Many Hands . . . . Many Projects

 Where do we start with all the work that has been accomplished this week? It is always amazing the many talents people bring to the team along with a tremendous amount of energy to work on creating a better place for all the children.

The project team began the week talking to Mama Lupita about priorities — some of the work was electrical. They worked on putting some new switches in the bakery along with better lighting. In addition, all the fans in the dining area weren't working.

Our crack team got all the fans operational and lights up.

 New lights in the bakery to the right.

 The really big project was in the dish room in the kitchen. Due to a clog in the pipe, there was a place where the concrete had been taken up and water was draining into a large hole.

The team was able to replumb the drains.

Next, strong arms brought several wheelbarrows of concrete to fill in the hole.

 

After the concrete was poured and set, the final step was to add tile.


The best part of the repair is the team put in "clean outs" which will make it easier in the future to clear any future clogs in the pipes and eliminate the need to dig a hole.

This was a huge project and fits exactly with our goal to help create ways to increase the health and safety for the children at Casa Hogar.

The best part of all is the horrible smell that greeted us when we arrived is gone!

Our team members bring many skills and have acquired various nicknames along the way. Steve has several nicknames — "Calves" (he was our awesome goalie in the soccer game), "Señor Sparky (he did all the work on the dining room fans), and Dr. Baño (due to his ability to fix ailing toilets).

 Bill works in the concrete industry back in Minneapolis — what a blessing to have his talents on this trip. Here he is working with Mitch and Breckyn to create a catch basin out back to provide for more trouble-free drainage from the toilets.

 Finally, the team did a lot of tile work replacing broken tiles in the kitchen area.

It has been wonderful to have the extra time this week to get so many projects done.

Birthday Celebrations

 This year, out of our group of 34 Mexico Mission trip team members, we have 4 birthdays this week (3 of them are big milestone birthdays, too!)

On Tuesday night, the birthday team members were treated with a surprise birthday celebration after the dinner dishes were done.

The celebration had birthday cakes and a short bell choir performance.

 There were hugs and smiles by all . . . .



We were even treated by a band concert made up of some the older musicians from our team and guys from the Volu!

We had a wonderful evening — there is nothing like a birthday party with birthday treats, fun music, and 150 friends.

The Big Game!

 We have a busy day ahead of us . . . but wanted to take a moment to give you the results from the big game last night.

One of our team members conceived of the idea of a soccer game between the USA and Mexico teams. From the moment we had the idea, the creative juices of the group went into high gear. Team members designed flags represent All Saints and Casa Hogar. They also created flags to represent all the countries of the players and uniform shirts for each team.

 The All Saints flag includes a wave graphic to represent our "Soak it all in" theme for the week.


A photo of both teams before the game got started.

 We played the game on a concrete field that was a short walk from Casa Hogar. Obviously, we were a little nervous about the lack of a grass field, but it all turned out all right.

We had a big cooler of ice and gatorade for the players as this was an intense match of athletic abilities.

Here team USA is huddling preparing their game strategy against the Mexico team who had a lot more experience playing together.

 Luckily, the USA team had two subs so members could call for a sub. The game was fast and intense!

 As you can see, there was a whole row of spectators cheering for both sides.

 Everyone played well but Team Mexico showed their fabulous footwork and ball handling skills.

Team USA had Steve (nicknamed "Calves") in the goalie and he was able to deflect numerous attempts on the USA goal.

 The game was attended by family members cheering on their player. Here is Cristina, the wife of Team Mexico's goalie, Isaac.

Issac with Penny holding Issac's new baby son.

 Each side had cheerleaders, too, leading respective cheers for Team USA and Team Mexico.

The USA team fought valilantly but in the end, were out played by Team Mexico.

The final score was 17 (Team Mexico) to 3 (Team USA). Nick scored two of the USA goals and Lewis scored the other.

The entire event was fantastic — everyone had so much fun preparing for the game, playing and celebrating our friendships together. At the end, after the final photos were taken, players traded game shirts and we spent the rest of the evening reliving the top game moments. We are so happy to have had some extra time here this year so we could take the time to quit working for a while and play together!

The Big Soccer Game!

We are really excited about our first ever soccer game — Mexico versus the United States.

Our game is on Wednesday evening at the Volu — we have been busy designing shirts and creating flags for the big game.

The shirts and flags aren't done yet, but wanted to give you a sneak peak. You can decide which team you are rooting for and we'll let you know the outcome after the big game!

One of our artists also designed a flag for All Saints and one for Casa Hogar. We'll all placing our bets now on the outcome!

Painting Projects

We are painting two rooms this year.

We are so lucky to have some incredible artists on our trip this year — they worked with Paloma to decide on room colors and themes. The painting started today and we will be excited to show you progress along the way.

The Kitchen — Malo a Bueno Odor (from bad to good smell)

One of the first things we do when we arrive at Casa Hogar is do a walk-through to determine our projects for the week. Our goal is to choose projects that can be accomplished in a week and that will have a big impact for the children and staff.

Almost immediately, we realized that an important project would be to fix a major plumbing issue that was in the dish room in the kitchen.

As you can see here, in an attempt to figure out the problem, the tile and concrete had been taken up. What was left was a huge hole filled with dirty water that smelled like sewage.

Here you can see Bill who joined a group of other intrepid workers to figure out how to repair the drainage pipe and clean out a blockage in the line.

We will keep you updated on the progress of this project throughout the week — the dish washers can already tell a difference in the smell in the dish room.

Another job we tackled in the kitchen area — spring cleaning in the pantry. We cleaned, sorted, tossed, and made good order in the pantry.

We all know how good cleaning out our refrigerator at home feels — we had the same feeling when we finished this big job!