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Day Four ~ Tuesday, April 8 Keep in mind that Dale had to drive his own car to and from The Farm each day in order to pick up the 2 cooks.
Each morning and afternoon, Dale recruited one of us to join him in his car. It was a special time for those of us who experienced the one-on-one time with Dale. He added to the flavor of the trip and helped us
relate to the lifestyles of the farm employees. Can you imagine how our eyes popped out of their sockets when Dale was able to fill up his car with gas for only $2.00 (about 22 cents per gallon)? Guess that's one
advantage of living in an oil rich country. Lynn was so struck by the low price of gasoline that she actually took pictures of a gas pump as proof!
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Our farm assignments today were much the same as yesterday. We continued painting the farm house, in particular working on the metal bars across the windows. The back room, which
had been a storage room, was also given a coat of yellow paint in anticipation that the room could be converted into a bedroom if and when a pastor became available to live there with his family. By
the way, both farm houses were one level, concrete block homes. There were plenty of window openings, but instead of glass windows, there were iron bars. There was no air conditioning, so the air just
blew through the open windows. As you can imagine, other things could also blow through those open windows, things such as rain, critters, insects, and use your imagination. There were toilets, but there
was not always running water, so to flush the toilets, it was necessary to pour a small bucket of water into the toilet. By the end of the day, the blue farm house painting was nearly completed. To
leave our signature, each of the "Team of Ten" plopped a hand into a pan of yellow paint, then pressed the yellow hand onto the back outside blue wall of the house. Underneath each of our
handprints, we finger-painted our names. Hopefully, the next tenant won't mind our special touch.
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There was some more weed-whacking to be done by Erik, Dino, and Jesus (another of the farm employees). Unfortunately, the Americans weren't expecting to
weed-whack today, so Erik & Dino both wore shorts. Shame on them. Weed-whacking is a long pants task. Live and learn. Today's weed-whacking was to clear an area where some fencing will be going in to
confine the herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. Working alongside the farm employees provided a great bonding opportunity. Jesus spoke no English, but he was able to point out a bird nest in the orange grove
where 2 young birds were waiting for mama to bring back their dinner. He also helped gather some oranges which we all shared. In fact, we picked 2 full buckets of oranges which would be our beverage the
following day for lunch. Oh yes, and Lynn insisted on picking a few lemons to squeeze into her water bottle.We requested that lunch time be moved from Noon to 1:00 pm so that we could work more. After
having a large lunch, it became a challenge to get back into the working mode. Now we understand the whole concept of siestas. The best plan seemed to be to work hard in the morning, enjoy a big lunch, and
then have devotions and rest under the shade trees during the heat of the day. |
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Lunch today consisted of Cachapas with homemade cheese. This meal ranked right up there with yesterday's chicken. The question is: Were the meals really that tasty, or were we so hungry from
an aggressive morning of work that any meal would have been welcome. We all agreed that the meals were tasty. Today's devotions were offered by Sergio, a recent product of Pastor Ted's Seminary efforts. Sergio is
a fine young Venezuelan man, about 20 years old, and another positive role model for others. And, yes, the ladies all agreed he was also quite cute. Nothing shallow about their observations, eh? After the
devotions, the "Team of Ten" and the farm hands had an extensive Question and Answer period, where we could get to know each other. The one thing we emphasized to the farm workers was that the 10 of us
were not wealthy folks. We could not have made this trip to The Farm had it not been for the support we received back home in Casselberry, Florida. We explained our 2 fund-raising events (Chili and Cheesecake
Challenge and the Make It, Bake It, Sew It, Grow It Silent Auction), and the Venezuelans then better understood what it took for us to visit them. Bonding, bonding, bonding. These were special moments. Oh, my
gosh, let's not forget one of the highlights of the day! There is one cow on The Farm who is milked. When offered an opportunity to milk old Bessie, both Lynn and Joanne stepped forward. They were just beaming after
filling the bucket with white gold. Hopefully, none of the blue paint from their hands rubbed off on old Bessie. That would have looked udderly ridiculous. Thoroughly dirty, we headed back up to Caripe and quickly
showered and changed clothes. We had to walk a quarter mile to a restaurant (El Porton). Dale had made special arrangements for us to dine at 5:30, but normally the restaurant would be closed by then. We were the
only diners there. Scott tried the Rabbit entrée and was quite pleased with the taste, evidenced by his exuberant hopping back to the villa. One of the popular juices was Melon Juice, basically tasting like
cantaloupe
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