Suckers for the sick!

We have all had the flu this week :( However, four happy children attest to the fact that the treat their loving Papa brought them was enough to make even the sickest smile! :) I think we are all mostly over the worst of it by now. PTL! (These four suckers cost a total of .60 cents US, .15 cents US each! Some smiles are cheap!)

Hello there to you all! it is a beautiful Spring day here in Velille. The rains have begun, and things are turning green again. I really have a hard time believing the calander when it says the end of October, as it feels like May! Well, just wanted to let you know we finally got around to putting captions on the pictures from our time in Cusco, as well as the most recent house pictures, so you can go back and look at them if you want! Samuel says some funny things these days as he is learning to think and speak for himself! Yesterday Susanna brought a big black beetle upstairs to show us, and Samuel, with a big smile and sparkling eyes, said, "Mama! May-I-hold-that-nasty-thing?" I laughed! Then today he was whining, "Mama-Maama-Mama!" I whined back "What?" With a glare he said, "I - don't want you talk to me in that cry voice!" When he kept on whining, Gordon asked, "What do you want Samuel?" Apparently he thought it was an open ended offer - after a thoughtful pause he proclaimed his wants loudly: "Candy!" :)

more house building photos

Talk about doing things by hand (and foot), I will probably take my cordless drill out for one small part of the roofing, but other than that, everything is done by manpower. Here we are trying to keep the corners straight. You can see the windows and door being framed up.

In the dry season, the houses blend in with the mountians, but soon, things should be greening up.

Here we are getting a few layers above the door and window beams. About 3000 of these adobes should be enough for the whole house. We are planning a small loft on one end, to have a bedroom upstairs and one downstairs, the rest will be open up about 12ft. The folks here have one certian way to do everything, with little room for inovation. While we want to make it simply, and fit in with the rest of the houses, I still have some ideas about doing things differently, but get into trouble, as anything different here is seen as "wrong!"

You can see a few new roofs of our neibors in the background. The roofing is a big cultural event here. Many friends, neibors and relatives come to help, and to eat a big meal. It is normal to kill 2 sheep or a cow for a roofing day. I am trying to get 2 alpacas for ours, which, by the way, is set for Nov 14th. We hope to have many of our friends attend, help, and get to hear the gospel, instead of the normal drunken party that normaly lasts most of the night. Please pray that this event would be a light in the darkness. I have tried to go to most of the roofings around, and help in the day, if I can, but then escape fairly early in the evening (6 to 9PM), before the alcohol starts taking much effect. They have so many customs steeped in darkness, but when confronted with the Truth, dismiss them as customs that are more inportant than the Bible. Such as pouring drink and blood offerings on the walls and floor, trying to remove the sheep's heart still beating, and many other similar things, just to get a little more luck for the house and family. We are inviting some of the believers from some of the areas near by, as well as many of our friends from Velille and Tacllapampa.

Anyone want to come for a workday and some alpaca ribs?

Little nooks and holes are included to make built-in shelves.

Isaiah's Walker. . . and more!

Happy Isaiah! At 8 months old, he really enjoys his walker, and I enjoy having somewhere to put him during part of school time to keep him busy and happy. Thanks Grandma/Great-Grandma Howe! (I've wanted to take a picture of him in his walker for a while so you could see him - yesterday I finally got around to it!) Love you Grandma!

Samuel has taken a real liking to the kitten and the chicken lately! He is trying to help out on what I consider the "lost cause" of taming this wild little kitten of ours before we give it away. Samuel hugs and squashes and crunches this kitten more faithfully than any of his other siblings, but for all of that, it still runs when it sees him, or anyone, coming. The chicken is a lot tamer - she lets him pick her right up. A Few of the 101 Expressions of Isaiah: "Calm and Happy"

"Grinning"

"Dismayed"

We just started Sunday Services out in Tachllapampa yesterday. We have been moving to that goal for a while, and continue to make more contacts as we build the house out there. Pray for these to be a blessing and used of the Lord to build His Kingdom! Four year old Susanna was so pleased to be chosen to accompany Papa this Sunday.

"All Boy" Samuel really enjoyed observing this big black beetle that wandered all over his sleeve! (He wasn't quite so happy when it fell down the back of his collar!) We are so glad to have our Samuel - our sonshine boy!

So, how do you make a house out of dirt?

The community of Tacllapampa gave us a lot to build a house on. This village is in the center of the area that most of the believers and interested folks live in. It is about a 30 min drive or 2 hour walk from Velille. It seems likely to me that there will be stable church there before there is here in Velille. So we want to be more involved in the area. We are not planning to live there on a regular basis at this point, but we do have a few hopes for this house. We would like to see a couple, family, or several young men teaching English and Bible in the school of Tacllapampa, and this would be their house. We would like to be able to spend time in this area as a family, and be able to spend the night sometimes. We hope to "get away" from normal life here as a family once in a while, and camp out in our "cabin." In itself, building a house seemed like a good way to conect more with this community, and indeed it has already been opening up doors with folks out there, that we haven't had contact with before. Lord willing, we hope to start having regular services in the area soon.

Here we are, digging out for our house, then you make mud out of the dirt and make your adobes from that. How's that for resourceful?

They always said I wouldn't get anywhere in life by playing in the mud, but they were wrong!

You need to scatter straw on top of the mud, then get in and stomp around a while to mix it well. In the background here, you can see the main part of the town of Tacllapampa.

After mixing the mud well, you carry it to where you are making the adobes, make a big round ball of it, squish it into the mold and then slide the mold off. A week later, you stand them up on their side to dry better, and a week later, you carry them a little way and stack them up. Each one weighs about 40 lb. Brother Daniel has the lot right next to mine, here we made made adobes on his lot, as it is flatter than mine.

I needed to get my trici-cart out to our little town of Tacllapampa to haul adobes and water for building. I tried several days to get it taken out by a truck, but it didn't work out, so I improvised. I hooked it up to the motorbike. It only flipped once on the 14 K (9m) trip.

No one else strings lines, but I thought it would be worth it to have straight walls and a square house.

My construction instructer from college should be impresed. To level for the foundation and walls, we use a clear garden hose, filled with water. Both ends must stay open, and the water level is the same at both ends.

Here I am laying the first block.

I wanted to take my time to get the corners up correctly, before others help me raise the walls next week.

Lots of good community interaction at the worksight. We do work days here using the traditional "Ayni" concept. Different ones help me one day, and then I help them another day.

Here we got to see one of the most brilliant rainbows we have ever seen, as we waited in hope for a vehicle to take us home. Some times there are, and sometimes they are late, and sometimes there aren't. On the left of the pole on the left, halfway up the hill, you can see the dirt dug up on our lot.