Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Well, work day number 1 is completed.

We started our morning off bright and early with breakfast at 7 a.m. and on our bus by 7:40 to be at the hardware store by 8. Since we are on Honduras time, the store wasn't open quite by 8 a.m so we all had a lovely time exploring the area surrounding the hardware store. After waiting a quick 15 minutes for Dave in the hardware store (which I'm told we will visit every morning before work) we were finally on our way. 

Upon arriving at the worksite, we were greeted by a rather larger downed tree, blocking the buses final 20 feet to the base of the community. Eager to get of the bus, we all grabbed our  backpacks and water bottles and began the trek up the hill to our first house. 

Our morning consisted of shoveling sand, hauling buckets of water, mixing wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of cement and then realizing that we were using the wrong formula for mixing cement. After reworking our formula, we ditched the wheelbarrows and began mixing our cement on the ground. By the time lunch was ready, we had the first floor in our house completed. 

Lunch was prepared by the women in the village and served down the hill from our worksite. We were served a delicious lunch of chicken, fresh veggies, rice and tortillas. Needless to say we all were pretty full by the time lunch was done. 

After lunch, we all worked our way back up the hill to our first house, where we completed a second room. We cleaned up pretty quickly and moved up the hill to work on our second house of the day. There were so many of us trying to work in such a small space, both members of GPMC and the community of Santa Cruz, that Julie, Allison and I packed up our stuff and headed down the hill to join Sue, Holly and the women and children in the village. We ended our work day making friendship bracelets, coloring, reading and singing with the children. 

It was pretty amazing to see how the littles things like song books and friendship bracelets and cement floors can bring so much joy to the men, women and children of Santa Cruz and I know I can speak on behalf of the whole group that we are all looking forward to another work day tomorrow. 

Chrissy Turner