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Begin forwarded message:
From: Jane boyce <janeboyce@live.com>
Date: February 15, 2018 at 11:07:26 PM AST
To: Jane boyce <janeboyce@live.com>
Subject: Update 17
Ben, Rog & a chainsaw got down to business Monday morning at Angelo's house. The downed & huge broken trees were no match for that trio. Angelo had a cart to roll the logs on & haul to the curb which made that job easier. My job was to keep spraying the red ant hills and ...yup, pick up trash. 7 more bags. Angelo's wife called us in for dinner. Their home was very fancy & full of Knick-knacks. We were served a huge mound of the traditional foods...beans & rice, boiled potatoes & chicken and salad...on her china in the formal dining room. As we ate, Angelo told us his hurricane story which almost brought him to tears: he & his family huddled in their space spot for hours until the howling wind & crashing sounds ended. They walked out into complete silence & gasped as they looked around in disbelief for about 5 minutes...then a fierce wind began & he barely got back into the house. After several more hours, they open the door & water was leaking in their living room. They ran upstairs & discovered a broken water pipe. Everyone grabbed brooms & mops and worked fast pushing the water out on a porch. He shook his head & softly said,"Oh Maria."After lunch, Rog headed for the airport to pick up Juli Ripberger & Sarah Shugart...our fresh crew coming in from Michigan!! Ben & I finished up the chainsaw work. Angelo was so thankful & told us we could bring our families and stay with him anytime!! Then home for a cool shower. After stopping for authentic PR food & shopping for more bedding donations, Juli & Sarah arrived excited and ready to work!Tuesday - Rog & Ben were again chainsawing at an older lady's house. Her tree had fallen into the not-so-nice neighbor's house who wanted it removed...now. Juli, Sarah & I went to a Senior Center where Lourdes met us as our trusty translator. Juli & Sarah taught several ladies how to put a (rather simple) puzzle together...they'd never done one before. One man came in to see what we were doing and was soon leaning over the puzzle totally engaged. We left those puzzles & some harder ones for him which made his day and probably for many more! Meanwhile I was struggling to play a 16 piece Memory game with 3 ladies...maybe should have reduced it to 6 piece. Brought out the paints which was much less stressful. At 10, many gathered for a church service. Johanna's sermon was of course, on love. Lourdes sat next to us & translated. Johanna ask the crowd, what is love? Many spoke up saying it was God, family and people who cared for them. Then she said God told us to love everyone...even people we don't like or who are not kind to us...people we don't even know. She said one day a stranger wrote to her on Messenger and asked if she could come help. She looked at her Facebook post...no idea who she was or how she knew she needed help. That stranger left her family, her home, her comforts and came to help strangers. She brought friends to help too. That's love. Then she pointed to me...all applauded and I was humbled. God should get the credit...not me. Johanna had health kits & valentine cookies to pass out at the end. Ben & Rog met us there as they were off to the airport. Somehow Johanna had managed to get gifts for each person in Ben's family. She thanked him sincerely while his eyes teared up. Ben told us he was so glad he came and understood now why we do what we do. What a blessing to have had the opportunity to share something so meaningful to us with Ben.Girls next job was to clean the house of a 92 yr old lady caring for her 57 year old schizophrenic son. She had another son with the same thing...he'd died. She had 9 daughters...no help. Many grandchildren...no help. One caring Pastor...not even her own Pastor...willing to help. When we got there after much discussion, we learned that one of her daughters told her not to let us clean. You don't want to know what words I was saying under my breath. Sarah noticed her garden & she was thrilled to tell us all about what was planted. Of course it was in Spanish but we all just smiled, oohed & aahed and acted like we understood every word. The head waggle I learned in Indian came in very handy!! Next she took us in her home to show us where her brother was trying to repair the area her son had lived in before the hurricane and the water damaged caused by her leaky roof. Again she talked non-stop with much expression as she pointed to various things. We stayed about an hour giving her as much love as we could her. When we hugged goodbye she clasp her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulder. I could feel her tears. I felt so helpless but knew Johanna now had her under her wing. Next stop was the home of another elderly lady. This one was neat & tidy and the lady was frying a donut type goodie when we got there. Soon we were eating them. Mmmm. Then she offered us a coconut treat she'd made. MMMMmmm. Her son popped in & grabbed one too. She had a family that cared for her and that made all the difference!!!
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