Our Foreign Affairs....

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(Camp Tejas)

Things are happening so fast here that I feel like I’m running to keep up! It’s been cold in the mornings here, so the women have been cleaning the gift shop. (Bob has a theory that many of these camps would go under if the RVICS women didn’t visit their gift shops!) This one has the largest, nicest inventory of any we’ve been to, and was very fun to clean! The men are still working on the conference center…sawing, hammering, and doing guy-stuff. We had Bible study Tuesday night, and then a staff potluck Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday night; after dinner we assembled food baskets for some families the camp is sponsoring.

Also Wednesday we met a young couple from France, Emmanuel and Aline, who have been in the United States for several months filming different volunteer groups. They said there is no organized opportunity for volunteering in their country. They spent part of Wednesday and Thursday morning visiting and filming us working, as well as attending devotions Thursday morning. That noon Emmanuel said they’d like to film someone cooking in their RV (they don’t have motor homes over there, and were fascinated by the size of them), and would I be willing to let them do that…now anyone who knows me knows that you don’t even want to drop in at my house at lunchtime, but I said sure, like it didn’t faze me, and we all came in the bus! I was thinking they probably wanted to see more than me warming a can of spaghetti-os in the microwave, and while we’re visiting, I’m wondering what to cook! And I came up with chicken quesadillas! (I was quiteproud of myself!) They couldn’t stay for lunch because they were eating with Gale and Linda, the president of RVICS, so they left, and we ate. We were invited to dinner at Gale and Linda’s, so we figured we’d see them later~~only to find out there was a mix-up, and we were supposed to have been there for lunch! We went in (to Smithville) right away, and were able to visit with Emmanuel and Aline all afternoon. They are very easy to visit with, and are interested in all aspects of our lives, as well as our opinions of everything from foods to politics. They also were very candid about things in France, plus they’ve done documentaries in other countries, so we didn’t lack for anything to talk about! Then they did an unplanned concert at the community center at RVICS Village last night; they play the trumpet, guitar, accordion and flute between them. It was very entertaining. Friday they went on tour with us, and we were fortunate enough to have them ride with us. They’re headed to Chicago to do a follow up on a Habitat for Humanity project where they spent some time a few months ago. Then they’re headed back to France. We had a wonderful time with them, and hope to follow their work for years to come.

Tour Day had a rough start~~it was raining, and the first part of the tour was at Round Top, a small historical tourist town. They had a lot of shops and historical buildings, but it was raining (hard) so some of them didn’t open, and it was too wet to do much walking. We ate instead! Always a safe idea! After lunch we toured the Blue Bell ice cream plant in Brenham. No pictures allowed, but it was interesting, and then at the end of the tour they treated us to a dish of ice cream! (Don’t worry about not knowing the name~~they’re in 19 states, and they’re all in the south.) Gooood ice cream.

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Photos

This doesn't look like a swimming pool
at any camp I attended! (no we haven't, because it hasn't been warm enough!)

Notice the empty chairs?
That part makes us sad too!

The food baskets put together
by the camp.

Morning devotions,
including Aline and Emmanuel, our French friends.

Aline and Emmauel played in the
community center at RVICS Village. Aline also plays the flute, and Emmanel plays the guitar. And they sing~~in French and Englis.

One small glimpse of the ice cream
plant. We were surprised how all the pipes and processing tanks were so packed together. The workers can eat as much ice cream as they want during break time...AND they get paid!

The boards have to be sanded
on three sides, and then primed. Then they're stored until they're needed, at which time they only need paint. Quite a system if you're building and remodeling as much as this camp is.

We laugh about the number of
miles on these boards just from being carried around by the women~~from the storage pile to the sanding area to the priming area to the storage area, with stops at the pile to-be-covered-to-keep-them-dry-overnight! We think there's probably a better way, but we haven't thought of it yet!

While they're doing that,
I'm painting words on signs that will be cut apart and put in front of buidlings.

Meanwhile, the men are
cutting and pounding~~the things they do best!

Finishing the outside of the building.
They removed the roof and raised it about six feet, to make the inside feel less cramped.

Comments

[Sara!]

You have wifi and yet I have to read your blog to hear about all of this neat stuff? What the heck! Are you doing to delete my angry post now? :)