Work at the Ranch!

This week there was a small group of young people from Oregon down to help do some work projects at the Ranch. They worked really hard, got a lot of things accomplished, and had a lot of fun playing with the kids! (Though I don't have any photos of that, you're just going to have to take my word for it...)

I do, however, have photos of some of the things we all worked on this week!

 

There was cement mixing and pouring, rebar cutting and tying, and even a new roof for the bodega!

Garden Round 2

This round of the garden has been going a bit slower... The heat, the rain, the humidity, and the insects and other creatures that come with the increase of lush, green landscape. A lizard ate some of our first seedlings that sprouted, so we had to start some more. After a few weeks, they are coming along though...

When we get back from our trip, it should definitely be planting time!

¡Qué milagro!

Another exciting thing to happen this week was this...

 We got a washer/dryer! 

The couple moving into the house we used to live in here had their own washing machine and dryer, so they had no need for the one there. The people we rented from contacted us to let us know they were selling it (really cheap, too) and our landlord decided to buy it for the house! I have never been so excited to do laundry I think ever in my life!

Maybe it's a little silly, but yes, I did indeed thank God for working everything out to get us this beautiful double machine. It's more of a blessing than you know!

What a week!

We have worked and played hard this week with the kiddos. Tuesday, we took a bunch of the kids to the City Forest for a picnic and to play. The forest has lots of play structures and swings, as well as soccer fields and wildlife areas. And by that I really do mean WILD life! Aside from the normal iguanas and turtles, they have some animal cages that house deer, boars, a jaguar and other various wild cats. Here are some of my favorite photos from that day:

Then on Thursday, we helped some of the families in the community by painting their houses! Painting concrete is difficult in itself, but with layers and layers of paint on top, we had to scrape a lot off because the rollers would just peel the old paint off. The kids had fun painting and we gave a family a freshly painted house! (Hopefully they like it, too!)

 

Actividades con los Niños

This summer, we've had a really fun opportunity to plan some activities for the kids at the Ranch. (I have a hard time referring to the as "niños" when most of them are over 10 years old. We have been planning one fun day and one service day a week. The fun days are some kind of activity where the kids get to leave the Ranch and do something fun, like going to the movies, water park, aquarium, etc. The service projects we are doing with the pastor of the church in El Castillo, the community that the Ranch is located in. Below are some pictures from our trip to the movies and helping clean up the yard at the church in El Castillo.

It's been great to see the kids in new environments and having fun. And they're such great hard workers! We've got a couple more weeks left of the summer and we're looking forward to more fun and serving with the kids of Rancho de los Niños!