Back on Our Heads!

10 pm and all is quiet. Physical labour is DEFINITELY the best way to get teenagers to go to bed.

Last night Tony was the first to go to bed, he was asleep by 730! and the rest were in bed between 8 and 9, but when I got up at 556 { thats when the trucks arrive at the local icecream plant next door}everyone was still asleep, in fact a few had to be woken up at 715 for breakfast! There is no doubt they are finding this work exhausting.

I am not nearly as bad off, because I am doing a lot of organizing people, and chaperoning kids walking from job site to washrooms etc, and I am making a concious effort not to get too physically tired, as SOMEONE has to be able to deal with 17 exhausted poeple at the end of the day. Everyone is doing great really, but I am always watching for ones who need a break without even realizing it, or ones who need to change jobs because they are starting to have trouble coping with some of the frustrating aspects.

What aspects you ask? mostly wood splitting, nails bending, moving mountains of sand and gravel, sand in every orifice, cement splattering, having to wear two layers of hot gloves to handle steel, the heat,  and above all trying to smear sunscreen on filthy skin and then having the aforementioned sand and dust add another sticky layer.

I have a bunch of converts. No one would evern DREAM of leaving the house without a hat and sunscreen, everyone is in in white Mickey mouse shirts that are grewyish brown within 10 min of hitting the job site, everyone packs extra sunscreen and reapply every 30 minutes, and we drink literally gallons and gallons of water a day. The only people I have to remind occassionally are the men!

And yet slowly but surely we are all getting patches of pink in weird places as sunscreen is missed oor more likely smeared or sweated off. Even Paige who had informed us quite proudly that she is like her mother and never burns has to her horror a pink face in spots despite hat and sunscreen. But they are all quite pleased with themselves, although I overheard several talking, saying they would probably whine if they had to do this work at home, but here it seems like fun!

In fact I would say the crew has really meshed as a team and is really having a wonderful time despite the grueling labour and the unrelenting sun. Our bus trip home from rafting went fast as can be as the busload sang most of the way home, in harmonies no less! We must really be morphing into our disney characters, as I think we sang most of the songs from all the Disney movies! Lots of other kinds too,  with Paige hitting all the high notes, Anna Liz and MG leading the singalongs,while Tristan stunned the bus when he debuted for an audience a solo in his beautiful tenor { I have been trying to get him to join the Kingsbridge choir for years... now that the girls know he can sing, maybe they can help ne drag him into it!}. Of cours Paul and Tristan alos did a significantly less musical rendition of "the Devil went down to Georgia" including their interpretation of the fiddle tunes which was wildly appreciated by the team.

Since it is Friday , I requested a meat less menu, so the kids got a taste of a typical Costa Rican menu. Rice, Beans, Tortillas, Chapote squash, guacamole,  a kind of green beans fried in eggs, and tons of fruit. Most of them really liked it.

It is almost 1030 so I need to get some Zs, but I would like to mention our prayer session tonight. The recurring question of ' what good deed  to you do for Lent today" was changed last night to an anonymous deed, and it was fun to listen to everything they had done in clandestine fashion. For example, Ashley kept filling people waterbottles when they got low, Lisa swept bedroom floors, MG washed the bathroom floors, Paige emptied garbage, Liz cleaned up everybodies shoes... our house looks significantly better, and everyone got lots of positive reinforcement by the expressions of pleasure everyone made.

Our Journal question which we discussed asked for a comparison to the Evangelical Mthodist church service, and asking if there was anything from the that style of worship that they would like to see at home.
Just as a heads up, most of them want more singing and dancing! in church, so Marianne if you are reading this perhaps you could whip something up for our return. I do miss Natalie this trip, she was an awesome help organizing each prayer service, though Lisa has stepped up and helps me out sometime.

Anyway, my good deed was not waking anyone up to run... I had to wait 15 minutes before a chaperone even got up, and needless to say they were running nowhere! So since it is not a good idea to go out alone, I didn't get my run, but we are getting up tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed! And by the way, since I couldn't run, and had 90 minutes to kill before breakfast this a.m, I entertained myself by drinking coffee  about 3 1/2 cups  MMMMMM. But don't worry , it didn't affect my behaviour at all, and don't believe your kids if they say it did!

Hasta manana