Letters from Tomas

So, the official introduction to the team:
Mark- Markos (Marrrrk-ose)
John- Juan
Shushan- Suzan
Kara- Kara (Kar-rrrrah)
Josh- No one know how to say it. We forget. So for now, he's Josh.
T.J.- Tomas (Toe-maws)

We are currently at the Bowens' house in Escobar. There is internet here but it's landline and can only be hooked to Andy's computer.
The driveway to this house crosses two creeks (not by bridge), is straight up a mountain, very rough, and requires a four wheel drive truck to get up to. The smells and sounds here are so amazing.
As the work goes, we have an amazing combination of people in this work team. Each person adds their own spice to the team. Markos and Josh are amazing bricklayers. Jaun is willing to give a hand or jump in a situation at the first asking. "I don't know how to do it, but I'm capable of doing it." -Jaun Kara is also very willing to work at the first asking. I dug a hole that was supposed to be chest-deep. Unfortunately, they didn't take into account that I'm much taller than most people here, so the hole I dug was about six feet deep, and four feet by four feet, square.
The most amazing sign of God's beautiful creation in nature happened today and it was awesome. A swarm of honey bees flew into where we are working and buzzed all around us. There were several, several thousand, at least. To go along with that, there are random wild plants here in the yard that close up when touched. They are like miniature Venus Flytraps.
Also, I found out that Kara and I are considered to be abnormally beautiful here because of our skin and hair color. My skin isn't as dark as the natives, but it's not sunburnt. Blonde hair is very desirable here and Kara and I both fall into that category.
Custom here stresses that when you walk in someone's house or some other building, you shake everyone's hand. So me, being friendly, jump out of the truck at the VBS and walk in the building and automatically start shaking all of the children's hands. I looked back and was being laughed at by the rest of the team because they had no intentions of going and shaking each of the 50+ hands, and didn't shake them. The children also looked at me funny, but were accepting.

-T.J.

P.S. Shushan's advice to me- "T.J., please don't make yourself look like a loud, obnoxious American."