Mud, Tarantulas, and Pine Needles

Saturday was a work day at "Las Delicias". Our contact person Jose, has been itchin' to build a church on his property. God really has been helping us in this new work and we are hoping to get an adobe church built soon. This was all a new experience for me. I didn't have a clue how to make adobe blocks and was anxious to see how this whole process was done. Roberto and Jenny, Baudilio and myself headed for the country at about 5:30 a.m. As we came down the road to the farm I had to stop the car as a herd of cattle came towards us. This is their main traffic around these parts.

It kinda reminds me of Pennsylvania. It's nice to get away from the city from time to time.

First thing on the agenda was to find some rich dark soil and start piling it up. Jose found a good spot along his pond. We dug and dug and piled and piled for about four hours.

 The soil was perfect for making adobes. Roberto (in the white hat and boots) started attending our Tiloarque church in January after being invited to a marriage seminar. He and Jenny got saved back in September and have been doing so good spiritually. Through Roberto we got in contact with his dad Jose who is the owner of this farm. He invited us to come and start a work there with his family and neighbors.

The ladies kept us fed well while we worked.

Our mountain of dirt kept growing. I really enjoyed working with these guys, talking about politics, corruption, farming and legends like the duendi and the chupa cabra. We shared a lot of laughs.

We hit a few tarantula tunnels while digging. 

While we finished digging up the dirt. Baudilio and another boy went to fill up sacks with dried pine needles to use in the adobe mix.

Jose gave me a hunk of one of his pineapples. Mmmmmm sooo good.

After we had our dirt piled up we needed to clear a flat space where we could lay out our adobes to dry.

The next step was to haul buckets of water from the pond to start mixing up the dirt.

Then you have to throw in the dried pine needles.

Stomp it and mix it up really good...

Load up the wheelbarrow and carry it to where we will be making and drying the adobes.

We made two wooden molds, 10 inches wide by 16 inches long. You gotta fill and pack the molds really good and tight so they don't fall apart when you slip the mold off.

After it's all packed in tight and smoothed off you carefully take off the mold.

One of my best adobes of the day. Not perfect but not bad for a gringo's first time.

A very very dirty job. But hey, it's lot's of fun.

Our team of workers. They all did a super job. Needless to say we were all tired, we ended up making 57 adobes. That evening we held a service and a new couple got saved!! It was definitely a good day in paradise.