This would have been an excellent blog for photos. Unfortunately, I have none. Good start, eh?
Anyway, the interns and staff did some work around the yard of our villa last Saturday. We pruned trees and hedges, cut the grass and weeds, chopped down some dead trees, moved piles of dead palm trees that were previously (YEARS ago) chopped down. We also cut down limbs that were blocking sun from the lemon trees. I have to say, we did an excellent job, and after a days work we really made the front yard look good. It went from weed-covered and strewn with years of trash piles, old limbs, and lifeless trees, to something that is orderly, beautiful, and refreshed. We even found an old wall that was covered over with weeds and underbrush that also looks really good.
We extended the little vegetable garden, tilled the soil, and extended another small retaining wall so that we can begin to plant our own fruits and vegetables.
One of the foundational scriptures that the interns are learning is Genesis 1:28:
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
In a nutshell, “Bring Order to Chaos.” Make the entire world look the the model of Eden- fill the earth with mankind (and the Glory of God), subdue it, use the plants and fish and birds and animals to clothe, feed, and work the earth. To make the earth beautiful with (live!) plants, flowers, and animals. We are teaching the interns to be “Order Bringers”–okay, I made that up– to bring God’s order and light to the earth. Another foundational teaching is to leave every place better than we find it–to improve our surroundings, or to leave people feeling better, or in some cases, to ‘leave no trace,’ but in all cases to leave things better.
The place looks great. I will post some pics once I get the camera.
Anyway, the itching. Obviously, something that we got into – I think it was the huge overgrown hedge we pruned down- had some sort of skin irritant. No, it wasn’t poison ivy or oak, we’re smarter than that. But by the evening, almost everyone was covered with a rash on their legs and arms and our skin was crawling! The next day was a Sunday, thank goodness the pharmacy is the one thing open on Sundays… and thank goodness for the Spanish health system, where all you have to do is show the pharmacist your rashy arms and she goes to the back and gets you some cream or pills marked “For Prescription Only” Sweet. Anyway, even with the cream, we were itchy for a good two and a half days. Argh.