Monday, June 16 - "There's no Eye in Team!" (shout out to 1 Corinthians 12)

Hola, it’s Ali Sharpe and Meg Evett blogging tonight! Today was a very eventful day, full of various projects that our group worked on. Bright and early we got up, ate breakfast, and got ready for the day. After doing our daily devotionals, we met Javier and the other youth groups from Florida to learn about Beth-El and our tasks for the day. Once we split up in our different groups, our work varied from weeding to cleaning out attics. Many in our group worked on clearing out storage rooms and organizing the attic so these rooms could be better utilized for the Beth-El staff. We helped with the attic organizing and formed an assembly line going down the stairs to clean out the various items quickly. From chairs and desks to clothes and holiday decorations we quickly cleared out the attic which was stifling hot. From there, we cleaned and wiped down most of the items and categorized them to have them ready for locals to pick them up during the food drive tomorrow. Other people in our group cleared out potential office rooms for the staff, which involved unscrewing shelves and heavy lifting. Also, some youth helped prepare the food tomorrow for the food drive for the community. We surprised ourselves with how much we accomplished together in such little time. After a lunch break, we wrapped up our projects and took much-needed showers. We enjoyed showering in the Shampoo Salon Part Two, built by the Beth-El staff to accommodate our stay with them. After showers we piled on the bus and ventured two minutes down the road to La Tienda Mexicana, a local convenience store. Most bought something sweet such as ice cream and Elizabeth even bought a watermelon grown nearby to go with dinner. Yesterday we split into groups to cook dinner this week and so today’s group made pizzas and salad for this evening’s dinner. We all circled around the Spanish TV and watched the US win over Ghana in the World Cup! We then talked about the day and laughed over a round of telephone pictionary, a game Elizabeth introduced to our group. We all look forward to what the rest of the week will bring us, and are excited to get to know one another better too!