Day 3

Yet another hot day on the work site, but somehow we managed to make it through. After a lot of painting and hard work, we returned to the village for a delicious spaghetti dinner and birthday cake for dessert. After dinner, in retaliation to an earlier prank by the older girls, us hee hee, (We poured glitter in the boys sleeping bags :) ), we were pranked and pelted by water balloons from all directions. It was a nice change to the heat and humidity. After all the crazy shenanigans, we were off to the nightly devotional in the sanctuary. Tonight was a special change from Chad's talks. haha just kidding... but not really :) The pastor from the church we are staying at gave a presentation on the destructive hurricanes that have come through this area and ruined homes and lives. The pictures were incredible and breathtaking. There were pictures of boats on houses, coffins raised from their graves, walls of water 30ft high, and the people affected by the storm. It put everything in perspective for us and definitely taught us not to take things for granted. We are really excited for our last day of work and, of course, six flags on Friday!!!! To be followed by a long, long drive...yeah.... We aren't very excited about that, but we are looking forward to sharing our stories from this long, hot, humid week. We hope you are having fun with this blog! See you soon!
Love, Katie Tillery and Lauren Diller

Katie's Thoughts:
What a crazy week! You wouldn't believe how hot and humid it is here. We get out of a cold shower and immediately start sweating again. We sweat eating breakfast, walking to the bus, before we start working. Ridiculous. I am working at the Pickens's house. We have spent multiple hours scraping paint, priming, painting the house, and tearing down dry wall. It's exhausting, but well worth the effort. It's finally all coming together when you look at the house. We have the front of the house painted and both sides as well. The feeling of gratification is finally being felt, I believe. As mentioned above, we were presented with a slide show of the damage and effects of hurricanes Ike and Rita. It's impossible to fully describe the pictures we saw. There were boats on freeways. Houses, stripped completely of their foundations. Coffins, above ground. It's enough to haunt you... and deeply impact you. It makes you feel so grateful for what you have as well as where we live. We don't experience earthquakes, hurricanes, or tornadoes. I have realized how lucky I am to have never experienced such disaster except in aiding in the rebuilding. Which is awesome! To be part of something that seems so small at the time, but know that it is making a  huge impact on someone's life is phenomenal. Seeing Mrs. Pickens smiling face every time she comes to the house warms your heart. I can tell she really appreciates what we're doing. I'm looking forward to finishing up our work here tomorrow and going to Six Flags. I can't wait to come home as well!
Love, Katie :)

Lauren's thoughts:
This trip is once again not what I expected. haha It happens every year. This year has been a little bit different than the other years with pods to live in which is a step down from Iowa but a step up from Mexico. I haven't ever experienced humidity quite like this before. You sweat no matter where you are (except in our cold showers). The food has been excellent as has the service. We have three wonderful helpers from this site that live with us for the week but in their own trailers that go around to the sites and help us do the jobs on the sites and get us the supplies we need. They are amazing. The weather here definitely makes me appreciate our weather more. We don't have the humidity, or the large amount of mosquitoes nor do we have the natural disasters like here. This makes me realize that New Mexico's weather really isn't that bad. The slideshow that the pastor showed us at our devotional tonight was breathe taking. Houses, cars, bridges, and building just demolished by this deadly storm. Many were killed,injured,and homeless left without a clue what to do Throughout the week we have worked at 3 main sites and a couple of us went to another ladies house the last couple of days to paint the outside of her house. These people are such welcoming people and have taught me so much about enjoying life and appreciating what I have while I have it because you never know when it could all be taken away from you. The main site I have been working at is the Pickens' house. We have scraped paint, painted, dry walled, cleaned up trash around the house, and even gardened a little. It is all starting to come together and is looking really good. It is really gratifying when you can actually see the results. I have learned so much this week at the sites, through our devotionals, and in our small groups and also  through the people I am around. I am so blessed to have been able to experience this and be a part of such an amazing trip but I am getting ready to come home!haha It has definitely been a memorable one though. Love, Lauren :]