July 23rd-Day 45
Saturday morning we were up at the usual time for breakfast, 7-8, and then we loaded the rest of the food we had bagged up onto the bus for the last food distribution in Mololoa. We hiked pretty far up the mountain, farther up than I've ever been to hand out the food to people who haven't received any food from TORCH this year. A lot of groups hit the houses lower on the mountain so it was our job to make it to the houses on the top. I'd say it took about an hour and a half to give them all out and we were finished with that but the fun was just beginning. The daycare in Mololoa was having Family Day where the families of all the kids and the families of the workers came to have lunch and see skits by the kids. Sean also had a Bible study with the ladies at the daycare. The skits by the kids were great. Seeing 3, 4 and 5 year olds act out a skit is tons of fun to watch. The most memorable one had to be Cinderella. They acted out the entire story and even had costumes to dress up in. They also all sung songs to us in spanish but they had also sang a few in english. After that we had lunch and then the youth of Mololoa had planned to play a soccer game against us gringos but the soccer field was being used for a league match so we didn't get to do that. Sean had his Bible study with the ladies that were there and we all had a great time. We then loaded up after family day was over and headed back to the mission house. Honestly, I have the feeling that we did do something else before heading to the mission house but I can't for the life of me remember.
July 24th-Day 46
Sunday we worshipped with the church in Mololoa. We got there about 9:30 and started service at like 10. Dr. Aguillera preached and proved once again why he's so awesome. After church we went out to the Valley of Angels again for a last chance souvenir shopping day. I ate at the jalapeno restaurant with Sean and Nathan. The shish-kabobs are just incredible there. We then walked around for a little bit and peaked inside a few shops knowing we really weren't going to get anything. We then left the Valley at 4ish and went back to the mission house were we ordered pizza and had a pretty relaxed evening. Mark and Lori Connell came up to the mission house to say bye to everyone since it was the last night for the group. We then had devo and sat around talking until it was time for bed. Sunday was a pretty calm day to just chill.
July 25th-Day 47
Monday we had to be leaving the mission house by 9:30 to get the Palmetto group to the airport so that they could get checked in and be on their flight at 1. Things at the airport went fairly smooth, much smoother than I've seen on past trips. A few of us had lunch upstairs while most of the group went on ahead through the checkpoints to go sit at the terminal. We then finished lunch and said bye to those that were left and they went on through to head to the gate and wait on their flight. Most of these guys I'll see once I get home but a few I won't like Erin, Jenna, Francisco and the Aguilera's. So I know that they all made it safely to the airport and hopefully they all made it safely back home. Tasha, Kate, Kaylee and I then left with Jenn Salgado. Tasha, Kate and Kaylee will be staying here another 2 weeks to teach english classes to people in Mololoa. They are going to have a 3 hour class each day at the church. I needed a place to stay for the night and Jenn was more than willing to let me stay with her. So we ran around with her for the rest of the day. We went and bought food and supplies for the feeding center and daycare. We then went up to Santa Ana to pick up Josue and then to Ojojona to pick up a couple of bunk beds. I packed the beds onto the truck and thought that it looked pretty good, the truck was loaded down....at least to gringo standards. Josue then comes out with another set of bunk beds and another mattress and we just had to pile them on top. So he taught this gringo how to pack a truck Honduran style. I bet the beds stood up 6 feet above the truck. We actually hit a set of power lines with the post of the beds on the way out of Ojojona. It was pretty crazy looking. Even Jenn thought it was a crazy. The good news is that we weren't electrocuted from the power lines thankfully, I would not have liked that again and we made it back to the house safely with all the pieces. We then put the beds together and started to go to sleep until Tasha decided she wanted to talk....all night. But it was all fun and I eventually got a few hours of sleep before getting up this morning.
July 26th-Day 48
We were up at 8 this morning and were leaving Jenn's house by 8:40. I had to be at the bus station by 10 to get a ticket to San Pedro. We sat in traffic for literally 30 minutes just outside of Jenn's house in Nueve Oriental where they are doing road work. The good news is that I got a bus ticket. Had to say goodbye to the girls, 2 of them I might not see again which is always sad. I'm sitting here at the bus station now waiting for my bus to leave at 12:30. It is supposed to be a 4 hour ride but we'll see how that goes.
Ok so it was actually very close to a 4 hour ride. I made it here to San Pedro Sula at about 5:30 and took a taxi to the airport. The taxi was fun. We had a stand-off with another car for about 5 minutes, which we won. Then as we were coming up to the exit ramp, a full circle exit ramp, we were flying. I thought he would slow down to make the turn but that wouldn't be any fun. The tires barked the entire way around the corner and it was great. So I've just been chilling here in the airport for the last few hours waiting for my plane to take me away at 1 so only a few more hours to go.
July 27th-Day 49
While I've got the time I'm going to guesstimate what is going to happen tomorrow. I'm leaving here at 1 a.m and should be landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 5:35 and then leaving there at 7 to go to Atlanta. I should land in Atlanta about 9:50 and my Dad is supposed to be there to pick me up. A 3-4 hour ride and I should be home by 3 tomorrow afternoon. So that is the plan for tomorrow and hopefully that won't change.
This trip has been incredible. Starting in Costa Rica, moving on to Nicaragua and ending the trip here in Honduras has been much more than I ever imagined it would be. I've met so many incredible people along the way from the states as well as from the countries we've been to. I've gotten to see the look of relief on the faces of mothers as they are given food when they didn't have any in their kitchen. I've gotten to see the tears of joy when we have built houses for families who had no place to call their home. I've been able to see the smiling faces of kids in many places because of the joy that a simple VBS can bring them. I've seen the worn out faces of gringos when they are completely worn out from serving the people in these amazing places. In a place where there is sooo much poverty, injustice, hunger, homelessness, and corruption, the Torch mission teams were able to show the love of Christ to thousands of people. Our hope is that through all the efforts this summer, that the people we have served will come to know Christ. I know not all of them will but if even one of them gives their life over to Christ then we have done an extraodinary thing this summer.
One last story to explain the blog title. The first Sunday that the Palmetto group was here, we went to the mall for lunch after Church service. My brother, Sean and I decided to skip the food court and take a risk. We found this little corndog vendor outside of the food court and my brother was like jackpot. So he bought one and took a bite and said it was the best corndog he'd ever had. Then Sean bought one and said the same thing. I won't lie, it took me a minute to get up the courage to get one since I didn't want to get sick from it but I did and I must say it was the best corndog I think I've ever had. So from that point on we started comparing everything to the corndog. On a scale of 1-10, the corndog was an 11. So if it was a corndog day then it was a good day, a corndog decision meant it was a great decision. This summer has absolutely been a corndog summer. It was a trip I was a little worried about at the beginning and as it neared I started getting more and more nervous but once I took that first bite I realized it was one of the greatest decisions I've made. I'd like to thank everyone that I was able to work with for making these last 7 weeks such a blast. It seems like just yesterday we were getting off the plane in Costa Rica and now it's all over with but what a ride it's been. But for everything we were able to do we give God the glory. God kept us all safe this summer, He provided us great places to go serve, He opened doors to new places, and most of all He showed us through His son what love is all about so that we can go out and show that love to those in need. I hope yall have enjoyed reading these posts and if there are any of you that haven't been to Honduras before, I hope these things you've read have stirred up a desire in you to come and experience this for yourselves and serve God and the people of Honduras in a way you'll never forget. From the San Pedro Sula airport and for the last time this summer, Peace Out!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
I just lost...
July 20th-Day 42
Wednesday we built a house out at the Valley of Angels, sort of. It was on a mountain above the valley, up in the clouds, and we could look off the mountain and see the entire valley out in front of us. It was pretty incredible. The family that we built for lived in a mud hut. The parents were old, in their 80's, and the dad only had one leg and was in a wheelchair and the mom was blind and they had 7 grown kids living with them in their house. They desperately needed a house. The view was incredible out in front of the house. The build went incredibly well. We were finished by 1 and went to eat lunch in the Valley. We had these awesome beef shish-kabobs, beans, plantains...It was incredible. We then went back to the mission house and just hung out there until devo. We went to the Jesus statue for devo which is always pretty cool and then back to the mission house for a game of spades and bed.
