and we are still working

teRiga officially started the 25th. the first evening was orientation, stuff like that. Monday the 26th was the first day of our work projects.

teRiga team: 130 Latvians and Americans

I am currently working on a demolition clean up crew. There were these 4 car garage sized storage units, two of them, that were bulldozed, we are cleaning this mess up. They were bulldozed with all their contents in them, some really cool stuff and a lot of really gross junk. There are about 30 students and adults working on this sight.

teRiga team cleaning storage rubble. This is one of seven sites cleaned during the week.

The first day was amazing. The lady from the city that set up the dumpsters came by early in the AM, we had only been working for 45 minutes. By the time she had arrived we had already filled one dumpster, she was shocked, she thought we would only fill 2 dumpsters the entire day.

Crystal and Kaite working at the storage site.

It was cool to see her excitement at our enthusiasm to get the job done. The next day she was waiting for us at the work site, all smiles, she had arranged to have many more dumpsters available so we could be even more productive than the day before. There are a lot of hazzards with this site, a lot of rusty nails, a lot of broken glass, a lot of basements with rotting top boards, please pray for the teams safety. We have only had minor scrapes up until this point, praise the Lord for that.

Crystal picking up rubble from one of the collasped basements.

Thank you all for your support, this has been my hardest trip so far emotionally. It has been harder to focus on the task at hand with so much going on at home, please also continue to pray for my family. The service for my Grandfather is Thursday. Brian and I will not be able to attend, but the family has promised to get the whole thing on tape for us.

Well, peace out from Latvia, more to come, keep checking. Love you all, behave while I am gone, eh?
Crys