Saturday, the 23rd of January, my son Brian dropped me off at the Miami Airport to meet up with a construction team from CWE. We were going to the Dominican Republic to build a church building for  a growing church in Juan Dolio. This would be my 4th trip to this area, once for a medical clinic, another time for a Bible Training Center, later for a church in a growing community nearby, then this time for a Church right in Juan Dolio.

   We arrived late Saturday evening, then arose Sunday morning, had some breakfast then joined the church as they met at their temporary location at the SCORE facility. Following the church service we had to go the the job site to make sure we would be ready to begin work Monday morning.

  While some sorted out the shipping container, other checked the foundation for square and level, as far as square goes, it was right on but as for the level, it was off a total of 9" from one end to the other. The first couple of hours on Monday would be taken up making the foundation level.

  We had some time to kill that afternoon so several of us took a walk down the the beach at Juan Dolio. I know it's not the best photo in the world, but that's me waving.

This photo shows the crowd at the beach. It was a holiday weekend in the country. I guess their beaches get crowded on the holidays just like ours.

 

Here is a photo of the site Monday morning, we went right to work making the foundation level, then laying up the first blocks.

 

It didn't take long until the rear wall was up to window height and the first concrete was poured.

Soon thereafter, you can see the north wall coming up. If you look at the bottom course of block, you'll notice they go from a full 8" block at the rear of the building to nothing at the front. (left to right) That was to compensate for the out of level foundation. The man in the foreground is Nate Jude, he is the missionary pastor of the church.

Somebody laid a block on that first course that wasn't quite up to par, I'm not sure who laid the block, but Bruce got credit for it.

Here are Rob and Dean working on the north wall, Dean was the electrician on the job. He was really into his work and settled for nothing less than his best.

By Tuesday we continued on.

 

Rob and Bruce.

Tres Amigos.

 

Jeff and Elisabeth.

 

This is our photographer Katie and her lovely assistant Heather, two of the three Elliott Sisters that came on the trip with us, Elisabeth from the above photo is their sister.

Here is how the building looked by end of work Tuesday.

Katie and her cameras.

Waiting for another batch of concrete.

Looking down the top of the wall at John filling in part of the ditch where the electrical was run so he can get a wheel barrow over it.

End of day Wednesday, all for wall, both gables and part of the interior walls are up.

This is our kitchen crew, Paula, Barb, Heather and Katie.

That night, after some confusion about a rooster fight (ask me about it in person) several of us decided to head down to the beach again.

I thought this shot turned out neat, the dark Carribbean in the background as the waved hit a beach illuminated by lights on shore.

Another night photo.

Darren aka Dewey wondering how he is going to lay block around the mess of pipe Dean had run.

The Elliott sisters goofing off, as Chris watches from the other side of the room.

Friday morning, with the construction complete, some of us went to watch the sunrise over the beach.

Clouds in the distance.

A picturesque quiet beach.

That day we drove out to see the building we built almost two years ago in Villa Espana.

Afterward, we had some lunch then went to the supermarket to buy food, we took about 20 bags of food out to a Batay nearby to give out to some hungry families. These two boys latched onto me that afternoon and wouldn't let me go.

That night we had dinner at El Concon, at the end of the road across the street from the beach. It was a nice place that I would reccommend.

Sunset the last night from the Restaurant.

We arose early Saturday morning and came back to the U.S. It was another great trip.

Kevin

 

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