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Buenos Dias! Jon Hester here, or "Juan uno" as I was called in el esuella (school) today. Jon Fouss was called Juan dos by Carlos our indespensible translator. This morning I had the pleasure of being woken up by Mr. David Fann about fifteen minutes before the crack of dawn. After our breakfast of juevos (eggs) and plantains the crew divided into groups and set off to complete our respective tasks. Dr. Fauss, Dr. Bradshaw, Dana, Rebecca, and myself broke away from our groups at 8:30 for the trek to the town called Chicacao. We visited the school in Chicacao and conducted several science experiments in the rooms of three fourth grade classes. The children were well behaved and were eager to listen to everything we had to say. Dr. Alan Bradshaw was instrumental in our demonstrations and comic relief for the kids. His assistants were Rebecca, Amy, Iris, and Dana. Juan dos served as our photographer and Amy was la jefe (the boss) of our excursion into the town. Rebecca and I played supporting roles while Iris and Dana organized everything to perfection. The liquid nitrogen that we brought was a huge hit, unfortunately we only had enough for the first class. Apparently coffee thermoses from Brookstone aren't meant to contain liquid nitrogen. Good thing flexibility was an item on our packing list. We brought a pinwheel craft project which provided the opportunity for us to interact with the children. I think we all became fluent in international sign language, or sherades very quickly. We brought coloring books of the story of Noah for the classes under the condition that they had to earn them. The task was for the kids to read the book out loud and I'm pleased to tell you that each class earned their coloring books. Tomorrow another group is heading of for Lafortuna, or however you spell it, to continue God's work. I envy them, as being with the children was a blast, and there is still a lot of hard work to be accomplished tommorow. I'll let our esteemed alumnus Kris Hatchell tell you about the hard work that was done today. As for me, tengo muy sueno, so I'm headed to bed! Keep up the prayers, they're working just great!!

WOW!! What a day of work yesterday. God truly blessed us with wisdom, strength, patience and endurance yesterday. The night before last, we had a meeting to discuss yesterday's work. At that meeting I was very unsure of how much we would be able to get done. At the end of the day yesterday I could only say wow! For thoes techanical people reading this, yesterday we accomplished installing the rebar for the extra base support. The hammer drill worked well, expect when we hit rebar in the concret. This afternoon we will begin to pour the concret. We also got all the notches cut in the stairs for cable to ride in. Our first platform was also assembled yesterday. This may not seem like much to most, but I believe we are well on our way to having a bridge built!!! Praise GOD! We began our meeting this morning @ 5:30, so some of us are relativly tired, but we are slowly waking up for another day in His beauitful Creation. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we work today to install the cables. This I a large task, but by the blessing of God we will be done with that tonight! We love all of you at home! - Blessings, Kris Hatchell