Doom

After a weekend of relaxation and some minor celebration we returned this morning to our work of service, another Monday spent in deep in the Northwest of Honduras. 

The trip so far has been a remarkable experience.  An opportunity to explore a new country, to meet new people and to witness a culture that is unique and unlike our own.  As per a typical day, our morning began with a 6:00 am wake up call, and breakfast at 7.  The meals have been mostly exceptional, served to us by two lovely hostesses, Sandra and Gloria, and have featured jalapenos and peppers constantly, even for breakfast.  Unfortunately the language barrier has prevented us from truly getting to know Sandra and Gloria, though if two nicer women exist in Honduras they would be a sight to behold.

After breakfast, we divided into two separate groups, off to two separate job sites.  One at Gloria's, and the other at a school, off in a separate village from Quimistan.  And that was the group I joined today.  

Though school was not in session today, several neighborhood kids still ventured to the site to help us mix concrete and to share in our breaks as we played football, futbol, and good ole fashioned American baseball conducted with a plethora of sticks and broken plastic pipes for bats, and a small sized hollow plastic soccer ball for a baseball.  The games today were as competitive as always with the kids eager to pitch and to take their turn at the plate.  Because of their relative unawareness of the official rules, I was able to manipulate the officiating in my team's favor, which was clearly necessary as my team fell behind early and struggled at bat.  As we tried to launch of comeback, one of my young teammates, Mauriceo, got a hit but stumbled as he ran to first and ripped open a a pinky toe with the toenail nearly detached.  After an immediate pause for First Aid Kit attention, the young Amigo eventually returned in the inning and got another hit, placing him at hero status in my eyes.  We've witnessed a lot of violence on this trip.  The first aid kit has come in handy.  

At that point, we paused for lunch.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as always.  The hardcore work at the school site was intermittent today, and filled with breaks and pauses to play sports and interact with the youngsters.  

After work we ventured briefly into town for ice cream before returning to the Villa to rest for an hour and then go off to a fancy and delicious supper.  At dinner we were joined by out hosts, Martha and her husband Gary, our translator Maynor and his wife Jesse, and our beloved compadre in work, Stanley.   As we waited for dinner we enjoyed the air conditioning and a big screen television where we found "The World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins in English with Spanish subtitles.   After dinner, Stanley told me that we would have the opportunity to meet his family tomorrow, to which I replied, "We are your family now, and you are a part of ours."  And that has been the true and often unspoken blessing of this mission.  

Though this trip is only for a short period, it is a reminder that we are all in this journey through life together, as different as a bunch of Gringos from Wilkesboro and the fine people of Quimistan can be.      Not only do we live out our own lives, we in a way live out the lives of everyone around us.  With the ability to help those in need, pick up those who have fallen, and save those who are lost.  

Most of the hard work of our journey is done now, with only a couple days left on site before a day of rest, but our work will always continue, and the size of our family will continue to increase, especially in the number of Hondurans.


Pictures of today's work:

Jarred and Jerry laying block for the pila behind Gloria's house; Abby (cut off) doing demolition work on the old pila

 The first, and likely last, picture of Anna working

 Jarred and Jerry laying block; Dane observing

 Progress in the front of Gloria's house, at this point Mark began sloping the block

 Arnold with some locals

Jeff with some school kids

Michael Cooper
Ambassador, WUMC  

Spider Monkey

This blog covers the events of yesterday.  Internet went out last night on the ranch because of a storm, so we couldn't post it until today.


We woke up and headed out to do Bible School at two different schools. First we went to Nueva Esperanza, where the Wilkesboro group roofed three school buildings last year. We all piled into the back of two sketchy pickup trucks to take the hour and a half journey up the mountain. After the hot, dusty ride, we made it safely to the school. We played with the kids for a while and then started the Fruits of the Spirit Bible School. All the kids came together for an opening program, then they divided into two groups to travel to the four different stations: games, drama, art, and music. Brad, Alex, Abby, Jerry, and Stanley did arts and crafts, where they helped the kids color a picture. Brad went to sleep:

Dane, Anna, Jennifer, Lorie, and Maynor assisted with games. There were three different games: one with a towel, ball, a balloon, a sack race, and freeze tag all teaching the kids about patience. Josylin and Cooper sang and danced with the children in music.
In drama, Jarred, Aaron, Chris, Joe, Arnold, Daniel, and Mark told the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man. They had the children act out the story and asked them questions about the story. Sam was the bell between each of the activities by making the rooster crow. After the kids cycled through all of the stations, everyone sat down for a lunch of chicken and rice served by the teacher. We packed up and headed back down the mountain to do Bible School at the second school.

