Marco is back and doing well. They think a kidney stone moved while he was working and caused him the pain. Not only is it good to have him back, but Roger wasn’t getting paid because he assists Marco. He still showed up (he and his wife and kids live in a shack outside the gates of the orphanage) but he was volunteering just to help out. Because we’re very short-handed (Dennis is gone, another gentleman went home with medical problems before we arrived and Mike slept a day with stomach problems) I asked if he could stay and assist Nicholas with plumbing while I helped Harvey with electrical. I told him we’d pay him, no matter what. He was touched because he was going to help his friends work anyway.

Roger is a reasonably new Christian and he’s the funniest, nicest guy around. He adores his family, and they join him on the jobsite everyday. His wife is learning bracelt weaving from Jessica to try to make some money and she is taking a baking class to fulfil her dream of opening a little bakery and store. Imagine a corner store in the midst of the tin shacks. She is desperate to make enough money to hire people to work in the store to help the neighbourhood. Roger works constructionin the dry season and is willing to keep doing that to support his wife’s dream. Mike, Dorothy and Darlene had a meeting with them this morning about how we could all help.

Roger was apparently quite a different man a while ago, but since he accepted Christ he has turned his life around and has become the incredible guy that I know. People around are all amazed at his transformation. He is one of the most caring parents I have seen here or there. Seeing him play with his kids (they run around us while we work) is a great thing.

They live in a tin shack outside the gates, and their land is on the steep edge of the hill. He has lost at least 6 feet of land due to erosion, and he is scavenging supplies to build a retaining wall so he can fill it back in and give his wife a vegetable garden. He beamed with pride as he showed me his work. I can’t begin to describe it, pictures will have to do later. I can see why he was proud, but a tin shack is a tin shack, no matter how much work gets put into it.

MariSol, his wife, is due to have her baby in April and I was worried when I first heard, but now that I call him hermano (brother) and have gotten to know him and his wife I can honestly say that that wil be one lucky kid.

Related posts:

1. Hasta Loco
2. Hasta Manana
3. Postcard from the Edge
4. The Only Way To Fly
5. I’ll Learn Sometime