Taking it easy........

Saturday morning and I ask Randy, "What do you want to do today?" He answered that he didn't really feel like doing much, we should just take it easy. I wanted to go somewhere. Okay, lets put on our work clothes and go work at Mololoa for a while. The church is getting ready to build classrooms for the children.

Right now we have about 50 kiddos on Sunday and no where for them to have class. They have class outside the front of the church. It is fine during nice weather. It gets a little loud when they sing but we enjoy listening to them. It is not so great when it is raining, cold or when the wind starts blowing up the dirt. The church has decided to use the contributions for classrooms. The two Baxter students that are teaching there on Sunday mornings are only given enough money to cover their bus fares. The members know that they do not have the money for the classrooms, but they have faith and decided to get started doing what they can by clearing away the side of the mountain. They have been working on it for a couple of Saturdays and have made a huge amount of progress. The few tools that they have would be considered trash by most standards. We arrived about 10 am and got started. I tried to use this big "1000 pound"(well it's not really 1000 pounds. But after working with it about 2 minutes it sure felt like it) bar. I was not really good at it and after almost impaling myself I passed the bar on to a kiddo who wanted to help. Next stop for me was a shovel. I really wanted to use the picax but they insisted I use a shovel. I loaded wheel barrels full of dirt and rocks and someone would empty them over the side of the mountain. After a while someone took my shovel away and I was left to picking up small rocks. I don't understand why I was demoted to rock picker upper. I didn't actually hit anyone. And besides they all have really fast reflexes. By the time we were all done working I was pretty dirty and very tired.

After we finished working for the day we went to the top of the mountain for a quick visit with some of the little ones. We found out that Lespi mother had gone to the prison to visit their father and left the little ones alone. She was not due back until the next day. Well the thought of a 6, 5 and 2 year old spending the night alone on that mountain was just a little too much for me. We spoke to the neighbors and told them that we would be taking the children home for the night and would bring them home on Sunday after church. Lespi dressed herself and her younger siblings and brushed their hair, gathered up everything outside, and gave the keys to a neighbor. She is only six years old and in charge of the family.

This is a picture of Belki(5), Bryan(2) and Lespi(6) with their mother.

So we loaded everyone into the truck and headed to the store. Their clothes were little better than rags and we needed diapers ASAP.

They were so excited to get new clothes and Belki held onto the bag with both hands.

When we got to our house I told the girls that they had to have a shower before they could put on their new PJs. Lespi said okay and hopped right in the shower. Belki wasn't so sure. Finally after telling her that if she wanted to wear her new clothes she had to be clean she got in. Once they were under the warm water I lathered them all up and washed their hair with baby soap. They had a great time. Laughing and playing in the water.

I put the baby in with them. He did not much care for

the water and cried, but the water running down

the drain looked like a dirty river. I soaped him up good a few times and when the water ran clear I wrapped him in a warm towel and passed him off to Katrina. He was much happier. Randy played with him on

the floor and he had a great time with cars and a Barney toy

that sings the clean up song. Before long he was saying "clean up, clean up"

The girls stayed in for quite a while. They

finally got out when we ran out of hot water.

We used lotion, put on soft new jammies and then my girls fixed their hair and painted their nails while

I fixed dinner. Jen and her family joined us for

dinner. Bryan fell asleep at the table. The girls ate

pretty good, but the food is somewhat strange to them.

Belki went to bed after dinner. Jen,

her mother and I made tons of PB&J sandwiches

for lunch for the children after church the next

day. Lespi stayed up and played with play-do for a while and then went to bed.

The kids slept all night and woke up early. They had cereal with Randy bright and early and then got dressed in their new clothes. They all looked so pretty in nice clean clothes. We headed out for church and stopped at Wendy's for breakfast. The children ate eggs, potatoes and biscuits.

I can't believe how much those little guys could put away. We went to church and had a wonderful time. For not really feeling like doing much we sure had a busy Saturday.