July 21st-Day 43
Yesterday the group I was with went to the dump. We started out by going to the supermarket and getting 25 loaves of bread, 200 banana's and 200 pieces of bologna. We then made the sandwiches on the bus as we went around to get water at the service stations. Usually it takes a few stops at the stations to get enough bagged water but we stopped at one place and they had more than enough water for us to buy. So we bought it and headed to the dump. Most of the people on the bus, roughly 15 of the 25, had not been to the dump before. We rolled up and we had bags of food on the back of the bus for a food distribution so we had to give off the sandwiches from the front door of the bus and boy did that cause a problem. They rushed to the door and it got pretty chaotic pretty fast. Only Troy, Jenna, Josue, Bryan Lopez, Pedro and I got off of the bus and everyone else stayed on. We tried our best to distribute the food as best we could but I'm sure there were people who got more than one of everything. We were in and out pretty quick and didn't have a chance to mingle with the people. Some of the guys that were sitting in a truck started throwing eggs at the bus and then started throwing them at the 6 of us who were off the bus. The hit Troy in the leg and Bryan in the jaw and the rest of us had egg on our hands and arms and clothes. I've been to the dump where we were able to hang out with the people for a while but that was just not going to happen yesterday. It was the craziest I've ever seen it there. So we left there and went to Cataluna for a food distribution. Most of the community is pretty ok to deliver food too. The hills aren't too steep and the houses are easy to get to, that is until you go to the back of the community to the little mountain I'd like to call "makesmewanttodie". It is a fairly incredible slope we had to climb to get food to the top houses. To climb it empty handed is impressive enough but we had to carry a few 30 pound bags of food with us which made it rather difficult. Knowing that someone was going to get food who didn't currently have food made it all worth it though. We gave out about 300 bags of food and by the end of the day we were all pretty tired and worn out from climbing makesmewanttodie. We then came back to the mission house and had dinner and devo for the last time with the group from Mayesville.
July 22nd-Day 44
Today we had to say goodbye to many more friends that we've made from the Mayesville CoC. They flew out at 1 a.m along with Aaron to go back to the states. Over this trip I've been able to work with tons of amazing people and the Mayesville group was packed full of incredible people just as the other Honduras teams, Costa Rica team and Intern team was. We've made great friends and hopefully these new friendships will not end just because we are going back home. When we said goodbye to them, we loaded up the bus and headed to Mololoa for our last house build of the trip in memory of Mr. Paul Simpson. The house site was ridiculous. I know it may sound like I'm complaining a lot about the hills we have been climbing but I'm really not, just trying to relay how incredibly steep they are. We had a few people that wanted to build end up going to the daycare to work because the path down to the house site was too steep for them and since the site wasn't far from the daycare, it made sense for them to go there. The build went great though. We built an 11x16 house because that's all we could fit between the rock wall and the cliff. We were done with this one by 1:30 and when we finished we went to Campero's pollo for lunch which is always great. After that we came back up to the mission house and threw a little frisbee and kicked around a soccer ball before dinner. Then we had devo which we just finished up and we are fixing to head to bed. We introduced quite a few people to "The Game" today so that has been incredibly awesome to watch. Tomorrow we are going to family day out at the daycare at Mololoa. The youth group at the church wants to play the gringos in soccer and we are also doing a food distribution for a section of the community out there. Tomorrow should be just as awesome as every other day I've been here. Oh and Emily, if you are reading this Sean says HI.
Wednesday we built a house out at the Valley of Angels, sort of. It was on a mountain above the valley, up in the clouds, and we could look off the mountain and see the entire valley out in front of us. It was pretty incredible. The family that we built for lived in a mud hut. The parents were old, in their 80's, and the dad only had one leg and was in a wheelchair and the mom was blind and they had 7 grown kids living with them in their house. They desperately needed a house. The view was incredible out in front of the house. The build went incredibly well. We were finished by 1 and went to eat lunch in the Valley. We had these awesome beef shish-kabobs, beans, plantains...It was incredible. We then went back to the mission house and just hung out there until devo. We went to the Jesus statue for devo which is always pretty cool and then back to the mission house for a game of spades and bed.
July 21st-Day 43
Yesterday the group I was with went to the dump. We started out by going to the supermarket and getting 25 loaves of bread, 200 banana's and 200 pieces of bologna. We then made the sandwiches on the bus as we went around to get water at the service stations. Usually it takes a few stops at the stations to get enough bagged water but we stopped at one place and they had more than enough water for us to buy. So we bought it and headed to the dump. Most of the people on the bus, roughly 15 of the 25, had not been to the dump before. We rolled up and we had bags of food on the back of the bus for a food distribution so we had to give off the sandwiches from the front door of the bus and boy did that cause a problem. They rushed to the door and it got pretty chaotic pretty fast. Only Troy, Jenna, Josue, Bryan Lopez, Pedro and I got off of the bus and everyone else stayed on. We tried our best to distribute the food as best we could but I'm sure there were people who got more than one of everything. We were in and out pretty quick and didn't have a chance to mingle with the people. Some of the guys that were sitting in a truck started throwing eggs at the bus and then started throwing them at the 6 of us who were off the bus. The hit Troy in the leg and Bryan in the jaw and the rest of us had egg on our hands and arms and clothes. I've been to the dump where we were able to hang out with the people for a while but that was just not going to happen yesterday. It was the craziest I've ever seen it there. So we left there and went to Cataluna for a food distribution. Most of the community is pretty ok to deliver food too. The hills aren't too steep and the houses are easy to get to, that is until you go to the back of the community to the little mountain I'd like to call "makesmewanttodie". It is a fairly incredible slope we had to climb to get food to the top houses. To climb it empty handed is impressive enough but we had to carry a few 30 pound bags of food with us which made it rather difficult. Knowing that someone was going to get food who didn't currently have food made it all worth it though. We gave out about 300 bags of food and by the end of the day we were all pretty tired and worn out from climbing makesmewanttodie. We then came back to the mission house and had dinner and devo for the last time with the group from Mayesville.
July 22nd-Day 44
Today we had to say goodbye to many more friends that we've made from the Mayesville CoC. They flew out at 1 a.m along with Aaron to go back to the states. Over this trip I've been able to work with tons of amazing people and the Mayesville group was packed full of incredible people just as the other Honduras teams, Costa Rica team and Intern team was. We've made great friends and hopefully these new friendships will not end just because we are going back home. When we said goodbye to them, we loaded up the bus and headed to Mololoa for our last house build of the trip in memory of Mr. Paul Simpson. The house site was ridiculous. I know it may sound like I'm complaining a lot about the hills we have been climbing but I'm really not, just trying to relay how incredibly steep they are. We had a few people that wanted to build end up going to the daycare to work because the path down to the house site was too steep for them and since the site wasn't far from the daycare, it made sense for them to go there. The build went great though. We built an 11x16 house because that's all we could fit between the rock wall and the cliff. We were done with this one by 1:30 and when we finished we went to Campero's pollo for lunch which is always great. After that we came back up to the mission house and threw a little frisbee and kicked around a soccer ball before dinner. Then we had devo which we just finished up and we are fixing to head to bed. We introduced quite a few people to "The Game" today so that has been incredibly awesome to watch. Tomorrow we are going to family day out at the daycare at Mololoa. The youth group at the church wants to play the gringos in soccer and we are also doing a food distribution for a section of the community out there. Tomorrow should be just as awesome as every other day I've been here. Oh and Emily, if you are reading this Sean says HI.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Cross Country Trek
July 18th-Day 40
Yesterday we built another house. We built out at Cataluna again and my team had a decent work site. We were able to get it square much quicker than on Saturday and as we started digging holes we realized that one of them was only going to be 4 inches deep because there was a boulder the size of a car right under the ground and in the front corner we had another rock the size of a V8 engine. We were able to get the smaller one out after about 15 minutes of prying on it. As we went to lift it out, a tarantula ran out from under the rock and we quickly took care of it. After that we were able to get all the post in with a little convincing and we were off to the races. The build went very smooth again and we were finished by about 2. We then went over to the other house and a few of our team helped them for about an hour and a half as they finished and the rest of us chilled or played with kids. Once we finished up we all loaded the bus and headed back to the mission house. We got back about 4:30 and had some time to rest and shower before dinner at 6:30. For some reason I was pretty sore after finishing the house. It was the start of another round of getting worn down. We kept the same build teams that we had on Saturday so my team worked great together again.
July 19th-Day 41
Today we built a 2 houses out in the La Tigra rain forest out the backside of the mountain that the mission house is on. Just like the last time we built at there, we had to build in a swamp like area. We got to the site and Mark Connell was behind us with wood for both of the houses, they were both right next to each other. When we realized we couldn't get the truck with wood up the hill to the sites, our hearts sank. We had to carry the wood and tools for both houses what we think was just over a half a mile to the sites. It was slippery and muddy the entire way. When we made the first trip there with some wood and the tools, Mark Connell took a few guys and started squaring up the house for his team and I took a few guys and started squaring up the one for my team. When we started digging the post holes, we realized we were digging more of a well. The holes quickly filled up with water and unlike last time we didn't have any concrete to put around the post. We packed them full of dirt and leveled them up and started up with the walls as a few of us started getting the floor ready. We had two more really great builds and two more families now have a home to call their own. Mark's team finished about 10 minutes before we did which was great. We were finished with them both by 3 and were back at the mission house by 4. So far on the 3 builds I've been able to get some fresh blood up on the roofs, both the Jensen girls, Erin, Ally, Jenna, and a few others. The girls have done a great job getting up there and roofing. Today we are all absolutely wore out. Carrying wood and the semi tough sites have taken their toll on the group. I know that I haven't been this wore out in a while. I'm not sick, my body is just wore slap out and that's not just me but a lot of people in this group. We've been playing spoons the last few nights and I'm sitting here at the table about to join in when I finish typing and it's easy to see that reactions times are fairly slow tonight. Tomorrow we have another full day. We have a team going to Mololoa to work in the daycare and kitchen as well as a group of 8 going to do some repair work and painting on the buildings out there. We have a group going to the hospital in the morning and then coming back to the mission house to pack up three loads of food to be given out on Thursday. I'll be leading another house build tomorrow out at the Valley of Angels, we are only building one tomorrow so hopefully some of these guys can have a light day to rest up a bit because I know most of them are completely worn out. So tomorrow should be another great day. The weather has co-operated with us fairly well, it's been a little warm but the rains haven't shown their face so far during the days we've been building. But this game of spoons seems to be gaining life so it's time for me to jump in. May the force be with you!
