Thursday, February 20, 2014

What a great day we had today!  It is such a blessing to be at the same community as last year, even though my role is vastly different.  Sue and I are the official "senior" women on the trip.  So this year, instead of making block, or shoveling sand, we worked with the women and children. There are benefits to getting old!  We were stationed at the casa that the women who were making our lunch were gathered. We had passed out fabric and sewing materials, and were amazed when we saw children showing up the next day in pants that were hand sewn from the material passed out the day before.  It was so special to be able to play with the children during the day.  The big hit of the week was the balloons, which they called "bombas", and the rubber band bracelets. (Thank you Mikey and Jake!)  I brought my iPad, and showed the women and children pictures of our visit last year. When I showed Dominga the picture of her and Beth, a big smile came to her face! She definitely remembered Beth.  We were sad that Antonio was not at Santa Cruz, but was now at Choncol.  We laughed with the women and children, in spite of the language barrier.

In the afternoon, we took the long bus ride up the mountain to the community of San Francisco.  We had worked at this community two years ago. San Francisco had a community dedication on Sunday, which we were not able to attend due to our travel delays.  The community wanted to express their appreciation to our group as well. We were able to see the finished homes which we had started with them two years earlier. When we went to Herman's home, he proudly took us in, then played his guitar and sang a song for our group. Then we all gathered with the community in the school. The celebration had men and women in traditional Honduras dress, dancing to guitar music. Weren't we surprised when we were asked to dance with them! The dance step was not difficult to pick up, and we all had great fun. We heard words of appreciation from the community, and all received an official certificate from the city of Copan Ruinas in appreciation of our work. We headed back down the mountain, enjoying the beautiful vistas.  In the evening, we had our traditional pizza dinner at Jim's pizza.  I am so blessed to be here, and am grateful that I was able to make this trip. 

Holly Cory