At 9:45 a.m. on Sunday March 17, 2007, we got into the yellow taxi van and drove to the community service site called Padre Pio. On the way, I thought of how uncomfortable I feel to have to labor on Sunday. However, a few verses from the gospel of Christ consoled me. I was merely offering my service as an act of worship to my lord, since the service I was offering was not wage base. We got to the place and after being introduced to the priest that maintained the home, we were assigned our task. My task was to remove the pain from some of the old classroom desk so they can be painted and restored. I opened the container of paint thinner to get some out onto small platter, but in the process I got some paint on my skin. Within seconds the thinner started to burn my skin. During this exact moment one of the supervisors came in to warn us about keeping our skin moist and washing the thinner off if it came in contact with our skin. This was funny to me and the group because my anxiousness to work caused me to burn my skin before we got the full instruction on how to carry out the tasks. We scraped and removed the off of a few chairs and got some help from the kids briefly before they had to leave.
At 12:30 pm, we had lunch. I told it tasted good but only about three people finished their meal. The rest of the students eat part of their meal and disposed the rest. After lunch, we returned to removing the paint from the table and chair for another hour and a half. When we got done working, we went to the first floor to meet the kids. We spoke to them for a few minute then we played soccer with them. When we got done playing soccer, when walking a few meters outside the gates of the home and noticed how terrible the neighborhood appeared. The roads were not paved, the sewage system was not completed and most of the houses looked ridiculous and were not in living condition. The kids warned us not to stray too far, so we went back inside and hung out with the kids and taught them one or two words in English and they taught us some Spanish words.
When our bus arrived we said our good bye but it was very difficult because we had started to get attached to these very needy kids. The kids got one of the students from JU named Austin to give them an autograph on the hands. On the way back to the hotel we experienced some of the dangerous driving of the locals, however we got back safely.