Es Finito & Esta bien!!! We are done!!!

This is what a Torch house looks like.  We went past this on the way to today's site.

It is much cleaner and beautiful when you get away from the city.

 

Sorry for the finger in the picture

 

 

Believe it or not but Diane and I went back to the bodega today.  We finished our job up by sorting shoes, taking inventory, and straightening up the boxes.  It is amazing what you can find in donation boxes from the US.

Before

 

 

 

 

I spent most of the day sorting shoes, which is much faster than sorting clothes!!!

 

 

Here is what I’ve learned about donations:

1.       Hondurans for the most part are small.  Women may be plump, but they aren’t very tall, so we don’t really need clothes that XL are larger.

 

2.       The same goes for the men; we don’t need anything bigger than a large.  If a Honduran man is bigger than that, they probably aren’t needy.

 

 

3.       Women in the US buy way too many clothes.  We had around 111 women’s clothes and not even half that many of men’s!!!!!

 

4.       Please don’t send anything that you wouldn’t wear to Wal-Mart.  I’ve been sorting faded, stained clothes all day.  Some even had paint on them!  The people in here do rely on our contributions, but they want to look nice. 

 

5.       The people here are of small stature, the women usually do not wear over a size 8, and the men don’t usually wear over a size 10.  One of our bus drivers is a large man; I gave him a nice size 12 pair of shoes.  He was very happy to get them, but he said he wore a size 10!

I gave a few things to this little boy and his mom.  He was so happy!!

 

6.       It is best to box things in copier boxes or the small boxes from Lowes.  The larger ones get damp and hold too much and collapse. (I made this mistake.)

 

7.       Please don’t send your garage sale or thrift store rechecks, or at least go through them and send the “nice” ones.  We found clothes with garage sale tags left on them.  I can understand why they weren’t bought!  Also, I guess there are thrift stores that donate things that aren’t sold.  We don’t need them for the very same reason!

 

8.       If you don’t know what to do with something, send it to Goodwill.  We don’t need size XXXL red long underwear.

 

9.       Ladies here (in the villages) love dresses.

 

10.   Men & boys here love button shirts.  I have seen so many t-shirts (mostly stained) that I’m sick.  Women hardly ever wear t-shirts done here.

 

I know I sound ungrateful, but that’s not true.  I appreciate the thought, but we would be much better served if people would send 1-2 outfits that are in good share.  We have a saying, “No junk for Jesus.”  We are representing the church and we hate to hand out things that most of us wouldn’t be caught mowing the yard in.

After

 

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox!!!

 

We had a team go back to Moaloa.  I was able to send shoes to my friends David and Hector.  I know for a fact they got them. My sweet friend David asked about me, which is kind of sad, but I heard we may be going back tomorrow.

 

Another team built the last Terry Reeve’s Torch house for 2013!  They said they had an “ideal” build.  I saw the site and it was out in the country and beautiful.

 

 

One other team went back to the blind school and assembled food bags.

 

Only one more work day.  We are getting tired and most of us are ready for some rest!!

 

 

xoxoPJ