A Whole New View!

This week was incredibly busy and labor intensive. We took on the project of painting the church at Monte Sion! It was ridiculous, but fun and oh so worth it. 

Everything piled in the middle to prep for
painting - white walls in the background. 

We spent Wednesday through Saturday at Monte Sion. The first day was spent sanding down the walls to smooth them out. Supposedly, paint sticks better to smooth walls than textured walls. At the very least, it meant the kids of Monte Sion could help with something. They came in full force, about 20 kids, on Wednesday afternoon and we handed them a little piece of sandpaper and they ran around sanding everything in sight! It was great for me, because when we set out to start this project all I could think about was how sore my shoulders would be and how long it would take and how much of a waste of time it would be to sand down the walls. The kids did most of the work, so WIN! Yes, I do realize that in the States we probably broke a million laws, especially with all the dust from sanding down the walls floating around and no one wearing masks. But, we're in Peru. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. So with that, we finished sanding down the walls. 

Melissa and Wilfredo kicking off the painting!

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were painting days. It was quite a headache picking out the paint. Jhonny was in charge of the colors, but apparently all he did was pick some random colors he liked and put them into a picture for people to pick from. He didn't actually pick paint colors and brands or any of that sort of helpful information. We went to Sodimac, spent about an hour thinking about which color most closely matched the color in the picture of the picture we pulled up from Facebook on Wilfredo's phone (so you know that it was very easy to match, NOT). While we waited for the paint to get mixed, we had to run through the materials we had and that which we may find at Monte Sion to paint. For people that have done this job so many times, you would think they would just know. Instead, we had to play 20 questions and ask Wilfredo, do we need this? do we have that? Finally, we set off to Monte Sion and got the paint brushes rolling. 

As close as the little ones got to the paint.

We started painting Thursday afternoon. Wilfredo, Billy, Melissa, and I did the painting that day for about 4 hours. We finished a first coat of the main wall color. Wilfredo kept saying he didn't want the kids to help because they would mess it up. By the end of the day Friday, he had given in and let the older kids, about 8-12 years old, help paint. Carmen, Shirley, Elias, and Gaby were the lucky (or not-so-lucky) kids to pitch in with the work. There were moments when some adults Miriam, Maria, Doris, and Maruja, from Monte Sion also dropped in to help. All help was greatly appreciated! 

Saturday, things really started to come together once we got all of the first coat done and some even a second coat (btw, in Spanish, they say a 2nd hand - "segunda mano", not 2nd coat). What a difference paint makes! 

Gladys preaching in the freshly painted church.

Church that night was all the more pleasant. It feels so homey and warm with some nice colors on the walls. :) 

Unfortunately, we are still not done. What was planned to take 3 days, is now going on 5 days, with hopefully only 1 more day. We ran out of paint and sunlight to finish the outside today. Once that is all done and we do some inside touch-ups, then we just have to wash the floor and all will be well. 

Now, we have to start planning on how they want to decorate and personalize the church. In the past they taped up styrofoam arty things, which is not necessarily bad, but not so permanent. Any suggestions? 

Billy and Elias playing dress up with
the used blue tape. Very resourceful.

Some Memorable Moments/Notes: 

- I have listened to more music in English in the last week than I have in the last 8 months. 
- We ate a whole lot of greasy food and drank a whole lot of soda. It was awesome, but I can feel it now. Must keep exercising. 
- Got bossed around by Billy, who is 10 yrs old, btw. He couldn't stand not being in on the action. 
- Blue tape kind of sucks when it pulls the paint off the wall and is pointless if you only use it for part of the way. 
- The ladders we have may be horrifyingly unsafe, but they have been effective and thank God no one fell. 
- Children make great volunteers/helpers! Just gotta keep 'em reigned in. 
- Billy "fell in love" with Maricielo and has sought her out every time we got to Monte Sion. He wants to write her a letter and give her a ring. Ah, young love. Haha.  
- Prudencio calls Inca Kola is water. *SMH* 
- Monte Sion is a BIG church building. 
- Prudencio and Wilfredo are painting machines. I don't think I ever saw them take a break, other than for a quick gulp of soda/water.

Well, I think that's all for now. I hope we finish painting ASAP and convince people to  get it decorated ASAP, so we can just enjoy the finished product and get to the important stuff - reaching out to people in the community! 

~nos vemos~

Billy and I enjoying a little gaseosa.