FINALLY after a week of taking dirty and wet clothes to the laundermat in town we are caught up...the difference here in taking clothes to the laundermat in Mexico versus the united states is that you weigh the clothes when you drop them off and pay $1 for each pound but you go back later to pick it up and its been washed,dried and folded and put neatly in a bag ....so that was very helpful in that crazy week of being away from our home..thanks to those of you who sent money...at least $300 went towards getting 30 peoples clothes dry and clean which is pretty cheap considering that included some blankets and coats and jackets. So we are grateful to be on this side of that:) Now we are home but the getting clothes dry drama continues...it works reasonably well if it waits till after dinner to rain but many days it rains by 2 or 3 so then we have to figure out what to do with half dry laundry...take it all down and hang it up again in the pavillion or let it hang and hope it doesn't get too wet and hope it will dry the next day....I am pretty american so I still run and take it down and rehang it inside but it is all very time consuming!!...Nicole talked to a pastor and they are trying to raise money so we can buy washers and dryers. Of course that means we would have to get electricity. There is now a power line going past the village but they are asking about US$8000 to install a transformer for us...We are not holding our breath. In the meantime we will continue our clothes drying drama:)

Yes for those who said they realize a mud slide means a lot of work that is very true!!! There is so much mud and people will come and shovel and haul wheel barrow after wheel barrow load of mud and it seems like a drop in the bucket....The backhoe has come the last 2 days and we are grateful for everything it can get cleared but there is so much that it can not do...so if anybody wants to get muddy and do some good hard working it would be a good time to make a trip:)...now of course we are short on beds so you better call to see if we can work it out:)...and no matter how much we clean there is still mud:)...I am trying to work on some routines and just normal washing the floor and that does make some improvement when we sweep and mop the kitchen floor after every meal...it at least looks better for a little while and we can tell we have a concrete floor instead of a mud floor:)

When the mud slide hit the corner of our one dorm it moved it off the foundation about 3 feet....and destroyed 2 of the rooms......today the mens project was to move it back on its foundation inch by inch with man power.....they have it mostly in place so tomorrow will be the finish touches and we can clean the girls dorm and get them moved back in their room....we are using another room for Javier and Deya and their littles till rebuilding can be done.....so bit by bit we make some progress. The pavillion was a disaster as well...the mud slide came through and pushed the wood pile and all the misc. collection of stuff into the middle of the room then the water gushing through the pavillion off the mountain made big ruts so there is still much slippery, very messy mud in there.....so far we have done enough digging and hauling mud away so we can get some of the stuff pulled out and organized..there is still a ways to go:)!!!

There are many kind friends who if they can not help with the digging or cleanup they bring bags of food or blankets or bags of clothes to sort through. That first week we sorted through about 20 bags of stuff, took what we could use then passed it on to other needy folks.

Thank you very much to each one in your part whether it was with prayers or emails or text or money...each one was a gift and blessing..we felt very loved and taken care of. May God reward and bless each of you!!