Day 37 – Little Yellow House

This was our last day on the build site (half way up the mountain). Today, the house had to be finished! As a matter of fact, the dedication ceremony was scheduled for 1pm… Pizza, Prayer, and Praise. And though the floor and foundation were all that were done, the team came through. The walls went up quickly, the paint was close behind, the roof was bit tough, and the windows sealed the deal! Four days, $3500.00, and a ton of man hours, but Mercedes and her son Memo now have a “little yellow house” instead of a tin shanti with dirt floors. Still no running water, but they do have electricity.

A side note on the pizza… The pizza came from Pizza Hut and this was a real treat for the locals! One of the guys told me when he was working at a hotel on the coast making “a lot” of money, he took his Mom and Sister to eat at Pizza Hut, but it was really expensive. For a full day of hauling cement pillars up a mountain and mixing cement by hand, our local helpers got paid 7500 Colones (approximately $14) and that was a generous wage. Makes me think twice about the $20 pizza I’m so accustomed to eating every week.

Right as we finished the dedication, the sky opened up and the monsoon rain poured down. As we slide down the mud river that used to be a road, we were all soaked to the bone! I had to carry a suitcase full of power tools down the mountain, so even though I was one of the last ones to leave the site, I was the second one down the mountain as the that suitcase pulled me all the way!

This evening, we had communion since this was the last night in country for the Wade Baptist team. What a wonderful end to a trip.