So many titles for a day so filled with...stuff. By Thursday (7/24/08), Carter (age 2) had the sickness of the belly. Others in the group were experiencing similar symptoms as well. There hadn't been rain for days which made our days seem longer and hotter as we eagerly anticipated an afternoon downpour to divide our day.

Matthew rode into town with the "appointed" delegation today. The task was simply to pick up some supplies and come back. The task is never quite as simple as it is deemed. Walking through Chiquimulilla gives the visitor a better sense of small town...real life Guatemala than walking through Antigua or Panajachel. We visited a hardware store, a pharmacy, the market, the grocery store, an ice store, a mechanics shop. It was pretty cool. I'd love to hear Matthew's point of view from his unique visit to Chiqui!

After lunch, work began on the rest of the tile in the kitchen. Someone joined the work crew for the first time and man was she excited. Mia (age 4) wanted so badly to serve while in Guatemala. Sometimes, there is opportunity and sometimes there isn't any. Today as the girls began painting the shelves from the storage room, she found her place. Along with painting, she was elected to retrieve the spacers from the tile as we were running short on them and the guys had left them as they moved on. To say she took this job seriously would definitely be an understatement. She LOVED serving at the camp this year. She also loved being covered in paint too!

The painting crew made great strides toward the goal of completing the girls cabins today as well. Climbing behind the cabins against the steep grade of the hill was, to say the least, muddy and full of mosquitoes. However, the team mounted shaky ladders and trudged through the mud to complete the task.

Late afternoon found several of us exploring several areas of the camp. I (Cody) decided to take the kayak across the lake for some quiet time and to photograph the camp from the lake. However, a couple minutes into my trip, I turned to see a silly group of 3 coming into the lake after me in the canoe...yes one with a hole in it. Needless to say, my trip was altered a bit. Just watch if you don't already know...



Tonight at the Council of the Yellow Card, the team was given the AMAZING news that Brittany and Will would not make the trip to Antigua alone on Saturday. In fact the entire team would spend the majority of the day in Antigua with them before returning to the camp. We would also bring the missionaries with us and treat them to lunch on the town. It was because of the hard work and some schedule shifts in the week that this opportunity was made available. Those who earned trophies tonight were Eeeeeeerin Nichols and Brooks Kimsey.

You wouldn't believe how hard these people worked! It wasn't hard to pick someone who worked hard...in fact all of them deserved the award every night!