Yesterday we built another house. We built out at Cataluna again and my team had a decent work site. We were able to get it square much quicker than on Saturday and as we started digging holes we realized that one of them was only going to be 4 inches deep because there was a boulder the size of a car right under the ground and in the front corner we had another rock the size of a V8 engine. We were able to get the smaller one out after about 15 minutes of prying on it. As we went to lift it out, a tarantula ran out from under the rock and we quickly took care of it. After that we were able to get all the post in with a little convincing and we were off to the races. The build went very smooth again and we were finished by about 2. We then went over to the other house and a few of our team helped them for about an hour and a half as they finished and the rest of us chilled or played with kids. Once we finished up we all loaded the bus and headed back to the mission house. We got back about 4:30 and had some time to rest and shower before dinner at 6:30. For some reason I was pretty sore after finishing the house. It was the start of another round of getting worn down. We kept the same build teams that we had on Saturday so my team worked great together again.
July 19th-Day 41
Today we built a 2 houses out in the La Tigra rain forest out the backside of the mountain that the mission house is on. Just like the last time we built at there, we had to build in a swamp like area. We got to the site and Mark Connell was behind us with wood for both of the houses, they were both right next to each other. When we realized we couldn't get the truck with wood up the hill to the sites, our hearts sank. We had to carry the wood and tools for both houses what we think was just over a half a mile to the sites. It was slippery and muddy the entire way. When we made the first trip there with some wood and the tools, Mark Connell took a few guys and started squaring up the house for his team and I took a few guys and started squaring up the one for my team. When we started digging the post holes, we realized we were digging more of a well. The holes quickly filled up with water and unlike last time we didn't have any concrete to put around the post. We packed them full of dirt and leveled them up and started up with the walls as a few of us started getting the floor ready. We had two more really great builds and two more families now have a home to call their own. Mark's team finished about 10 minutes before we did which was great. We were finished with them both by 3 and were back at the mission house by 4. So far on the 3 builds I've been able to get some fresh blood up on the roofs, both the Jensen girls, Erin, Ally, Jenna, and a few others. The girls have done a great job getting up there and roofing. Today we are all absolutely wore out. Carrying wood and the semi tough sites have taken their toll on the group. I know that I haven't been this wore out in a while. I'm not sick, my body is just wore slap out and that's not just me but a lot of people in this group. We've been playing spoons the last few nights and I'm sitting here at the table about to join in when I finish typing and it's easy to see that reactions times are fairly slow tonight. Tomorrow we have another full day. We have a team going to Mololoa to work in the daycare and kitchen as well as a group of 8 going to do some repair work and painting on the buildings out there. We have a group going to the hospital in the morning and then coming back to the mission house to pack up three loads of food to be given out on Thursday. I'll be leading another house build tomorrow out at the Valley of Angels, we are only building one tomorrow so hopefully some of these guys can have a light day to rest up a bit because I know most of them are completely worn out. So tomorrow should be another great day. The weather has co-operated with us fairly well, it's been a little warm but the rains haven't shown their face so far during the days we've been building. But this game of spoons seems to be gaining life so it's time for me to jump in. May the force be with you!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Palmetto has arrived!
July 12th-14th;Day 34-36
Last Tuesday I really didn't do much of anything. I started getting a cold/sinus infection and felt pretty terrible for a few days. I stayed at Jenn's house most of the day and tried to catch up on some sleep. After the previous 33 days I was pretty worn out. So I just chilled at the house until that night when everyone started coming back in. We then went out at Chilli's which was incredible. It seems like all I want to eat when we go out is pasta so I got this pick awesome plate of chicken pasta and it was great. There were a few others staying at Jenn Wrights house as well. David Logue stays at the house with Jenn. David and Jenn both live here full-time and are involved in a lot of different ministries. Andy Hubright and another guy named Zach were there for a few days. They live outside the city about an hour but stay at Jenn's occasionally to use the internet. Both graduated from Lipscomb in December and I had played frisbee with them at Lipscomb so that was cool to be here with them. There was also another Jenn staying with us. Jenn Hines has been here since October and committed to staying here for a year so she has a couple more months here. Another girl named Kolby was staying there too. She had been here for 3 months and just went back home the past Thursday. There was also Jenna Hostetler who worked with the last group and is staying over to work with the Palmetto/Mayesville group. So we all had a good time even though I had a sinus infection, Kolby had strep throat, Jenna was in the process of getting a sick and Jenn was just getting over being sick. We still had a fun time for a few days though.
On Wednesday I just ran a few errands with the girls because Kolby and Jenn Wright were heading back to the states on Thursday. They needed to run and do a few things so I just tagged along. We all went to La Creperia to eat dinner with Mark and Lori Connell which is always fun. It was the first time I have ever had crepes (i hope that's how you spell them). It was pretty good food though. It's nice to be able to go to different kinds of restaurants down here. Having a large group is always fun but when there's just a few of you, you have more flexibility to do things like just going out with a group and having a good time for the night.
Thursday was another sick day. I was feeling terrible that morning so I decided to just stay home and rest a little more since the Palmetto group was coming in of Friday. Thankfully I started feeling better by the end of the day and started to kick out the sinus infection that I had. Kolby and Jenn flew out so we had to say goodbye to a few more new friends.
July 15th-Day 37
Friday I woke up and felt much better. Part of it was because I was getting better and part of it was because I was excited for our group to fly in. Mark Connel picked Jenna and I up at the house and we ran a few errands before heading to the airport. We made it to the airport about 10:30 expecting the plane to land at 11 but they were delayed out of Atlanta. So about 11:30ish we saw the Delta flight come over the mountains and start their landing. After 30-45 minutes of clearing customs and gather bags, they came out of the baggage claim and we started loading them on the bus. It was like watching a bunch of zombies walk through the airport. Everyone of them looked like they hadn't slept in a week. We then went to lunch at a place called Criollos (again not sure about spelling). It's a really good Honduran restaurant that I've been to a few times. They didn't let us down. The food was incredible once again. After that we headed to the store to let the group buy some food for lunches for the week and then headed up to the mission house. We had dinner about 6:45 which was beef tips, incredible, and afterwards had devo here in the cafeteria at 8. The devo/orientation lasted till about 9:15 and then we headed to bed. I was feeling much better by Friday night but I had passed on my sinus infection/cold to Jenna, so that wasn't too good but everyone had made it safely to the mission house and needed a good nights sleep for the house builds.
July 16th-Day 38
Saturday we started out with breakfast at 7-8, a short meeting at 8 to divide teams to build the houses. Since half of the group are newbies this year, we made each team be half experienced and half rookies. Danny Mullins led one of the build teams and I got to lead my first house build. We built in Cataluna (accent mark on the n so it's pronounced Catalunya) which is over behind the dump. The wood had been delivered on Thursday so we didn't have to carry it, we only had one rock that we had to contend with for the post holes and the team worked beautifully together. I did have a few issues with getting the house square but after we started putting in the floor I measured and it was 16x16 and only a quarter-inch off square so I was pretty excited that it had turned out so nicely. The team worked great together and we were done by 2:15. The lady who we built the house for cried and cried as the people from Mayesville presented the house to her. It really was a GREAT day. The team worked just as well as any team I've ever worked with. This is the first trip down here for my brother and he loved building the house. He jumped up on the roof and took off once I showed him what he needed to do. I thought that leading my first house would have been a little more challenging than it was, and maybe it should have been but the smoothness of this build didn't have anything to do with who was leading but how well this group worked together. Everyone was willing to do whatever was asked of them and worked great together. We made it back to the mission house about 4 after some crazy traffic downtown and played frisbee for a little bit. My disc has been sitting in my bag taunting me for weeks because I haven't had a chance to use it but that is changing. After that we had dinner, baked chicken, potatoes and a salad, then devo at 8. After devo we sat around and played cards for a while and then headed to bed.
