We just wrapped up a great first week at the Bible Home at Roblealto. The Bible Home is up in the mountains where the volunteers come to hang out with the kids and work on the construction/maintenance projects. There are 10 homes, a school, a cafeteria and office, and several other buildings. There are only 2 guys that run the maintenance for the whole campus, so you can understand why the volunteer teams that come through are so important. Everyone appreciates them so much!
This past week the Washington team did a great job and we really enjoyed getting to know them. On Thursday, Steve (a missionary who has been here for over 3 years) took us on a tour to learn about the chicken farm side of Roblealto. We couldn't actually go into the chicken farm because of health standards, but there is a new building being built which we toured and Steve explained the process to us from egg to sale. The granja (farm) provides 80% of the chickens for all of Costa Rica AND Nicaragua. They hatch 150,000 chicks every week! Some chicks are broilers (they're sold to get fat and then be eaten) and some are layers (sold to provide eggs). It was fascinating to learn what a science the process is. They hatch the chicks twice a week and know to the minute when the chicks will hatch. They then move the hours-old chicks to their "homes," mostly by truck. In the afternoon, Steve brought some baby chicks by for us to hold and play with - a couple of the Bible Home kids were around too and couldn't get enough of the little fluff balls.
We haven't had a chance to get to know many of the kids yet. We hope to be more in the homes soon, but we did befriend a little guy named Sergio. He typically follows Juancito (one of the maintenance guys) around. We were helping Juancito so Sergio jumped in to help us. Mark was really great at working with him. It was one of those situations where without his "help" Mark could have been done in half the time. But Roblealto is all about the KIDS so Mark chatted with him and Sergio tried out his English words. Mark modeled how to mud the bathroom and Sergio helped and eventually they finished. This guy has a special place in our hearts already. We look forward to getting to know more of the kids. We were so happy that on Friday when we left we could say "Hasta lunes" (see you on Monday). It's fun to say that we are here for a whole year and to know we'll really get to know many of the people at Roblealto.
This morning we'll be going to Mike and Kathy's house church. They've asked Mark to preach there at the end of September which he is excited to do. They also have a library full of thousands of English books that have been donated to them over the years. Since I (Emily) am on my last book that I brought, I'm excited to check out some new ones! Finding books here was one of my concerns, so this library is a God-send! We're thinking of you all this Sunday morning. For those of you at Ridgewood, we have to say it's such an honor to come from your church. Ridgewood has had such an impact at Roblealto and everyone gets a huge smile when we mention you. Much love to all of you!
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