 4 or
5 welding machines, thousands of wrenches, ten drills and five sawzaws, and
basically every tool you could dream of. Things are a little different here. We
do have a welding machine, but I’m pretty sure it’s from the sixties and you
have to prop up the on/off switch with a stick to make it work. You can’t just
walk down to the lumber store whenever you’re short a2x4 for your wood project.
In fact, most of the lumber we use here, is home made. The workers cut down
huge straight trees out of the nearby forests, carefully cut them into squares
using a chainsaw, and then run then through a table saw to make them the size
they need. It’s really quite fascinating and pretty amazing. The things they
can do here with very few tools and not many resources is unreal. I’ve really
enjoyed working with the maintenance guys so far. We have a team of five
workers, ranging in age from 26 to 47, and even though their Spanish is fast
and slurred and pretty difficult for me to understand, we’ve been working
pretty well together. We have a long list of projects and maintenance things
that need to be taken care, and little by little we’re knocking them out. Right
now we’re repairing and refinishing the “pilas,” which are large washing basins
about the size of a standalone freezer, in all six of the children’s houses.
And today one of the workers even started teaching me how to throw wet concrete
on the walls of the pilas. Who knows, maybe after two years of this work I’ll
be able to start a masonry company back in the states…
The first few weeks have definitely been a little bit
overwhelming as I’ve been trying to get into the groove of life down here.
Trying to get to know all the kids, all the other volunteers, figure out my job
and other responsibilities, and still getting better with my Spanish little by
little. As far as the job goes, I’ll have a very significant budget I’ll be in
charge of, five workers to keep occupied, work for the kids in the afternoon to
be in charge of, an agriculture class to coordinate for all the kids in the
school, as well as random other tasks to keep up with like taking the trash to
the dump and finding firewood and getting it chopped for all of the houses
(they all use wood burning stoves). It will definitely be a challenge and a big
responsibility, but I’m looking forward to the task and I think it will be very
rewarding once I get into the groove of things.
As for right now though, I’m just taking things little by
little, and soaking up the beautiful way of life down here. Sitting in the
chapel in the evening praying and listening to the children laughing and playing
outside their houses. Watching the sunset over the ocean just fifty feet out
the front door of our house. Seeing the clouds roll through the mountaintops as
I walk to morning prayer every day. Going on a hiking trip with a group of the
adolescent girls. Hanging out in the living room of our house with the other
volunteers cracking jokes and talking about life. Playing soccer with the
locals, and running out of breath in the first ten minutes. Watching a hen walk
across the field with a handful of chicks following her. Sharing a coke with
the maintenance guys during the 10:00 break, and talking about the weekend’s
soccer match.
So all in all, I think it will be a big challenge and one
hell of an incredible ride all at the same time. Three weeks down, two years to
go.
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