Nueva Esparanze is about an hour and a half from Quimistan. It's up in northeastern Honduras close to Guatemala. The journey to and from is a long, tedious one. The road is curvy and covered with potholes, and it's very narrow so cars can have trouble passing each other sometimes. On the way back down the mountain our group happened upon an accident that had occurred a matter of minutes before we arrived. We're not sure of the particular details of the accident, but we do know a pickup truck had flipped multiple times before hitting a bank. The truck had been carrying three or four people in the back of it, most of whom had minor injuries. One man had a broken nose. One woman was in pretty bad shape with a crushed leg... they rushed her to the hospital just as soon as the first of us arrived on the scene. But we were more or less the first responders, and as soon as our group arrived we immediately found a first aid kit (Scotti Stevens would be proud) and some of us began doctoring wounds and passing out bottles of water to all the people that had been involved in the accident. Considering the nature of the accident, wounds were fairly minimal - a lot of scraped elbows and some hits to the head. The people involved were lying in the road and beside it, some in a daze, trying to come to grips with what had happened. It easily could have been much, much worse. The man driving the truck saved a lot of lives by steering the truck into the bank rather than toward the drop-off on the other side of the road. It wasn't a pretty scene, but our group's response wasn't a surprising one. Chris Lakey was very proud today. This group has worked and sweated and fought and cried and grown up together over a lot of years, and our response reflected that. 

Jarred helping a kid involved in the accident

After arriving a little late to the second school, due to the accident, we started our second round of VBS. This time we divided the children into four groups and did the same rotation as described above. This VBS was done at the same school we've been working on over the past six days.




Abby & Brad

Death Trap 3000

Another HOT day.  I believe temperatures reached around 95 degrees with humidity making it feel like 115 degrees, but that did not stop us from accomplishing the task laid before us.  For the past four days we have been in the business of tearing down and rebuilding... (sounds a lot like what God does with us, taking the old and making it new.)  Tomorrow we get to take a break from the building, hauling, and digging.  Tomorrow we head up into the mountains (NE) to visit a site where we replaced roofs for a school last year.  There we will do a VBS for around 50 students and hopefully we will eat some doughnuts and drink some coffee.  In the afternoon we travel back down the mountain to the school at Milpa Arada to do a VBS for around 140 students.  It will be different from the last four days, but it will be a good change.  I have witnessed a lot of things on the several mission trips that I have been on and I must say, these college student still amaze me.  Their willingness to stay on the job until the job is done blows me away.  Yesterday the adults on Gloria's site came in bragging about how in temperatures that reached around 95 degrees (real feel 112) the college students made a huge impression on them.  My friends, if our future as a Church and as a nation depends on students like these, we will be OK (of course God is the one who gives us the strength.)  


Today at both sites we accomplished laying more blocks.  But what amazed us the most was the crazy way that the Honduran people build scaffolds, which is taking as many scrap pieces of lumber and nailing it together (some of the students because they are from the south termed it "redneck" scaffolding and "Death Trap 3000".)  The Honduran  people are amazing to watch work.  They are the ultimate in recycling.  However their work ethic and craftsmanship is amazing.  Each of us have been trying to learn their language and at times get a good laugh out of the Honduran people when we miss pronounce their words. So far we have had a great trip.. .the team has come together and God is in control.  We will accomplish whatever it is that God has planned for us and then the rest we will leave for the foundation.  

Death Trap 3000

 Mortaring on Death Trap 3000

Laying block behind the house, where the pila will be relocated

Peace, Chris               

Mook

Both groups left to go to Gloria’s house to see the progress that was made. Then the school group headed to the school.

The school group had a slow start. The girls played Frisbee with the kids, while the guys shoveled dirt. We made cement to start building the kitchen’s storage room. By the end of the day a lot of cement was made to mortar five layers of cinderblocks. Several buckets of cement had to be carried to work on the top of the building. We hung out more with Christian, getting to try a whole bunch of new fruits. 

We left work a little early to make sure we made it to the “Walmart” before it closed. Anna and Abby completed the mission to buy shoes for Oscar.

Jarred and Dane mixing concrete

Anna with kids at the school

Abby with kids at the school

The team at Gloria's house, which, just to make clear, consists of Mark, Jerry, Stanley, Brad, Aaron, Jennifer, Cooper, Lorie, and Alex, continued laying block today.  Most of the work centered around the front of the house where the bathroom will eventually be, but the footers were dug and the ground layer of block was laid behind the house as well, which Jerry headed up.  The team worked in shifts mixing concrete in the blazing sun.  Mark laid over 90 blocks today, measured, and leveled.  Jennifer and Brad - Two Working As a Team - worked as masons packing in mortar between the blocks.  The process is slow, but we're making headway. 

 Lorie and Mark are sifting gravel in this picture.  Before the concrete can be mixed, the gravel has to be sifted to weed out rocks, to smoothen the mortar.  This is the "old world" way of doing this.

None of what we're doing would be possible without these three.

