Wed, Aug 4

Today was our last work day at the orphanage. At the start of the day we still had a lot of work to be done. Two bedrooms still needed touch ups, one bathroom still needed to be painted, the living room and hallways still had unfinished areas, and the roof needed a second coat of paint. Melody and Richard started on the living room with help from our host Jorge. Sara and Chungin began work on the bedrooms. I was assigned to do the bathroom while Andy began work on the outside areas.

The bathroom was small and dirty and it took me a while to clean the dirt from the walls and extract the spiders from their webs. We had no more masking tape at the time so I had to be extra careful on the edges. Painting around the toilet and sink was the the first major feat. After that was done I used a stool to help me reach the corners. Then I used a roller to spread paint on the main areas. I had a difficult time moving the stool around because the shower head and the curtain bar were in the way. By lunchtime I still had some minor touchups left. It must have been at least three hours before I finally finished that room. I managed to get a quick interview of the orphange director (Nathan) sometime during the day.

My teammates were making good progress when I finally got done with the bathroom. Most of the living room was already complete, some doors and baseboards were not done yet but we were getting there. We finished the painting probably around 3pm but cleaning up took another hour or so. We then presented some gifts we had purchased the day before as well as some rice krispy treats we had baked. It seemed like the kids and helpers were very grateful for our work and for the gifts.

I took a brief video of the house and all in all we had painted 4 bedrooms (with closets), 3 bathrooms, 1 storage room, the hallway, the living room, the roof, and some outside walls. We had also helped with dishes and other cleaning tasks as well. It felt like a pretty big accomplishment. My paint thrashed yellow shirt will definitely attest to that.

I'm not sure exactly what we're doing tomorrow but it looks like we may be teaching english or something. Anyways, peace to you all.