July 17th-Day 39
This morning we all left at 8:30 to go to Mololoa for church. The service started at 9:45 and we packed into the building once again. Sean led singing and Aaron Mullins preached so it was a good service. Afterwards we headed to the mall for lunch, Matt, Sean and I decided to be brave and buy a corn dog from a vendor in the mall. That's something that usually you shouldn't do but this turned out to be one of the best corn dogs I've ever eaten and the best part is that we didn't get sick from it. After that we went to Mi Esperanza to shop a little. I went straight in and asked Lori if Mark (Mark Connell that is) was in the back and she was like yea why. I headed straight to the back knowing that Mark was back there watching the USA v Japan women's world cup final. So for the next 45 minutes I sat back there and watched the game only to have my heart sink as Japan beat us in penalty kicks. It was terrible to watch the USA blow that game after having the lead twice. It still stings. After we left we went to the Valley of Angels to shop a little. It's a tourist area that we go to to souvenir shop. We didn't have much time, only an hour, so we had to do it pretty quickly. We then went to a really nice restaurant in Santa Lucia for dinner. Sean, Bryan, Aaron and I got this massive plate of food meant for 4 along with another entree. Once people realized what we were getting, they all started getting in groups of 4 and ordering the same thing. It was incredible food. The 4 of us cleaned that tray pretty quickly and then acted like vultures watching for others not to finish. By the time we left, Aaron and I had 6 of the massive trays of food in front of us with leftovers from the others and we finished almost every bite of it. We are definitely paying for it right this second but it was an incredible meal. Aaron and I definitely got the most for our money tonight. We at more fried beans, plantains, and meat than we ever have and loved every second of it. We are now back here at the cafeteria and I'm typing as the rest of the group is sorting medicines for the medical clinic tomorrow. I'll get to lead another house build tomorrow, one of 2 that will be built tomorrow. We are also having a medical clinic and a sending some people to work in the daycare and kitchen at Mololoa. Also, Aaron is going to be posting a blog every night about what the Palmetto/Mayesville team is doing down here, here is the link if you'd like to read that blog as well, http://matthew25-31-40ministries.tumblr.com/. We are about to start devo in a few minutes so it's time for me to go. Until next time, Peace Out.
Last Tuesday I really didn't do much of anything. I started getting a cold/sinus infection and felt pretty terrible for a few days. I stayed at Jenn's house most of the day and tried to catch up on some sleep. After the previous 33 days I was pretty worn out. So I just chilled at the house until that night when everyone started coming back in. We then went out at Chilli's which was incredible. It seems like all I want to eat when we go out is pasta so I got this pick awesome plate of chicken pasta and it was great. There were a few others staying at Jenn Wrights house as well. David Logue stays at the house with Jenn. David and Jenn both live here full-time and are involved in a lot of different ministries. Andy Hubright and another guy named Zach were there for a few days. They live outside the city about an hour but stay at Jenn's occasionally to use the internet. Both graduated from Lipscomb in December and I had played frisbee with them at Lipscomb so that was cool to be here with them. There was also another Jenn staying with us. Jenn Hines has been here since October and committed to staying here for a year so she has a couple more months here. Another girl named Kolby was staying there too. She had been here for 3 months and just went back home the past Thursday. There was also Jenna Hostetler who worked with the last group and is staying over to work with the Palmetto/Mayesville group. So we all had a good time even though I had a sinus infection, Kolby had strep throat, Jenna was in the process of getting a sick and Jenn was just getting over being sick. We still had a fun time for a few days though.
On Wednesday I just ran a few errands with the girls because Kolby and Jenn Wright were heading back to the states on Thursday. They needed to run and do a few things so I just tagged along. We all went to La Creperia to eat dinner with Mark and Lori Connell which is always fun. It was the first time I have ever had crepes (i hope that's how you spell them). It was pretty good food though. It's nice to be able to go to different kinds of restaurants down here. Having a large group is always fun but when there's just a few of you, you have more flexibility to do things like just going out with a group and having a good time for the night.
Thursday was another sick day. I was feeling terrible that morning so I decided to just stay home and rest a little more since the Palmetto group was coming in of Friday. Thankfully I started feeling better by the end of the day and started to kick out the sinus infection that I had. Kolby and Jenn flew out so we had to say goodbye to a few more new friends.
July 15th-Day 37
Friday I woke up and felt much better. Part of it was because I was getting better and part of it was because I was excited for our group to fly in. Mark Connel picked Jenna and I up at the house and we ran a few errands before heading to the airport. We made it to the airport about 10:30 expecting the plane to land at 11 but they were delayed out of Atlanta. So about 11:30ish we saw the Delta flight come over the mountains and start their landing. After 30-45 minutes of clearing customs and gather bags, they came out of the baggage claim and we started loading them on the bus. It was like watching a bunch of zombies walk through the airport. Everyone of them looked like they hadn't slept in a week. We then went to lunch at a place called Criollos (again not sure about spelling). It's a really good Honduran restaurant that I've been to a few times. They didn't let us down. The food was incredible once again. After that we headed to the store to let the group buy some food for lunches for the week and then headed up to the mission house. We had dinner about 6:45 which was beef tips, incredible, and afterwards had devo here in the cafeteria at 8. The devo/orientation lasted till about 9:15 and then we headed to bed. I was feeling much better by Friday night but I had passed on my sinus infection/cold to Jenna, so that wasn't too good but everyone had made it safely to the mission house and needed a good nights sleep for the house builds.
July 16th-Day 38
Saturday we started out with breakfast at 7-8, a short meeting at 8 to divide teams to build the houses. Since half of the group are newbies this year, we made each team be half experienced and half rookies. Danny Mullins led one of the build teams and I got to lead my first house build. We built in Cataluna (accent mark on the n so it's pronounced Catalunya) which is over behind the dump. The wood had been delivered on Thursday so we didn't have to carry it, we only had one rock that we had to contend with for the post holes and the team worked beautifully together. I did have a few issues with getting the house square but after we started putting in the floor I measured and it was 16x16 and only a quarter-inch off square so I was pretty excited that it had turned out so nicely. The team worked great together and we were done by 2:15. The lady who we built the house for cried and cried as the people from Mayesville presented the house to her. It really was a GREAT day. The team worked just as well as any team I've ever worked with. This is the first trip down here for my brother and he loved building the house. He jumped up on the roof and took off once I showed him what he needed to do. I thought that leading my first house would have been a little more challenging than it was, and maybe it should have been but the smoothness of this build didn't have anything to do with who was leading but how well this group worked together. Everyone was willing to do whatever was asked of them and worked great together. We made it back to the mission house about 4 after some crazy traffic downtown and played frisbee for a little bit. My disc has been sitting in my bag taunting me for weeks because I haven't had a chance to use it but that is changing. After that we had dinner, baked chicken, potatoes and a salad, then devo at 8. After devo we sat around and played cards for a while and then headed to bed.
July 17th-Day 39
This morning we all left at 8:30 to go to Mololoa for church. The service started at 9:45 and we packed into the building once again. Sean led singing and Aaron Mullins preached so it was a good service. Afterwards we headed to the mall for lunch, Matt, Sean and I decided to be brave and buy a corn dog from a vendor in the mall. That's something that usually you shouldn't do but this turned out to be one of the best corn dogs I've ever eaten and the best part is that we didn't get sick from it. After that we went to Mi Esperanza to shop a little. I went straight in and asked Lori if Mark (Mark Connell that is) was in the back and she was like yea why. I headed straight to the back knowing that Mark was back there watching the USA v Japan women's world cup final. So for the next 45 minutes I sat back there and watched the game only to have my heart sink as Japan beat us in penalty kicks. It was terrible to watch the USA blow that game after having the lead twice. It still stings. After we left we went to the Valley of Angels to shop a little. It's a tourist area that we go to to souvenir shop. We didn't have much time, only an hour, so we had to do it pretty quickly. We then went to a really nice restaurant in Santa Lucia for dinner. Sean, Bryan, Aaron and I got this massive plate of food meant for 4 along with another entree. Once people realized what we were getting, they all started getting in groups of 4 and ordering the same thing. It was incredible food. The 4 of us cleaned that tray pretty quickly and then acted like vultures watching for others not to finish. By the time we left, Aaron and I had 6 of the massive trays of food in front of us with leftovers from the others and we finished almost every bite of it. We are definitely paying for it right this second but it was an incredible meal. Aaron and I definitely got the most for our money tonight. We at more fried beans, plantains, and meat than we ever have and loved every second of it. We are now back here at the cafeteria and I'm typing as the rest of the group is sorting medicines for the medical clinic tomorrow. I'll get to lead another house build tomorrow, one of 2 that will be built tomorrow. We are also having a medical clinic and a sending some people to work in the daycare and kitchen at Mololoa. Also, Aaron is going to be posting a blog every night about what the Palmetto/Mayesville team is doing down here, here is the link if you'd like to read that blog as well, http://matthew25-31-40ministries.tumblr.com/. We are about to start devo in a few minutes so it's time for me to go. Until next time, Peace Out.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Last days for the Minions
July 8th-Day 30
Friday we had our Finale, our final VBS. Skit 2 was arguably our best skit but skit 3 was definitely the funniest one we were able to do. We started at 9 again and the kids were already waiting when the bus pulled up. The skit went wonderful again. A few of us were sick and we were all tired but we put together one more great performance for the kids. Jorden, Chris and I had the 1st graders again today for their craft, snack and game. I've had a blast doing these VBS and it's sad that this is the last one. But at 11 it was time for us to go. We said goodbye to the kids so they could continue school and we headed back kto the hotel for a few hours. We had a few hours to eat lunch and take a nap, at least that's what I did, and then at 2:30 we loaded up to go to an orphanage in the city. The orphanage had babies and toddlers that we got to spend about an hour and a half with. Some of them were a little shy at first but quickly warmed up to us. We took them outside to their playground and they had a blast. From pushing them on their tricycles to helping them swing, I think we were all glad we got to go. The only bad part was when we had to leave. We had to just leave them there as they sat and cried. It didn't mater if you went back for a second to get them to stop crying and say bye again, as soon as you turned to walk off they would cry again. We then went back to the hotel for about an hour before heading out to a pizza place called Weekends Pizza. I was pretty hungry so naturally it was the best pizza in the world. We were then able to go to a graduation at the church. The have a graduation for the people who complete the let's start talking program. After that I headed to bed.
