Honduras

My final big trip of the summer was to Honduras.  We stayed in El Progresso, a town not far outside of San Pedro Sula.  See if you can find that on a map!  Our main mission while down there was to build a home for a family who attended our partner church.  Since I went to Honduras last summer, I sort of knew what to expect... but then again every day was a new adventure. 

 Honduras, at times, can be very dangerous and we had to be very cautious about where we went, who we spoke to and how we traveled.  Each morning, we would leave the church where we were staying and board a bus to get to our work site.  When we finished working at the end of the day, we would come right "home" to the campus of the church.  We kept ourselves safe behind the gates of the church property with a basketball court/soccer field, picnic tables, a kitchen, and lots of adventures to pursue on our free time.  In the evenings, after dinner, we mostly played card games or Bananagrams by flashlight.  

Our living arrangements were in a school/church.  This was one of the classrooms and some of the students.  Does it look like our classroom?  

The working conditions during the day were usually 90 degrees with 90-100% humidity, which makes a long 8 hour work day in the sun with no relief.  This was one of our break times- turning over buckets to rest on.  In the foreground is a pile of sand we used to make cement.  Behind that are big rocks we used for the foundation of the house. 

One of my favorite parts of this trip was our visit back to the family we built for last year.  This is Maria.  She is 8 years old and lives in the house we built last summer with her mom, 2 sisters, brother and nephew.  It was so great to see the finished product once they had moved in.  Maria is always full of smiles! My favorite memory of her was when I brought a photo album of our trip last year.  She had never seen a printed photo of herself and thought it was so cool!

This is Emily and me on our work site.  She has become a really great friend through these trips, though most of the time, she gets me into trouble!!