Mission Trip to Honduras
Day 3
Friday June 4, 2010
As previously stated, I apologize in advance for the length of these Honduras blog posts. They are admittedly too long, but I am trying to recap my entire Mission Trip in just 8 posts (one for each day I was there), so that means that the posts will all be a little longer as I want to include as many pictures and stories as I can. However, I have made the pictures
smaller to save room, so click on any picture to enlarge.
For a recap of Day One, click here.
For a recap of Day Two, click here.
To start Day 3, we rode into El Zapote again. It was a chilly morning, so while Grant and Keith rode in the Rhino, the rest of us piled into inside of the white truck. There were 7 of us in there. I was sitting on the console (and seat belts) in between the front seats (ouch!)
You couldn't see from the above picture, but Decker is in the back seat too on the other side of Angela.
This picture still makes me chuckle - Grant picked up this shirt at a thrift store, so his name for the day was "Barry"
When we arrived at the church in El Zapote, some men were busy painting the roof trusses to match the color of the metal roof.
I can't get enough of those curved brick window sills!
This is Jacqueline.
And this is Chindo.
The main reason we went back to El Zapote on this day is because the day before, the teacher from the school asked if we could give the school's soccer team a ride to their game.
Here are some of the kiddos piled into the back of the Rhino....
While the rest of them packed their selves into the back of the truck! Having so much weight in the truck made it hard to get up some of the steeper places in the mountains (especially the muddy places). A few times we had to get all the kids out so we could get the truck up....and then they'd all get back in and we'd be on our way again.
We made one stop along the way to get their uniforms (they have to rent them from a small store) and then we arrived in Cofradia at the soccer field. Cofradia is probably just a few miles from El Zapote but if we hadn't given them a ride, they would have had to walk the whole way.
Here we are with all the kids - not sure which ones were actually on the soccer team and which ones just wanted to ride in the "Gringos" truck for fun.....
Once we had picked up and dropped off the kids, we headed back to Yamaranguila (where we stay at the compound). We actually hadn't planned on going back to El Zapote that morning, but when the soccer team needed a ride, we all wanted to go. :) Anyhow, it had warmed up a little, so I rode in the back of the Rhino on the way back.....that's always a little more exciting....and I didn't get any more bruises from sitting on the seat belts! (Plus the engine is actually under where I'm sitting, so it warms up pretty good there).
On the way back, we stopped at a house that Keith (the Missionary) had told us about. They sell hand-made woven baskets (made from pine needles and thread).
They have all the baskets displayed on the porch. I bought 5 (some large, some smaller) of them for about $30 total. Some other folks in our group bought some too. Keith told us that we had made their day (and probably their month too), by buying so many.
These little guys live at the house and were hanging out on the front porch while we shopped.
As we got back on our way, one of the women that lived in the house asked for a ride into town. It's not uncommon at all to stop and pick people up and drop them off different places as we drive from one place to the next. They just tap the side of the truck when they're ready to get off.
As we were just about back to the compound, we saw that they were working on the road. It rains nearly every day during the rainy season (which lasts for most of the year). The roads are all dirt and the rain there just makes a mess out of them leaving huge muddy ruts. Crews try to do their best to even things back out, but getting stuck in the mud is a regular occurrence.
As you can guess.....there's not much of a point to washing cars in Honduras.
After a quick stop at the compound to pick up Joanna (Keith's wife), Reina and Gabriel (their kiddos) and Any (one of our translators), we all rode into La Esperanza, a nearby town.
It's a bustling little place. They use old school buses from the States as their city buses. We've actually seen a school bus or two on some of those treacherous roads near El Zapote. It's hard enough to drive a pick-up truck through there, much less a huge school bus!
Esperanza means Hope in English. I really like that - the town being named Hope. :)
One of the things we planned to do while we were in Honduras was make Food Packs to distribute. People back home had donated money towards the Packs and we planned to purchase all the food and assemble the Packs there (since it's cheaper). There's a big market in La Esperanza - we both some of the items for the food packs at the Market. We also did some souvenir shopping there.
That's me - in the Market.
After meandering through the market (and buying some fabric to one day use in a quilt), we all hopped back in the White Truck and the Missionary's Cool Van and decided to go eat some lunch.
Since La Esperanza is a civilized town (and not a remote village) we actually ate at a restaurant. We went to a place called Mike's Burgers. CJ, Angela and Reina enjoyed a nice chat at the next table.
"Barry" was obviously excited about his chicken fingers, potato wedges and "Coca."
Joanna and Keith (ever the Love Birds) shared a cozy booth and kept a watchful eye on a busy little Gabriel.
After eating, we went over to the Grocery Store to get the rest of the items we needed for the Food Packs. Golly! We sure bought a lot! 400 lbs. of rice, 400 lbs. of beans, etc... I'm so glad we had so much money donated toward Food Packs! We filled up the back of the Van (and underneath the seats).....
....and the back of the White Truck!
