One man's trash is another man's church property.

I found out the other day that the property used to be a landfill. That finally expalins all of the garbage we found about a foot below the surface. I tell you one thing, diapers are murder to dig through.

A little about the food. I love it for the most part. A few things have been interesting. I eat Peruvian food for lunch every day. The school cook, Ruth, sends it out to me with lunches for other workers. She is awesome. Every meal consists of rice, a little protein, and a salad, and then a drink. The protein is almost always chicken or fish. Occasionaly beef. The salalds here are one of four things: lettuce and tomato, diced onion, diced radish, or diced onion with diced relish. Same salad dressing all of the time, lemon juice. It's actually more of a marinade than dressing. I hate onions, but in the citrus marinade, they don't even taste like onions. Some other things I've had here are a tamale type thing with beef and hardboiled egg inside and a dish called ceviche, which is raw fish marinated with onion in citrus juice. The drinks here are always hot. And with sugar. Peruvians have a huge sweet tooth. They never (yes never) drink straight water. Evne at the school where the water is clean and drinkable. Water mixed drinks are always hot and things like pop are always room temperature. They don't even refrigerate milk. They freak when I put ice in my drinks. It cracks me up. I always take a frozen water bottle out to the workplace and they make fun of me everyday. Such a foregin idea. The main water mix drinks are tea, lemonade, and chicha. i love chicha. It is boiled purple corn with a little sugar. I usually have to drink it hot, but Ruth puts ice in mine sometimes and it is great.

Building update: We started laying brick today on the main wall. yay. We have the foundation poured on the front and one side of the main property. The footers are poured on the back and other side, but we are waiting until we have more rebar to tie into columns to pour the foundation there. We also have some trenches dug inside the property that will become bases for the sactuary and kitchen/bakery. We have a new formeman named Alex. Oscar still works with us and there were no hard feelings, because Alex is far more experienced. Work now is sailing along. With Alex's organization, it seems like the work days are much easier, but we accomplish so much. Of course they may also seem easier because I am building strength and endurance.

I hurt my hip a couple weeks ago and tried working through the pain for a week. A couple days ago they noticed it hindering my ability to work and made me take a day off. It is much much better now, but could still use some prayers. I think it is just some inflamation from doing work it is not used to. Thanks for your prayers on everything so far.