July 9th-Day 31
Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and loaded up the bus by 8:30 to head to the Copan Ruins. I had been looking forward to this since I heard we were going and boy was it awesome. I absolutely love history and learning about past civilizations so this was right up my ally. We made it to the ruins about 11 and after getting a tour guide we started our walk through time. To see buildings and temples that are a couple thousand years old was incredible. We were able to stand at the foot of a massive staircase where at the top thousands of people had been sacrificed. We were able to go up where the king would sit and watch sporting events. We got to see the ruins of the palace and the tomb of the last King of Copan. It was all incredible. I would loved to have been able to see that place back when it was thriving. Only a fraction of the ruins in the area have been excavated so there is still a ton more to be found. After we left the ruins, about 3ish, we drove on over to San Pedro for the night. A 3 hour bus ride and we were at the hotel for night.
July 10th-Day 32
Yesterday we slept in till about 10 and had to be checked out of our rooms by 11. We then went to the mall and hung out all day. The Minions were flying out at 1:15 this morning, Monday morning, so this was the last day the interns would have together. We got to see Transformers 3, in english woot woot and for only $3.50. That was great. I'm not sure what I like more, the movie or the $3.50 price. We then just hung around for a while, ate dinner and waited until 8 which is when we were leaving for the airport. We dropped them off about 9 at the airport so they could get all checked in. I then road back to the hotel with Guillermo and we spent the night at the hotel again.
July 11th-Day 33
This morning we had to be up at 4 so that we could get a couple of ladies to the airport by 5 to get checked in to their flight. After that Guillermo and I headed back to Teguc. I got to see the sunrise over the mountains this morning just outside of San Pedro which was awesome but sucked that I was by myself. I wish the interns had a little more time here. We made it back to the airport in Teguc about 10 and I met up with Jenna Hostettler who was with her group as they were flying out. She'll be staying to work with our group from home as well. So we waited there until the lady we are staying with made it to the airport to get us which was about noon. Until Thursday Jenna and I will be staying with Jenn Wright here in Teguc. I just met her today at the airport so I have no clue what we will be doing yet. Hopefully a lot of sleep is in my near future. Once we made it back to her house and had lunch, I sat down on the bed and set my alarm to wake me up in an hour and a half...So I woke up 4 hours later and realized the sound on my ipod was muted. So I've been up a little while now and haven't really done a whole lot today. So I'm back in Teguc and hopefully done with bus rides for a couple of weeks. It seems like most of our time has been on a bus as of late. It's crazy how much a bus ride will wear you down. But it's time to get geared up for one more 10 day action packed adventure. 4 days from now we'll be right back at it, building houses, giving out food, going to orphanages, to the hospital, working out at Mololoa, having medical clinics and a whole lot more. I just found out that we are going to be building 2 houses a day on Saturday, and Monday and Tuesday of next week. It'll be here before you know it.
I picked the name A Part of His Mission for the blog because that's what we have been the past few weeks, A PART of His Mission. The Minions have been able to work with the Church in Buenos Aires, Costa Rica; Nidiri, Nicaragua; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Nacaome, Honduras; Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras. We have seen many parts of God's mission in many different places. We have met incredible people who do not speak our language nor do we speak theirs, incredible people who suffer injustices, hunger, poverty, homelessness and through it all they have devoted themselves to God's mission. We have been extremely blessed to just be a small part of all the ministries that we have been able to work with. God's mission is so large and complex that we can't wrap our minds around it. We just have to be willing to do our part, to play our role in is His mission. We have to be willing to sacrifice some of our plans to follow the plans that God has laid out for us. The Minions have done that over the past 33 days. Giving up a large portion of our summer, sacrificing time with family and friends, wearing ourselves out mentally, emotionally and physically all to be a part of God's overall mission. We have grown soo close over the past month that it was hard to say goodbye. Terry has been using the analogy of the breaking of the fellowship of the ring from Lord of The Rings and that is a perfect analogy. This morning as we got to the airport, we unloaded the bus quickly and said quick goodbye's as they headed inside and I headed back to the hotel with Guillermo. It was such a quick goodbye that it really didn't sink in until I was heading back to Teguc this morning with just Guillermo. The past month has been incredible and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to have gone on this trip with. I know that some of you guys are reading this and I just want to say Thank You for an incredible trip. It has been amazing and I hate that it has had to come to an end. From facebook post I've seen that the breaking of the fellowship is almost complete. As people are getting home they are posting it on FB so it's nice to see that so far they have all made it home safely. It sucks to say goodbye and to know that I won't be with that amazing group of people here again, maybe a few here and there but as a whole it will be hard to all be together again. Terry assembled a great group for this trip and I can't possibly say thank you to him enough for allowing me to be a part of the minions. But as it is in the Lord of The Rings, you have to move on. The group from home will be here on Friday and it'll be great to see friends from back home who I haven't seen in a month and to meet the new people from Mayesville Church of Christ in Alabama. I still have just over 2 weeks to go and if the next couple of weeks are just a fraction as awesome as the last month with the minions has been then it'll be a great end to this trip. Kennedy, Katia, Tatiana, Paige, Macy, Kathryn, Leah, Ashley, Brandy, Jorden, Tyler, Pat, Andrew, Joe, Minor, Brandon, Chris, and most of all Terry, Thank you for an incredible summer.
Friday we had our Finale, our final VBS. Skit 2 was arguably our best skit but skit 3 was definitely the funniest one we were able to do. We started at 9 again and the kids were already waiting when the bus pulled up. The skit went wonderful again. A few of us were sick and we were all tired but we put together one more great performance for the kids. Jorden, Chris and I had the 1st graders again today for their craft, snack and game. I've had a blast doing these VBS and it's sad that this is the last one. But at 11 it was time for us to go. We said goodbye to the kids so they could continue school and we headed back kto the hotel for a few hours. We had a few hours to eat lunch and take a nap, at least that's what I did, and then at 2:30 we loaded up to go to an orphanage in the city. The orphanage had babies and toddlers that we got to spend about an hour and a half with. Some of them were a little shy at first but quickly warmed up to us. We took them outside to their playground and they had a blast. From pushing them on their tricycles to helping them swing, I think we were all glad we got to go. The only bad part was when we had to leave. We had to just leave them there as they sat and cried. It didn't mater if you went back for a second to get them to stop crying and say bye again, as soon as you turned to walk off they would cry again. We then went back to the hotel for about an hour before heading out to a pizza place called Weekends Pizza. I was pretty hungry so naturally it was the best pizza in the world. We were then able to go to a graduation at the church. The have a graduation for the people who complete the let's start talking program. After that I headed to bed.
July 9th-Day 31
Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and loaded up the bus by 8:30 to head to the Copan Ruins. I had been looking forward to this since I heard we were going and boy was it awesome. I absolutely love history and learning about past civilizations so this was right up my ally. We made it to the ruins about 11 and after getting a tour guide we started our walk through time. To see buildings and temples that are a couple thousand years old was incredible. We were able to stand at the foot of a massive staircase where at the top thousands of people had been sacrificed. We were able to go up where the king would sit and watch sporting events. We got to see the ruins of the palace and the tomb of the last King of Copan. It was all incredible. I would loved to have been able to see that place back when it was thriving. Only a fraction of the ruins in the area have been excavated so there is still a ton more to be found. After we left the ruins, about 3ish, we drove on over to San Pedro for the night. A 3 hour bus ride and we were at the hotel for night.
