Mission work in Honduras: Hard work with a capital HARD!

Today was our first work day and, boy, did they get their money’s worth out of us… We started the day loading several suitcases filled with sorted donations for SBV, mostly school supplies. As soon as we got to SBV we divided into teams and got our work orders. One team went to fill in the hole at the back of the laundry kitchen building to prepare for a concrete floor. This is grueling work. It involves many wheelbarrows of sand, tamping the sand, mixing concrete (truly one of the hardest things to do in the world) and starting all over again. Frederik stuck it out all day to the admiration of us all.

Another team worked on painting the exterior of Cottage 4. They got almost the entire cottage painted in one day! And…they didn’t fling paint all over the place like someone who will go unnamed did in March. (By the way, my sneakers, now Cottage 3 Yellow are so stiff I will be forced to retire them this trip.)

A third team began painting the interior of the Director’s House, which is being used for school rooms now. This is a much bigger job than it seems because they are painting raw (?) cinder blocks which suck in all the paint as soon as it is applied. One classroom is done and looks quite nice.

A fourth team, Alyssa and Anna, sanded and painted the front of the laundry building. Looks great!

The fifth and final team, my team, worked in the school. We had to clear the rooms and completely clean the floors to prep them for tiling next week. That may seem like an insignificant task but… When we first toured the school on Saturday we all assumed the floors were just dirt. Turns out, there are concrete floors under about 2 inches of accumulated dirt, dust, dried mortar, and then tons of construction debris. This was very hard work (second to the tamping) and very dusty. We all wore bandanas over our faces or face masks but still all ended up with a snootful of dust – makes for a lot of excitement when one blows one’s nose! We cleaned 4 rooms and, as Renee would say, ¨Don´t forget the hall!¨

And did I mention it is HOT here? We were all pretty wiped out at the end of the day.

One bit of news… We made an executive decision that it is absolutely critical that the cottages have flushable toilets. It is very hard to keep the bathrooms clean and sanitary. The plumbing is in place and functional but has been turned off because water has to be trucked in and is expensive. BUT – we also learned that one tanker of water a week would be sufficient to make the toilets functional. A tanker of water costs $52 a week! We quickly did the math and decided that we would commit to raising the money for this very important function. Karen B. from St. Clement’s named it the “Flush-a-bye Baby” project! We felt it was safe to commit $3000 a year to ensure the health and safety of these precious lambs.

Another concern is Anna Karina and we ask for everyone’s prayers for her. When she was 3 her foot was severely burned – third degree burns. She did not receive any treatment and her foot became more and more deformed as she grew. A month ago, she had an operation to repair the foot. It is not doing well at all. They removed some bone and tissue and did a skin graft. Karen B., a nurse, looked at it and is now doing research on the internet. It is pretty clear the skin graft isn’t taking. I don’t quite know what to do next but she took a picture of it so we can take it back to the US for a doctor to analyze. At this point, prayer is the best thing we can do. I fear she may lose her foot.

Please continue to pray for Jorge who also needs important medical treatment. Getting him to the US and arranging for surgery is our hope. He is a stellar child and deserves every chance he can get.

Tomorrow is a very different day for us, especially the new folks. We do La Cantera and Valley of the Angels. Will say more about that tomorrow night.

We are all tired, many already in bed. I am watching the Tarheels … 1:34 to go! So far so good. Billy would not approve my making assumptions about the outcome so I will simply say, “Go Heels!”

Please keep Anna Karina and Jorge in your prayers.

The reading for this morning included this verse... ¨but this one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

We continue to press on with joy and much energy...

Hasta manana!