Today is our last day to work in Honduras. We are on the home stretch and we are dragging. (At least I am!). A large group of about 30 left yesterday, including our leader Terry.
Today's job choices are:
Hospital/Medical clinic for the Villa Gracia workers
Concrete work on the school at the Lenca Indian village (This would include making popcorn and cotton candy for the village children.)
Painting at the Clinic de Esperanza
Diane's house build. (I thought I might not get the chance, but I did.). This would make the 7th house build I have worked on this trip!
Jo Dawn & Marianna, Melvin, Yonni & Oneyda's niece
Today's house build would be at the Lenca Indian Reservation again. We had been there yesterday and I told Diane how truly needy those people were. Since it was the last day and the people were so needy, we decided to grab up a lot of clothes and toys to give out.
We arrived at the reservation and started walking down the road to look for our site. A man who may have been the mayor (I'm not sure if they have chiefs.) walked with us and showed us the site. The lumber had been thrown out in a grassy meadow. The site hadn't been prepared at all. We had Yonni, his sister Oneyda and their baby niece who spoke Spanish & a little English. They didn't know enough to explain to us what was being said, but we did pick up that we don't build houses if there wasn't a family.
Yonni called one of our local leaders and started clearing the area with a machete. Meanwhile, some of our people had a little siesta while we were waiting. Soon, a very serious little old lady came up with a machete. Again, she spoke to Yonni and we weren't sure what was going on. In a few minutes 5 younger ladies showed up with machetes and we joked that they were the machete brigade. They actually started clearing off the land and Yonni told us all was good and we could begin.
We all had fun playing with the baby. At this point, we are waiting while there is a few finishing touches left to do.
The little old lady was named Rosa and she was good friends with the lady who would live in the house. We started our work and had a great time all in all. Some of the children hung around all day and helped when we let them. We finished up the home around 3:30 and dedicated Diane's house, even though the owner, Marta Mesa wasn't there. Her friend was going to lock up the home with the house warming gifts safe inside.
If you will remember, we had brought extra clothes. Since we didn't know if there were any children in the family, we decided to give some to the little kids who helped us and hung around all day. It was obvious they needed them. There clothes were worn out, unmatched and very dirty. The children accepted them and the toys we gave them and were very happy.
We started our hike to where the rest of the group were. As we walked down this dirt track, a white taxi showed up. It was the homeowner, Marta Mesa. Jo Dawn and I spoke to her and between our limited Spanish and her limited English, we understood that she was very happy. She even said that she was hoping that our group could help her people because they really needed help. She also said that next year, she wanted to cook for us and have a party.
The rest of the group seemed to have finished the concrete work, plus they had an awesome time making cotton candy and popcorn for the local children. It was a great final day of work in Honduras.
Thursday:
Travels days mean getting your suitcases out and ready by 7 am. There's also lots of hugs, good-byes, "See you next year" and "Proximo Ano". I flew out with Diane and many others on American. I had started out the day, with a little bit of an upset stomach, but I figured I would be fine. I had a long layover in Miami and I was feeling a little nauseous by the time I was to board to Nashville.
I thought it was because I had taken a decongestant without much food. I drank some tomato juice and felt some better. We were about 45 min. From Nashville and my stomach started hurting. I really wanted to wait to go to the bathroom in Nashville, but I couldn't wait. Apparently, I got up right when they said we were hitting turbulence. As I got to the back of the plane, the flight attendant told me she just made an announcement. I told her, I was sorry, but I felt sick. She just explained that she had to tell me for my safety. I was okay in the bathroom & made it back to my seat safely. (Sorry if this is TMI.). About 15 min. Before landing, we had quite the roller coaster ride of turbulence. I haven't experience that in a long time, but all was well.
Nick and come to pick me up at the airport luckily because I was still feeling sick. We picked up some Pepto and finally got to bed around midnight. I decided that I would probably be going to see the doctor tomorrow to see if I needed some medicine.
Torch Missions Costa Rica/Honduras 2016 over & out!! Proximo Ano!
No comments:
Post a Comment