English Lessons

The children weren't the only ones learning English and studying under my tutelage. Efrain has also been practicing his English whenever Americans come to visit, so we studied quite a bit while I was there. He's really doing a great job, considering most of his studying has been on his own.

Ladies & Gentlemen, May I Present to You...

... OUR NEW BAKERY!!!






Here are some more pictures of Orlando and Efrain painting... Colombian style. The roof they are standing on is simply some sheets of metal on top of bamboo rods. Not exactly the safest thing to be standing on, but it sure was funny listening to the two of them sqeeling as they worked!!! :)

My Children...

I wanted to share some pictures of some special moments with the children. Just click on the collage to enlarge the image.

Yummy Pan!

In addition to his many tasks at the Foundation, Efrain (the groundskeeper) also makes the bread for the children once a week.


Two years ago the Foundation was asked to store this equipment and in return they could use it. Right now, we are trying to raise enough money so that the Foundation can purchase and keep the bakery equipment. It is priced at about $US 2,000. What a blessing if they could have their own bakery (and maybe even sell some of the bread for income)!!!




Some of the older kids even enjoy helping make the bread. This is Marcos, greasing the trays for Efrain.

Luis Alfredo, getting the trays ready for the oven.

The oven. It looks like a metal dresser, but in the last "drawer" is where the fire is to heat the whole oven.

Efrain only knows how to make sweet rolls at the moment... but now he also knows how to make chocolate chip cookies!!! :)

Haircuts!!!

Here´s another great blessing that I never really thought about! A razor! When you have 16 boys, whose hair grows pretty fast, you definitely need one of these!!!

Felipe Patiño getting a shave...

Fabián Felipe´s turn...

A Time For Change

A new project took place while David and Jane were here with us. We decided to tackle the children´s house and give the place a facelift with a brighter, cheerier color. You will notice the amazing difference between the before and after pictures!!!

Before...

After...

BONITA, ¿SI?


The scary, high parts were painted by Orlando and Efrain because there was no way any of the rest of us were going to climb on the rusted old scaffolding. If we´re going to do it the Colombian way, then the Colombias are the ones going to do it. That was our logic anyway.

The boys didn´t seem to have a problem painting up there.

David, Jane, Orlando and Efrain

¡Galletas!

COOKIES!!!

Tuesday was the first time I got to cook for the kids. Very simple - just some chocolate chip cookies. It was definitely a trip getting them made though.

First, the ingredients: It wasn’t too bad; I was able to find most of what I needed right away. Then came the baking soda… Orlando had a good argument over whether or not baking powder and baking soda were the same thing. I already had the powder; that was easy to translate. So because we had to search on our own, Dad and I accidentally walked away with “active yeast” instead of the soda the first time. Now another trip to the store was needed. By this time it was Sunday, and I had been planning to make the stupid things on Saturday. Oh well. To the store…

We had called Jill in order to have her look up “baking soda” in my big, blue Spanish dictionary. Unfortunately, I was not able to pack the book because it alone is about 10 pounds!!! As always, she came through for me, and we found our very tiny bag of bicarbonato. Of course, after we found it, Orlando asked, “Oh, why didn’t you tell me that’s what you wanted. I know what that is.” Good grief!

Now I had everything I needed to make the cookies, except for the oven. The one in the missionary house is broken, so I had to use the one in the bakery. Since it is run by gas like the stove in the kitchen of the main house, I couldn’t bake the cookies until after they were done preparing lunch (only one gas tank). By that time it was way too hot to do anything, and it is too dark after supper (5:30pm).

But I did not give up, and as always, God was good! He gave us a cool day on Tuesday, and I was able to get those cookies baked right after lunch. This worked out great because it was Brayan’s 16th birthday and my birthday the next day! Of course, that just meant that every child was there watching my every move and waiting for that first cookie to come out of the oven!

It was a lot of fun, teaching Efrain how to bake cookies. He is the ground’s keeper at La Finca. He does pretty much everything around the place, including baking bread once in awhile in the bakery. The owner of the bakery equipment is letting them use it all at the Foundation for now, but he would really like them to just buy it and keep it for good. This will be yet another project for our group to raise money for in the near future. Then they can bake a lot more that just rolls. Efrain has hopes to learn how to make a lot more, which is why he was watching everything I did with the cookies. He was also getting in an English lesson as we went.

The cookies turned out great!!! Everyone loved them! I even received several requests for more cookies this weekend. Friday, Gabriela has to host a neighborhood meeting and would like to serve her guests Colombian coffee with American cookies, and one of the boys, Fabián, has to bring treats to school on Friday. Woo hoo! I’m a hit!!!


MELANIE, ENJOYING HER COOKIE