CHWT (Chica Hogar Work Team)
short term teams working at girls\’ safe house in Chile

Hola, it was cold today and windy with temps in the mid 60’s

The play house has the rope ladder and climbing rope attached - little trouble find a slide even close to what we need.  Jefe has been busy sweating copper to hook up a in line water heater for the teaching kitchen, Dan has been building a backdoor set of steps with the kittens help, Felipe finished up the ceiling for the green modulo and started the ceiling for the one we are in.  A little  tree pruning was done and lots of time spent playing with the chicas.

At one pm we threw an American picnic for the tias and staff - grilled hamburgers with fresh tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cheese and the regular condiments.  Then we had potato chips, deviled eggs and pop.  For desert we had blackberry cream ice cream, and a couple of other flavors too - the blackberry went very fast.

We did some more work and then the chicas and staff threw a party for us.  Us guys all had to dance the Quaka again!  Then they had native food from down south here for use - a flat bean that looks like a giant Lima bean, pine nuts in the natural form, peach and barley drink, a flat bread made from barley, a cilantro dish and many other unique dishes.

We finished out the day by walking down to Easy and picking up some more copper pipe and grocery run to Santa Isabel - a grocery store.

Chou,

Felipe

Hola from still hot and sweaty southern Chile.

Today we worked.  The play house is almost finished, the fourth modulo is almost complete with the ceiling tile, Gary’s workshop has most of the black mold on the vinyl siding removed, the chicas got a lot of horsey rides, many craft projects were done with the chicas, the tree cutting down was finally all cleaned up and we had EMPANADAS for lunch!

Today we spent a lot more time playing with the chicas and took lots of pictures of them and with us.  There are a lot more pictures of Jeff, Dan and Felipe today!  Our project list is going down and we did clean up our casa today after Sue got after us - you need to provide a good example of keeping your casa clean!  Kyleigh and I rushed to getting that done soonest.  Jeff did wonder what happened when he came back and there was all kinds of room on our table and counter!

All four tire swing are in use now and the chicas were helping us more today, with the light duty work.  The metal fabricator has the door frame done with the brackets for the wheels done and the bar for it to roll on is in place also.  Sue has a water heater now for the teaching kitchen and we hope to have that installed before we leave.

Friday we are having the Tia thank you dinner - grilled hamburgers, potatoe chips, pop and ice cream.  This really appeals to them and then we give them the gifts you have helped to provide.  Thank you again for all your help and support,

Love,

Ruth and Dan, Jeff and Kyleigh, Anika and Felipe

CHWT 2009

 

 Thursday report by Dan [1:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (52)

Hola from the sweating work crew far south,

We were busy today working on the new playhouse for the chicas, re anchoring the tire swingsets and getting back to 3 working tire swings.  yesterday Jeff and Dan had the platform flooring down, but then ran out of wood and i ran out of connecting chain links. Gary is really good at not
getting frustrated with us or the supply chain.  The ladies are having lots of fun with games, crafts, painting and other projects that are just as important as the construction projects!  Somethings devolve into where each persons comfort zone is, while other time we get a little nudge to try something different.  The welder completed the new gate frame for the rear door - when he gets done, the fire truck could actually drive right in, instead of backing up and retrying 3 times to get through the very narrow current gate.  The Chili cookoff money is paying for both gates!

Please pray for the Hogar as food costs went up 25% while the Gilmores were in the States last fall.  a 120 pound bag of potoates went from $3.00 to $28.00 due to a potato virus in a region north of here;  demand has rapidly outstretched the supply of potatoes.  Potatoes are staple of the diet here.
We are monitoring our food usage to make sure we do not negatively impact their funds.  Some of us went to the baby orphanage and that was both sad and happy at the same time - some kids have hope while others do not.

In the afternoon we went to the Pacific ocean near Valdivia, Chile.  This was a great black sand beach which the girls and Dan were playing the waves - they were fine once their legs went numb and they stayed out of the riptide.  As the older generation was sitting down in the rocks just watching - the food and drink barkers strolled back and forth on the beach.  After that we went to a artist shop there and found a few trinkets to purchase.  Then we took Gilmores out for supper at a seafood place where we could sit and look out over the river with 80’s pop rock playing in the foreground - think
WHAM and Tears for Fears!  To determine which of the places competing for our business, Jeff flipped a peso to determine which of the the ladies vocally fighting over us would get us.

Chou,

Felipe for CHWT 2009

 

 Wednesday the 28th [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (97)

Blog and Email for 012709

Hola, it was hot and sweaty today - the guys all built up their redneck status.
It was so hot the chicas stayed in the tiny pool most of the day.  The ladies
scrubbed down the back hallway after they got back from seeing the horses at a local horse ranch.  The boys topped out the diseased tree and then dropped the lower 30′ of it.  Then we cut it up for firewood while the chicas hauled all the small pieces way out back; we ran out of gas twice on it!

Then the rotting out sandbox was ripped out and hauled out back, while the other guys were building a new playhouse on top of one set of the hanging balance beams.  Jeff is planning this out and it will be solid!  Then Carli started splitting the cutup tree and hauling it to the firewood pile.  Then we started fixing the small tire swings - seems they had broken off the anchor bolts on one side of one unit and the rest of the swings are suspect.

Later we went to see Sue and Gary’s house near here - they have lots of flowers in bloom right now!  There we planned out the rest of the week - tighter time frame.   Today was was Bonnie’s last day with us, she has been an encourager to us and just full of energy.

see you Monday,

Felipe

 

 Kyleigh reporting [1:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (82)

Hola from hot Chile,

T0day we sweated and got sunburned.  The chica’s and Tia’s had a grand day
with the donations brought down, riding bikes most of the day and helping us out on projects that were safe to do.  Kyleigh and Anika worked really hard today with scrubbing, sanding, sealing and painting of doors and murals.  Jeff, Dan and Felipe finished up the roof soffits from last year on the health directors house – it just needs a second coat of white trim in a few spots; Jeff and Dan had to real creative with making some of the pieces fit while Felipe was busing rolling out the paint and getting the trim painted.  Ruth and Sue got to hand out the donation goodies and play with the chica’s.  Sue and Ruth also helped with the sanding and painting.  Once Felipe got caught up with painting – soffits were still being fitted, he helped Gary and Carli, trim out the diseased and dead wood up by the old dormitory building.  We only bounced a little bit of the tree off of the building and Felipe got to play with the chainsaw on the downed limbs.  Sue was nearby albeit inside the building we tapped. A whole lot of sawdust was generated between the table saw, circular saw and chainsaw today.

Tonight most of us got a little goofy – I had forgotten what teenage girls can get like when they get a bit tired!  We walked to the grocery store to get some ice cream, but they must have closed when they saw us skipping down the sidewalk.  Bonnie Hudlet works for LAM as photographer/videographer
– she creates all the media content used by Latin American Mission both for the individual missionaries of LAM and the overall ministry itself.  She has been so much fun to have around and she has some really cool cameras.  No, it is not time to upgrade my camera Mimi.  Today has a lot more pictures than normal as she was nice enough to let us have copies of today’s shots.  Yeah Bonnie!

Thank you for all the emails sent to us and I made a mistake in CHWT email address.  The correct one is chwt@redeemercovenant.org. – no period between redeemer and covenant.   Please feel free to send us messages any chance you get.

Felipe for CHWT 2009

 

 Monday January 26th 2009 [3:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (56)