Today was a great day! The weather was wonderful: warm, sunny, 80 degrees with a nice, light breeze. We had breakfast at 7 and took off for the warehouse at 7.30. The trip down the mountain was an adventure, as usual. Lots of horns beeping and aggressive driving. Steve is getting good at it! We followed for a while a truck load of soldiers with automatic rifles. I managed to take a picture discreetly.
After loading up all our tools and other supplies we were led by Mark Connell to our building site. We were building in one of the many slums of Tegucigalpa. It’s really hard to describe. It makes me sad that so many people are living in abject poverty. What can we do? Try to help one family at a time, which is why we are here.
Today’s building site was way up on the side of a mountain. Just walking up to it was a heart-pounding challenge. The path was very steep in places and very narrow in other places. There were very steep drop-offs that seemed pretty dangerous to me. One slip and you could fall 30-40 feet.
The build went well. We had to dig holes in rock, so there was a lot of work with a iron bar. We use it to break up the rock. Once the holes are dug and building square, things start to move pretty quickly. Due to the size of building site we had to change the dimensions of the house from 16 by 16 to 16 by 12 feet. The sight dropped off about 50 feet nearly straight down. This made it a challenge having the lumber where we needed it. Thankfully the Honduran boys carried it all to us when we needed it. The Honduran people are so helpful and grateful. Refreshing.
Because we had some lumber left over we made bunk beds for the children. There are at least 4 children who will live in this house, along with their mother. No father is present; this is not unusual in Honduras. Today was National Woman’s Day in Honduras. It was kinda cool to help this woman find some independence on this special day.
We left the family with a duffle bag full of clothes, shoes, toys, and other things. We also gave her a bag of the Bryantsville corn that we shipped down in October. Most of the 700 bags have already been given away, but there are a few left. We plan to give a bag of corn to each family that receives a new house this week.
We had another nice meal back at the mission house this evening. Soon I will head to bed. We’re all pretty tired. It’s nice to know as I go to sleep that a young single mother now has a nice place to raise her kids. She is so very happy and grateful, even though she has no electricity, no kitchen appliances, no furniture, and has to walk up a steep and dangerous path to get to it.
We appreciate your continued prayers.
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| Day 2, Monday |
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