cement, paint and puppets

Here is what we've been doing since last night: after the New Year's Eve church service in Cielo, we gathered around a bonfire with the congregation and counted down the seconds until 2013. At midnight, we celebrated the new year with fireworks, "Felicidades," and an interesting chocolate tea that they served us.

Breakfast was a little later this morning, so we did get some sleep last night, and then we were off to Cielo for another day of work. One team laid block at the new church building, and another team primed all the walls of the house in the village. In the afternoon, we finished the priming and formed another block line to get more cinderblock to the church's foundation for tomorrow's walls. When the work was done for the day, we walked through the streets of Cielo, inviting children to come to our "Escualita Biblia" (what they call Vacation Bible School). Covered with paint, cement and sweat, the students sang songs, performed with puppets, and colored pictures with the children.

Before leaving Cielo for the day, we played outside with the children for a while, until a stray rain cloud chased us all under a covered front porch.