ENJOY LIFE NOW: Honduras: Day 6 and 7

Day 6 was our first work day. It started out though with a return trip to the Mercado to get supplies for the lunch we would be serving in Apacilagua in a few days. We made stops at one shop to buy everything from noodles for spaghetti to the paper products. The second stop was to get cheese. The cheese stand is where I about lost my breakfast – it smelled, there were lots of flies, and I was standing right in front of the lady that was dipping out this white saucy cheese in a bag she’d just hand her hand in. (I’m seriously gagging right now just thinking about this while I write.)

We then headed to the vocational school and spent the next 5 hours working on three sidewalk projects. I mostly helped with the area where a weight room was going to be built, but then moved over to help (and photograph) the concrete pour between the two mechanic rooms. I’d never really helped with concrete before, so it was a great experience to see how it’s done. I mostly just watched and took pictures, but did get to help smooth it out a little bit too.

It was really hot on Saturday. We rotated about every twenty minutes between working and resting in the A/C. I don’t think we had anyone go down on Saturday, but we definitely had a lot of tired folks!

We had packed our lunches to take with us and we ate in one of the air conditioned classrooms. There were about 8 Honduran men that were there helping with the concrete pour. As we were eating we were told that these men didn’t pack a lunch, most likely because they didn’t have food to pack, and if anyone had an extra sandwich they weren’t going to eat to give it to them. I had packed two PB&J sandwiches that morning, so I gave one of mine. I had other snacks that I could eat if I got hungry. Or I could just go without because I was going to be eating dinner that evening. About 15 minutes later the two vocational school students who were helping us that day came in to sit in the air and Dr. Cano asked them if they had eaten lunch. Neither of them had brought anything for lunch (again, likely because they didn’t have any food to pack), so we took up another collection of food. These boys and men were volunteering on a Saturday to help with the school projects while it was 105 degrees outside! They were not going to ask us for food, they were just going to drink water and keep working. Luvin and Ricardo got a few more packages of cookies and chips than the men did, but I did give them a pouch of my applesauce that I brought with me. They had never seen that before and thought it was really strange. Ha!

Luvin also was a real jokster. He doesn’t speak any English, but he communited with all of us by teasing and laughing. At one point in the morning I was using the wheelbarrow to move dirt from one area to another and I jokingly did the “beep beep beep” as I backed up. For the rest of the day every time he saw me he said “beep beep beep” and did the backing up motion. I even get made fun of and teased in foreign countries!!

(I'll add pictures of me if I get them. I did a lot of photographing this day!)

On Day 7 I went to church (I'm a few days behind on blogging! :) ) We started out the morning with a Catholic mass at 9am. It was completely in Spanish, so I did not understand one thing that was going on for two hours because 1. I'm not Catholic and 2. I don't speak Spanish. It was set up to be a long, hot two hours, but instead of being miserable and complaining, I got my bible out and just started reading random scripture that I flipped to. One of the first chapters that I read was Acts 3, which says:

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

As I was reading this scripture that I had randomly flipped to, I looked out and saw a few men and women that were sitting by the side entrances begging for something. It was such a God moment that I was sitting in a temple and had just walked thru the number of people begging, and flipped to that page in the bible. Of all the pages! :)

The mass was great. This only makes the second mass I've ever attended, the first in Spanish, but it was really cool to watch and participate in. At the end a mariachi band came out and played to celebrate an anniversary or festival of something.

After going to the pool for a few hours in the afternoon, we went to church at Shalom, which is the church that Larry and Angie founded. It is outside in a pole barn type facility that doesn't have sides. The sun was right on us during the whole service. It was also in Spanish and so, so, so hot. Did I mention it was hot? Since I didn't understand any of the service I had planned on just reading through the story in the bible that the minister was talking about, but then a little girl came and sat beside of me. She didn't speak English and I didn't speak Spanish, so we communicated a little by google translate until I realized she also couldn't read everything i was typing! So instead she taught me to count to 50 in Spanish via the bible. We started in John, but when we ran out of chapters, we had to switch to a longer book. We ended up quietly whispering and counting to 50 in Spanish. She showed me a picture of herself and then we said adios! I'm hoping she's at church next weekend too!