A Pain in my Neck

Well, it's Saturday, early, the beginnging of our second full day here in Guatemala. Yesterday, we went to a village nearby, and started on 6 homes for poor families in a place near Chimaltenango (maybe you can find us on a map. I should post one, shouldn't I?) The houses will all belong to 6 related families. We are replacing homes that were made out of cornstalks and cardboard. So, our pole houses with tin sides and roofs, and a cement floor, will be a good upgrade. They've never had anything but dirt floors before. The hardest part of the work is digging the post holes. It's hand work, with those jabber diggers. Takes a man, so I mostly leave it to the girls in our group. They are some fantastic workers, mostly college kids from the Memphis area, with the 2 college kids that came with me, the Goodmans. Regardless, we worked hard yesterday, and will again today, putting in the cement floors. That's one of the jobs I've not done before, so after I do it today, I may say that it is the hardest part of the work. But, hard work has it's rewards, and that's really true here. The smiles on the faces of the Guatemalans, especially the kids, is enough reward in itself, and humbling. They have so little, but they have a contentedness that is lacking with lots of us in North America. I think it is God-inspired for them, and I want some it. They told us that here in Guatemala, at 6,000 feet up in the mountains and closer to the equator, the sun intensity is 27 times that of a Florida beach. Yikes! Shoulda brought more sunscreen (I brought none). My arms are fine, I've been getting sun at home. The top of my head is fine, I wear a cap. But my neck is sore this morning from sunburn. I'll live. Doing fine here, my brother and I are re-living our childhood, sort of. Coulter and Keeci Goodman are blending with these other kids their ages. And it's a beautiful morning. Eventually, I'll get some pictures on here and you can see what we are doing. I have a great picture of Keeci sourrounded by kids. They love her because she can talk to them in their language. Tomorrow, we're going to hike up a volcano, an active one, where they tell us we will roast marshmallows over flowing lava. We'll see about that!