July 10th-Day 32
Yesterday we slept in till about 10 and had to be checked out of our rooms by 11. We then went to the mall and hung out all day. The Minions were flying out at 1:15 this morning, Monday morning, so this was the last day the interns would have together. We got to see Transformers 3, in english woot woot and for only $3.50. That was great. I'm not sure what I like more, the movie or the $3.50 price. We then just hung around for a while, ate dinner and waited until 8 which is when we were leaving for the airport. We dropped them off about 9 at the airport so they could get all checked in. I then road back to the hotel with Guillermo and we spent the night at the hotel again.
July 11th-Day 33
This morning we had to be up at 4 so that we could get a couple of ladies to the airport by 5 to get checked in to their flight. After that Guillermo and I headed back to Teguc. I got to see the sunrise over the mountains this morning just outside of San Pedro which was awesome but sucked that I was by myself. I wish the interns had a little more time here. We made it back to the airport in Teguc about 10 and I met up with Jenna Hostettler who was with her group as they were flying out. She'll be staying to work with our group from home as well. So we waited there until the lady we are staying with made it to the airport to get us which was about noon. Until Thursday Jenna and I will be staying with Jenn Wright here in Teguc. I just met her today at the airport so I have no clue what we will be doing yet. Hopefully a lot of sleep is in my near future. Once we made it back to her house and had lunch, I sat down on the bed and set my alarm to wake me up in an hour and a half...So I woke up 4 hours later and realized the sound on my ipod was muted. So I've been up a little while now and haven't really done a whole lot today. So I'm back in Teguc and hopefully done with bus rides for a couple of weeks. It seems like most of our time has been on a bus as of late. It's crazy how much a bus ride will wear you down. But it's time to get geared up for one more 10 day action packed adventure. 4 days from now we'll be right back at it, building houses, giving out food, going to orphanages, to the hospital, working out at Mololoa, having medical clinics and a whole lot more. I just found out that we are going to be building 2 houses a day on Saturday, and Monday and Tuesday of next week. It'll be here before you know it.
I picked the name A Part of His Mission for the blog because that's what we have been the past few weeks, A PART of His Mission. The Minions have been able to work with the Church in Buenos Aires, Costa Rica; Nidiri, Nicaragua; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Nacaome, Honduras; Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras. We have seen many parts of God's mission in many different places. We have met incredible people who do not speak our language nor do we speak theirs, incredible people who suffer injustices, hunger, poverty, homelessness and through it all they have devoted themselves to God's mission. We have been extremely blessed to just be a small part of all the ministries that we have been able to work with. God's mission is so large and complex that we can't wrap our minds around it. We just have to be willing to do our part, to play our role in is His mission. We have to be willing to sacrifice some of our plans to follow the plans that God has laid out for us. The Minions have done that over the past 33 days. Giving up a large portion of our summer, sacrificing time with family and friends, wearing ourselves out mentally, emotionally and physically all to be a part of God's overall mission. We have grown soo close over the past month that it was hard to say goodbye. Terry has been using the analogy of the breaking of the fellowship of the ring from Lord of The Rings and that is a perfect analogy. This morning as we got to the airport, we unloaded the bus quickly and said quick goodbye's as they headed inside and I headed back to the hotel with Guillermo. It was such a quick goodbye that it really didn't sink in until I was heading back to Teguc this morning with just Guillermo. The past month has been incredible and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to have gone on this trip with. I know that some of you guys are reading this and I just want to say Thank You for an incredible trip. It has been amazing and I hate that it has had to come to an end. From facebook post I've seen that the breaking of the fellowship is almost complete. As people are getting home they are posting it on FB so it's nice to see that so far they have all made it home safely. It sucks to say goodbye and to know that I won't be with that amazing group of people here again, maybe a few here and there but as a whole it will be hard to all be together again. Terry assembled a great group for this trip and I can't possibly say thank you to him enough for allowing me to be a part of the minions. But as it is in the Lord of The Rings, you have to move on. The group from home will be here on Friday and it'll be great to see friends from back home who I haven't seen in a month and to meet the new people from Mayesville Church of Christ in Alabama. I still have just over 2 weeks to go and if the next couple of weeks are just a fraction as awesome as the last month with the minions has been then it'll be a great end to this trip. Kennedy, Katia, Tatiana, Paige, Macy, Kathryn, Leah, Ashley, Brandy, Jorden, Tyler, Pat, Andrew, Joe, Minor, Brandon, Chris, and most of all Terry, Thank you for an incredible summer.
Friday, July 8, 2011
4 Hour Bus Rides....
I am a few days behind on typing up what we have been doing but here goes my best shot at remembering it all.
July 3rd-Day 25
Last Sunday we were up at 5:45 for breakfast at 6. The hotel provided breakfast for us and it involved eggs with some sort of salsa on them...In a really hot place, eggs with salsa is not a good idea for future reference. The 23 of us had a worship service there at the hotel. It was pretty neat to have a worship service of just a small group of Christians in a conference room of the place we happened to be that day. It seemed to me to be something that a first century group of Christians would have done, meet wherever they were on Sunday to worship God. We then headed out to the work sites to hopefully implement our plan of building a house on stilts. We started the first house by framing the house on the ground and then lifting the frame up onto the concrete pillars. Then we put in the floor and started framing up the sides and put on the roof. If I had written this on Sunday evening I would have said that it seemed like a great way to build this house, but on Monday we found a little better way. The group that we came down with had to go back to Teguc bc they had to fly out Monday morning. So around 11 they headed out on the 3-4 hour ride back to Teguc and met up with the group at the Valley of Angeles. Nathan Reeves had a team of about 10 that came in around 1 that afternoon to replace the people we had lost. So for a couple of hours there were 7 of us putting up siding and some flooring until Nate's group arrived. The house went up pretty smoothly but it took all day to get just one house up. But we were a part of the very first Torch house on stilts. It was a huge accomplishment and the ones to come will be a much needed improvement for the families in the village. We then went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.
July 4th-Day 26
Monday we started the day with breakfast at 7. We had a new plan to build the house today and by 8:30 we were at the site ready to go. Nate's team thought it best to frame the floor up on the pillars and then build the walls on the floor and stand them up. This worked a bit better than the way we did it on Sunday. We framed up 2 sides and stood them up and only had to get ladder's to put up the other 2 sides. So this method made the building process go a little smoother. About 1 that afternoon, the lady who we are building the houses for had the school kids come to the house that we had finished on Sunday. They had a presentation telling us how happy they were that we were there building houses. They had an Independence Day cake for us and some Pepsi. Then they wanted us to sing our national anthem which was pretty cool. I've always wondered how awesome it must be for the U.S soccer team to stand on the pitch in a foreign country with our national anthem playing in front of ppl of another country. This gave me a little taste of what that might be like. It was a really awesome 30 minutes. So we then went back to work on the house. The 4 interns that were still there had to leave at 3, that's when our van got there, to go back to Teguc to meet up with the rest of our team so we could head to Santa Rosa the next morning. So we loaded up at 3, took showers at the hotel till 4 and headed back to Teguc. We left the build team with a roof to put on the house but we had started framing the floor for the next house. So this build went quite a bit quicker than the one on Sunday went. We made it back to the mission house about 6:45 and ate and had devo. Then got to bed early to since everyone was worn out. The team of 122 was now back down to just 20.
July 5th-Day 27
Tuesday morning we got to sleep in a little bit. Brunch was at 9:30 and we had to be on the bus ready to leave between 12 and 1. It was a fairly slow morning with nothing to do but pack and chill for a little bit. We were told that the drive from Teguc to Santa Rosa de Copan would take about 4 hours so we were planning on being there by 6 at the latest. So we loaded up and left the mission house about 12:30. About 30 minutes outside of Teguc is where the road construction started. We sat, then went a few miles, then sat, then went a few miles, and yea sat in traffic some more. The weather here has been beautiful, low 80's, the rain has held off till the evenings...Not on Tuesday. It started raining 5 minutes after we left the mission house and rained nearly the entire trip to Santa Rosa, so that slowed us down some as well. Some of the storms were incredibly intense. So at 9:30 we came rolling into the hotel here in Santa Rosa. It was a long day and we were all pretty wiped out. For those of you that think a 9 hour ride wasn't extremely bad, let me describe the roads here in Honduras. The bus constantly has to swerve to miss the canyons and pot holes on steroids. The driver does a great job to miss the big ones but you can't miss the little ones if you're trying to avoid the big ones. It's like riding on the back of a four-wheeler through the woods for 9 straight hours. It can be rough. Just when you get to sleep you hit another hole and just when you think the road has smoothed out you quickly find out that it hasn't. Now don't think I'm complaining bc I'm not. The scenery is incredible and there is fun to be had on a bus ride like that. But after 9 hours of it you are pretty beat. Thankfully we made it safely to the hotel, through the storms and darkness and more storms and construction. This is the last place the interns will be working before the trip comes to an end. We are going to be working with Mission UpReach this week doing a few projects but mainly doing a VBS in a school that they are heavily involved with here. It is everyone's first trip to Santa Rosa and our first time working with Mission UpReach so it should be a grand adventure.