The following pictures show the latest stages of the evolution of the wall:

The wall has reached the point where we're having to build benches to stand on, since the masons at work can no longer work on both sides of the wall due to its height.  At some point a door will have to be constructed via demolition from the inside of the house to create an access.

The heat index today was 112.  Tomorrow it's supposed to be 118.  Wish us luck.

     

Anna, Abby & Brad

16 Llamas

Today both groups started out by going to the school to see the progress that was made yesterday. After seeing the children come out, the one group went to work at Gloria’s house while the other group stayed at the school.

While waiting for the Honduran workers, the group at the school played with the kids. Some attempted to jump rope, while others played Frisbee and volleyball. Once the workers arrived, they marked the outline for a storage room that is going to be added on to a kitchen. Then, we started digging the footers for the room. Others cut wire and made triangles and squares for the rebar columns. 

After our lunch break of Pb&Js we got back to work. More work was done digging and making rebars. Dane and Jared met a new friend, named Christian, and they went to his house for popsicles. Sam met Oscar, an 11 year old boy who can’t go to school because he cannot afford a uniform or supplies, and put Abby and Anna on a mission to buy the boy shoes at the local “Walmart” because he could not afford them. 

Our final task of the day was to make concrete and fill the footers. It was touching to see how the Hondurans did so much work to improve their conditions. Even the women wanted to help and made us some local food for us. We played throw the ball into the wheelbarrow with the kids before heading back to the compound for the day.

For the team that worked at Gloria's house, they spent the day laying block and mixing concrete.  See pictures of the block laying's evolution (compliments of Brad, who encourages readers to click these pictures in order to zoom in on them for maximum detail):

 

And a picture of Jennifer and Lorie mixing concrete:

While concrete was being mixed, Brad and Maynor listened to music.  Most notably, GN'R and Sepultura. Alex Stutts gets the red badge of courage for the day... he worked until his hands were reduced to nothing but blisters. Kudos to him.        

Anna & Abby (with help from Brad - blog overlord)

The River of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the River of Kishon

Today construction began.  One team worked at Gloria's house, the other team worked at a school building (its location is unbeknownst to us).  

As for the team that worked at Gloria's house, the first thing we did was stake out and measure an area for concrete to be laid.  Two additions are to be added onto her house.  One is in the front, where a bathroom will be added.  The other is in the back, where a pila/wash area will be relocated.  

After we measured and staked out the footers with fishing line, which we used as batter string, we began to dig the actual footers with shovels and pick axes.  They had to be 20" deep for concrete to be poured into.  We wired together five rebar frames to put in the trenches, and to lean up against the wall of the house, as reinforcements.  We knocked the stucco off the block wall so the mortar will stick when we lay the block.  

Aaron and Jennifer destroyed an already existing pila behind the house by smashing it with a sledgehammer and breaking up the concrete, which we had to haul off.

Finally, we spent the later part of the day mixing fast-setting concrete with water and gravel.  This is the old school way of mixing concrete, and it's super labor intensive.

Stanley and Aaron mixing concrete

Stutts, Aaron, and Brad mixing concrete

Aaron, Stanley, and Jennifer mixing concrete

Brad and Mark mixing concrete

Mark is a valuable asset to our team

Stutts, Aaron, Stanley, Lorie, and Jennifer wiring together a rebar frame

Wiring a rebar frame

Mark bending supports for the rebar frames

As for the team that worked at the school building... their job was demolition.  They took off a tin roof from the school kitchen so they can put up a new one tomorrow, they knocked out a mud stove, knocked out a pila, moved a lot of dirt and rock, and removed stucco from around the house.  When they knocked out the pila, they hit a cockroach nest, which had hundreds of cockroaches in it.

The principal of the school cut down some coconuts for them to eat.

Jeff and Abby played volleyball with some of the kids during their lunch break.

Jarred, Chris, and Dane moving the roof

  Joe moving dirt

Moving dirt and rubble

They took down a bees nest that was full of honey, which all the locals ate.

Sam played with a scorpion:

Brad & Aaron

Han Pedro

We are here!

A kind stewardess was very curious as to what our group was planning to do in Honduras.  She asked the names of the churches we were from (Wilkesboro United Methodist and South Aiken Presbyterian), and the name of the organization we were going to work for once we arrived in Honduras. After we told her, she made an announcement on the plane recognizing out group, and how thankful she was that we were coming to Honduras to help people and make a difference in the world.  Everyone on the plane applauded, and showed their appreciation, saying "God bless" and such things.  It was a nice, unexpectedly warm welcome.

Lakey promptly announced to the passengers "we'll be signing autographs at the gateway."

Joe, Sam, and Arnold

Dane playing with kids at HAF

We slept away a large part of the afternoon after some serious sleep deprivation.  Tomorrow we begin working.  

Brad, Aaron & Jennifer