While waiting at the Grocery for everything to be purchased and loaded, I guess we all got a little restless and bored. However, I captured some great funny faces due to the boredom:
Reina
Rick
Tanner
And Bill
Finally, on our way back to the compound, I got a Sweet Face from a Sweet Girl.
And a smile from Angela - our sweet translator.
Reina was cracking me up reading my "Spanish for Dummies" book. (She's a Honduran, so her natural language is Spanish!)
Heading back up into the mountains there's a great view looking out over La Esperanza.
Grant and Tanner snoozed on the way home. They must have been really tuckered out because it's a bumpy ride.
Once we got back to the compound, we unloaded all the food into the large meeting hall
We made a human assembly line....
....adding the food to bags...
....passing them to the next person.....
....adding more food.....
...and even some more....
....until it got to Joanna at the end of the line. She added a couple more items (like bouillon cubes) and tied up the bags.
(Angela made up bags of the bouillon cubes to be added)
Altogether we made up 90 Food Packs! Each pack should feed a family of 5 for 2 weeks!!
After making all the Food Packs, the men loaded up enough for the families in El Zapote. They were heading there to do a Men's conference and decided to take the Food Packs too.
When they arrived in El Zapote, many people were there waiting. They knew the American men would be there to do the Men's conference with the El Zapote men, so they waited to see them when they got there. That worked out great since they had brought the Food Packs.
They passed out the Packs to the very grateful families.
After they passed out the Food Packs, they gathered the El Zapote men in the church and served dinner to them. Joanna had sent along a wonderful meal.
After dinner, they began to share with the men. I think they started by sharing their testimonies. I'm not entirely sure the events of the evening since I wasn't there (the men went to El Zapote for the conference but the gals stayed back at the compound).
Then they dressed in costumes and role-played Bible stories.
I think the El Zapote men thought it was kind of humorous because they had never seen anything like that before, but the message came through and provided lots of discussion.
With the conference at night, the American men couldn't drive back to the compound in the dark (too great a chance of driving off a cliff!). So, they strung up hammocks and stayed all night in the little church in El Zapote. (I admit, I was pretty jealous.)
God bless them for figuring out how to get all those hammocks up with just a couple battery operated flood lights!
After hearing some stories about all the noises they heard through the night - and seeing this picture (and the next picture) of some of their "roommates"- I was no longer jealous of the men getting to camp at the church!!
You'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it, but yes, that *is* a scorpion!
So, while the men were busy with the conference in El Zapote and having a sleepless night in hammocks, us ladies were back at the compound. CJ and I decided to pass out some of the gifts our group had brought with us. Our first stop was the children's home at the compound. Below, Felipe loves his new clothes.
That's me, helping Daniela set the time on her new watch.....
....and then helping Reina set the time on a watch for another kiddo.
Everybody loved their new stuff!
From L to R (sort of) below:
Franklin, Daniela, Manuel, Yolanda, Margarita, CJ, Angeleina, Selena, Felipe, Melanie
The kids all went and tried on their new clothes - they loved them!
Our next visit was to the Aguilars. They are a Honduran Missionary family that live on the compound as well.
That's Dad, Sam; Mom Sonia; and daughters Sophia and Sarai.
Here's Sonia with a necklace that we made for her (more on this necklace in a later post).
We gave Sam some books and study tools for his Ministry.
After passing out gifts, CJ and I played dress-up with all the girls at the compound. Reina was very inventive and used some nearby concrete blocks and blankets to make "chairs" and set up a "Beauty Shop." They pampered us for about an hour.
They painted our nails....
....and fixed our hair.
As Reina french-braided my hair, she would pull it very tight and each time it would sort of surprise me with pain - and CJ got tickled with me....with made me laugh too! Reina would pull and tighten; and I would make faces in pain; and CJ would giggle; and I would crack up!
Margarita adds some 'bling' to my forehead.
Sarai puts some lipstick on CJ.
Doesn't she look fabulous??
The girls did and re-did our hair multiple times.
Reina adds the finishing touches onto my make-up.
What do you think - did she make me beautimous?
Gabriel hung out with us some too.
After spending some quality time with the girls, we headed indoors to spend the rest of the evening. CJ noticed that she had a couple bites on her arms. They looked more like spider bites than anything else, so Joanna pulled out her handy-dandy First Aid kit to see how she could help CJ. Low and behold, Joanna remembered something she had called "The Extractor."
It's basically a venom-sucker-outer. The tip was placed over the spider bite and then the air was pumped out so that it suctioned the skin. Then the venom came out. It actually worked!
After taking care of CJ, Joanna suggested a girl movie since all the guys (except little Gabe) were gone. So while Gabriel ate, the girls watched "Dear John."
Isn't he a doll?
We had one last gift to give that night and it was to Gabriel - he *loved* his car pajamas and hot wheels!! I believe his exact words were "wooow" when he saw his new PJ's.
After the movie, we headed to bed - what a great Day 3! (If you made it this far in reading this very long post - YOU ROCK! Thanks so much for reading!!)