July 6th-Day 28
Wednesday was a good day but not a great day. We were up to eat breakfast at 7:30 and left at 8:30 to go to the school to hold our first VBS of the week. We have the kids from 9 to 11 so we have 2 hours with them each morning. The skit went ok but everyone was tired and it kinda showed, we were dragging. Everything else went ok for the most part. Since it was our first time to this school, we didn't know what kind of facilities we would have so we had to improvise a little bit when we got there and things went ok. The kids seemed to have had a great time. The school is located in arguably the poorest part of Santa Rosa. Since Mission UpReach has been here this school has gone from one of the worst schools according to grades, to winning an award this past year for having the best test scores in the Santa Rosa area. The school is just outside the city in Los Angeles so I can now say that I've been to Los Angeles and people will be like dude that's awesome. After the VBS we had pretty much the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. Most of us went out into the city to walk around and visit the shops and the cathedral and just see the city. It is a very colonial style city with cobblestone streets and narrow streets. It looks similar to pictures I've seen of towns in Spain. It seems pretty peaceful and it is a gorgeous place. After that a few of us went to the pool on the roof of the hotel for a few hours and then went to the local soccer field/track and jogged and walked some and just hung out there. Then there was dinner, devo and we headed to bed.
July 7th-Day 29
Today we were up for breakfast at 7:30 again and left for the school at 8:30. The kids were already out front waiting for us when we pulled up. We had a meeting last night about how to do a better job with the VBS today and it went so much better today. The skit was much more energetic and the kids loved it. We kept each group of kids in one room and just moved the people with different activities to the kids instead of trying to move the kids which went much smoother than yesterday. We had a much better time and the kids seemed to have enjoyed it more today. I had to get my Silas on one more time but we are now done with the skits I am in since we won't be doing our 4th skit this week. After that we came back to the hotel for lunch and then I have no idea what people were doing this afternoon. I came up here to my room and laid down on the bed thinking I would take an hour nap and 4 hours later woke up when they told me dinner was in 10 minutes. So that was GREAT. Doing a VBS, then eating lunch, then going to sleep only to be woken bc of more food...It was a great day. After dinner we had devo up by the pool and now I'm sitting here on my bed about to be out for the night.
So tomorrow will be our last day of planned work. We have our VBS tomorrow morning and will leave for the ruins in Copan on Saturday morning. I'm absolutely pumped about going to the ruins. It'll be my first time to see them and I'm excited. It is the largest set of ruins in the america's and only a fraction of it has been uncovered. In my missions class last semester we did a project to develop an evangelistic campaign for a Mayan Indian culture in Guatemala so we had to do a lot of research on the Maya people. To get to go to their ancient capital will be incredible. So I'm just a little excited about that. But until next time, peace out.
July 3rd-Day 25
Last Sunday we were up at 5:45 for breakfast at 6. The hotel provided breakfast for us and it involved eggs with some sort of salsa on them...In a really hot place, eggs with salsa is not a good idea for future reference. The 23 of us had a worship service there at the hotel. It was pretty neat to have a worship service of just a small group of Christians in a conference room of the place we happened to be that day. It seemed to me to be something that a first century group of Christians would have done, meet wherever they were on Sunday to worship God. We then headed out to the work sites to hopefully implement our plan of building a house on stilts. We started the first house by framing the house on the ground and then lifting the frame up onto the concrete pillars. Then we put in the floor and started framing up the sides and put on the roof. If I had written this on Sunday evening I would have said that it seemed like a great way to build this house, but on Monday we found a little better way. The group that we came down with had to go back to Teguc bc they had to fly out Monday morning. So around 11 they headed out on the 3-4 hour ride back to Teguc and met up with the group at the Valley of Angeles. Nathan Reeves had a team of about 10 that came in around 1 that afternoon to replace the people we had lost. So for a couple of hours there were 7 of us putting up siding and some flooring until Nate's group arrived. The house went up pretty smoothly but it took all day to get just one house up. But we were a part of the very first Torch house on stilts. It was a huge accomplishment and the ones to come will be a much needed improvement for the families in the village. We then went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.
July 4th-Day 26
Monday we started the day with breakfast at 7. We had a new plan to build the house today and by 8:30 we were at the site ready to go. Nate's team thought it best to frame the floor up on the pillars and then build the walls on the floor and stand them up. This worked a bit better than the way we did it on Sunday. We framed up 2 sides and stood them up and only had to get ladder's to put up the other 2 sides. So this method made the building process go a little smoother. About 1 that afternoon, the lady who we are building the houses for had the school kids come to the house that we had finished on Sunday. They had a presentation telling us how happy they were that we were there building houses. They had an Independence Day cake for us and some Pepsi. Then they wanted us to sing our national anthem which was pretty cool. I've always wondered how awesome it must be for the U.S soccer team to stand on the pitch in a foreign country with our national anthem playing in front of ppl of another country. This gave me a little taste of what that might be like. It was a really awesome 30 minutes. So we then went back to work on the house. The 4 interns that were still there had to leave at 3, that's when our van got there, to go back to Teguc to meet up with the rest of our team so we could head to Santa Rosa the next morning. So we loaded up at 3, took showers at the hotel till 4 and headed back to Teguc. We left the build team with a roof to put on the house but we had started framing the floor for the next house. So this build went quite a bit quicker than the one on Sunday went. We made it back to the mission house about 6:45 and ate and had devo. Then got to bed early to since everyone was worn out. The team of 122 was now back down to just 20.
July 5th-Day 27
Tuesday morning we got to sleep in a little bit. Brunch was at 9:30 and we had to be on the bus ready to leave between 12 and 1. It was a fairly slow morning with nothing to do but pack and chill for a little bit. We were told that the drive from Teguc to Santa Rosa de Copan would take about 4 hours so we were planning on being there by 6 at the latest. So we loaded up and left the mission house about 12:30. About 30 minutes outside of Teguc is where the road construction started. We sat, then went a few miles, then sat, then went a few miles, and yea sat in traffic some more. The weather here has been beautiful, low 80's, the rain has held off till the evenings...Not on Tuesday. It started raining 5 minutes after we left the mission house and rained nearly the entire trip to Santa Rosa, so that slowed us down some as well. Some of the storms were incredibly intense. So at 9:30 we came rolling into the hotel here in Santa Rosa. It was a long day and we were all pretty wiped out. For those of you that think a 9 hour ride wasn't extremely bad, let me describe the roads here in Honduras. The bus constantly has to swerve to miss the canyons and pot holes on steroids. The driver does a great job to miss the big ones but you can't miss the little ones if you're trying to avoid the big ones. It's like riding on the back of a four-wheeler through the woods for 9 straight hours. It can be rough. Just when you get to sleep you hit another hole and just when you think the road has smoothed out you quickly find out that it hasn't. Now don't think I'm complaining bc I'm not. The scenery is incredible and there is fun to be had on a bus ride like that. But after 9 hours of it you are pretty beat. Thankfully we made it safely to the hotel, through the storms and darkness and more storms and construction. This is the last place the interns will be working before the trip comes to an end. We are going to be working with Mission UpReach this week doing a few projects but mainly doing a VBS in a school that they are heavily involved with here. It is everyone's first trip to Santa Rosa and our first time working with Mission UpReach so it should be a grand adventure.
July 6th-Day 28
Wednesday was a good day but not a great day. We were up to eat breakfast at 7:30 and left at 8:30 to go to the school to hold our first VBS of the week. We have the kids from 9 to 11 so we have 2 hours with them each morning. The skit went ok but everyone was tired and it kinda showed, we were dragging. Everything else went ok for the most part. Since it was our first time to this school, we didn't know what kind of facilities we would have so we had to improvise a little bit when we got there and things went ok. The kids seemed to have had a great time. The school is located in arguably the poorest part of Santa Rosa. Since Mission UpReach has been here this school has gone from one of the worst schools according to grades, to winning an award this past year for having the best test scores in the Santa Rosa area. The school is just outside the city in Los Angeles so I can now say that I've been to Los Angeles and people will be like dude that's awesome. After the VBS we had pretty much the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. Most of us went out into the city to walk around and visit the shops and the cathedral and just see the city. It is a very colonial style city with cobblestone streets and narrow streets. It looks similar to pictures I've seen of towns in Spain. It seems pretty peaceful and it is a gorgeous place. After that a few of us went to the pool on the roof of the hotel for a few hours and then went to the local soccer field/track and jogged and walked some and just hung out there. Then there was dinner, devo and we headed to bed.
