4th of july

Lea-one of our wonderful cooks!

 We may be far from home, but we had a wonderful 4th of July!!
 
We started with our projects. We work at the Buca school, which in my opinion, is pretty much situated in paradise. Although, I suppose most of the schools here are J  There is a long winding road up a steep hill leading to the school from the main road. The school board has a major concern about the safety of the kids walking from main the road, where the bus stop is, up to the school. The problem is that the bus won’t come from the main road up to the school because the “bridge” it has to go over is just some boards that cross this stream at the beginning of the road, and unfortunately there are major holds in getting that fixed. The school asked for us to be involved in building a pathway with a fence between the road and where the kids would walk on the side of it. We wanted to go to the root of the problem and get a proper bridge built so the bus could come up. However, unfortunately due to complications with the stream being on government property, we are unable to take care of it, and must wait for a government process that is happening. It’s a little confusing. Hence the pathway! It is a solution that will work until the bridge is fixed. Two children have been killed in the last year leading up to the road, and so it is a huge concern, and a project I’ve become very invested in. We are setting posts in concrete (thanks Dad for teaching me how to build fences- I never thought the day would come when I would miss having a post hole digger to dig holes!) and then stringing wire between the posts, onto which we will string painted recycled bottles. Colorful, cheap, and effective!  Today was the beginning of setting the posts. So grateful for the strong students and volunteers who mixed some very old concrete!! Although I’m an expert with that level ;) Today was just the beginning so more updates to come as the project progresses! We're so grateful for our local friends from the branch coming and helping with the project! It's a lot of holes to dig! 
 
Tonight, Ryan made sure we had a good 4th of July celebration! He planned with Lea, our cook, to have a BBQ. Luckily, she had a grill she let us borrow so that Ryan could grill. We had a BBQ, listened to the most American music we could find, danced, and played some fun night games. No matter how far I travel away from home, I never forget the sacrifice of my ancestors and what they did to fight for liberty and freedom. And I will never forget the sacrifice of those ancestors who came not a half a century later who fought again for and lived that freedom during the Restoration of the gospel, giving up everything to have a live the truths that were again given to us. God bless the USA!

Who's stronger- the students or my Taylor and Dalton (my volunteers)?? ;)

These kids can dance!! If I ever feel myself getting in a bad mood, I just watch this video! Haha the kids love to dance and work with us! We love it more :)