July 7th-Day 29
Today we were up for breakfast at 7:30 again and left for the school at 8:30. The kids were already out front waiting for us when we pulled up. We had a meeting last night about how to do a better job with the VBS today and it went so much better today. The skit was much more energetic and the kids loved it. We kept each group of kids in one room and just moved the people with different activities to the kids instead of trying to move the kids which went much smoother than yesterday. We had a much better time and the kids seemed to have enjoyed it more today. I had to get my Silas on one more time but we are now done with the skits I am in since we won't be doing our 4th skit this week. After that we came back to the hotel for lunch and then I have no idea what people were doing this afternoon. I came up here to my room and laid down on the bed thinking I would take an hour nap and 4 hours later woke up when they told me dinner was in 10 minutes. So that was GREAT. Doing a VBS, then eating lunch, then going to sleep only to be woken bc of more food...It was a great day. After dinner we had devo up by the pool and now I'm sitting here on my bed about to be out for the night.
So tomorrow will be our last day of planned work. We have our VBS tomorrow morning and will leave for the ruins in Copan on Saturday morning. I'm absolutely pumped about going to the ruins. It'll be my first time to see them and I'm excited. It is the largest set of ruins in the america's and only a fraction of it has been uncovered. In my missions class last semester we did a project to develop an evangelistic campaign for a Mayan Indian culture in Guatemala so we had to do a lot of research on the Maya people. To get to go to their ancient capital will be incredible. So I'm just a little excited about that. But until next time, peace out.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Halfway Point
June 29th-July 1st-Day 21-23
Wednesday I went to build another house in El Peliguin on the backside of El Hatillo which is the mountain the mission house is on. This house site was up on the side of the mountain but it was more like a swamp than a mountain. We had to dig drainage ditces to drain some of the water away from the site. A few of the guys started to square up the house and when I asked them if they thought they could get it square they all just handed me their tapes, they learned quickly. I had it within a half inch pretty quickly. The first whole we dug started filling up with water and when we packed it with dirt the post nearly fell over, it was that wet and muddy. So we had to use bags of cement to hold all of the post in place, even the post in between the corner post. The build went fairly well. We didn't have any major issues and the team worked great together. The only issue we really had was that Pat and I got the team started on the wrong walls first so we had to finish the floor and the 4th wall before we could start the roof so the team was sort of sitting around with nothing to do as the roof was finished. We then went to the Jesus statue wednesday night and had devo with one of Tim Hines groups.
On Thursday I went to Didasko to get my Silas on. After all the months of planning and weeks doing VBS in 3 different countries, this was the last day of VBS for me. We had about 80 kids at the orphanage and just had a blast. The games, snacks, crafts, skits, and everything else was absolutely perfect. Terry said he thought that this was our best performance of a skit so far. We found out that the Choluteca house building team will not be going all the way to Choluteca. The place is actually called San Lorenzo and it's close to Choluteca but not quite there, only like 2 and a half hours away. It's still supposedly extremely hot and it has been raining for 72 straight hours down there which is causing us to not be able to go on Friday but to wait until Saturday now. We are still going to try to build as many houses in a day as is humanly possible so it'll still be a tough weekend. The main group is leaving on Monday so the ppl that are going to build houses will come back to Teguc on Sunday and the interns that are going will stay with Nathan Reeves and his team to work until Monday evening and then we'll come back.
Today, Friday, I went to paint Jenn Arnolds house. A team of 11 of us went out to paint hers and Josue's house and it was a really nice and easy day before the trip to San Lorenzo tomorrow. We got nearly the entire house finished, outside only, before the rains set in for the night. We then came back to the mission house and had devo and now I'm in the bed about to fall asleep. Tomorrow will be a long day because we will leave at 8:30, get to San Lorenzo around 10:30 or 11 and start building houses by noon. Hopefully the rain will have stopped by the time we get there and if it doesn't I'm not sure what we'll do. I've heard that they haven't been getting just normal rainshowers but that it's been torrential downpours for days. So hopefully everything will work out.
The intern team only has 10 more days down here and it's in the back of all of our minds but we aren't ready to face that fact yet. In the past few weeks together we've really grown into a family and it's going to be tough to say goodbye to each other in just a few short days. The past 3 weeks have been incredible and hopefully our last 10 days together will be just as amazing. I'm absolutely looking forward to the team from home coming down here. I'm excited to see the rookies and how they react to the things they will see and to have my brother down here for the first time will be great. My trip is nearly halfway over and it seems like it just started. It has gone by so quickly, it seems like just yesterday we were landing in San Jose. But as amazing as the first part of the trip has been, the second part is shaping up to be incredible as well. The interns will be leaving Teguc on Tuesday for Santa Rosa de Copan for a week. It'll be my first trip up there and should be great. I hope everyone back home is doing great.
One of our interns is a girl I've known for a few years and many of you back home know her as well. She does the Torch blog every night and a Torch trip just isn't the same without her. Brandy Barnett received some terrible news when we returned from painting Jenn's house today. Her father passed away earlier today. She was scheduled to fly home on Monday but she will now be going home tomorrow, June 2nd. I ask that you all keep her and her family in your prayers. He has had some health issues of late but this was still unexpected. The next few days, weeks and months are going to be tough for her so please keep her in your prayers.
July 2-Day 24
We left the mission house about 9 this morning and started heading towards San Lorenzo. Since the main team leaves out Monday morning, those of us staying here in San Lorenzo until monday evening had to say goodbye to all the great people we've met. I'm a huge fan of the show Survivor. I always wonder how the people on the show can say they've created life long friends while only being around those people for a couple of weeks. This year I can honestly say I can understand how they do it now. There have been some amazing people on this team and I am really going to miss seeing a bunch of them. Saying goodbye this morning really really sucked. I wish them the best as they head back home on Monday and hopefully I'll get to see some of them soon once we are back in the States. We made it to San Lorenzo about 12:30, after we had a time and a half finding the hotel. Made it to the house sites around 2 after we realized they booked us in the farthest hotel from the site. Then we quickly realized that the way they wanted the houses built and the way we do them are completely different. The wood lengths and quantities we gave them were for a 16x16 ft house on the ground. They have it laid out for a 24x19 ft house 3 1/2 ft off the ground. So we quickly realized that we wouldn't be doing anything today except figuring out how to make this work. I understand the plan that we have created to make this work but I just don't see it working too well. I hope I'm completely wrong but I don't see these houses being here in a year, but we'll see. We are going to build them on 6 inch diameter circular concrete columns. I'll try to get a picture up of it but it scares me. We are back at the hotel now with a few of the guys swimming so it's really been a productive day. 16 of the 20 that made the trip down are going to have to leave at 10 a.m tomorrow to get back to Teguc since they leave for the States Monday morning. The 4 of us that stay will meet up with a team of 6 to work until Monday afternoon. So it's been a frustrating and boring day. Hopefully tomorrow we can get rocking and rolling with these houses. It is pretty HOT down here too. It's like South Carolina in the middle of August but with higher humidity, a good 20 degrees warmer than in Teguc. The houses that the workers live in, the ones we are building new ones for, are terrible. There are about 70 houses in this little worker village on this farm and most of them are made with sticks about 6 inches apart with mud pushed up between the sticks. With the flooding they've had, the bottom 2 or 3 ft of the houses are washed out and they have cardboard or vinyl or sacks or garbage bags to enclose the bottom parts of their houses. Some of them don't even have a wall or two, it reminds me of the kind of little shacks the ppl on Survivor live in for a few weeks. It's pretty terrible. This wouldn't be high on my list of places to live. Today is the halfway point in this trip 24 days down and 24 to go. A lot of firsts and a lot of surprises made up the first half of the trip and hopefully the next half is just as GREAT!
Wednesday I went to build another house in El Peliguin on the backside of El Hatillo which is the mountain the mission house is on. This house site was up on the side of the mountain but it was more like a swamp than a mountain. We had to dig drainage ditces to drain some of the water away from the site. A few of the guys started to square up the house and when I asked them if they thought they could get it square they all just handed me their tapes, they learned quickly. I had it within a half inch pretty quickly. The first whole we dug started filling up with water and when we packed it with dirt the post nearly fell over, it was that wet and muddy. So we had to use bags of cement to hold all of the post in place, even the post in between the corner post. The build went fairly well. We didn't have any major issues and the team worked great together. The only issue we really had was that Pat and I got the team started on the wrong walls first so we had to finish the floor and the 4th wall before we could start the roof so the team was sort of sitting around with nothing to do as the roof was finished. We then went to the Jesus statue wednesday night and had devo with one of Tim Hines groups.
On Thursday I went to Didasko to get my Silas on. After all the months of planning and weeks doing VBS in 3 different countries, this was the last day of VBS for me. We had about 80 kids at the orphanage and just had a blast. The games, snacks, crafts, skits, and everything else was absolutely perfect. Terry said he thought that this was our best performance of a skit so far. We found out that the Choluteca house building team will not be going all the way to Choluteca. The place is actually called San Lorenzo and it's close to Choluteca but not quite there, only like 2 and a half hours away. It's still supposedly extremely hot and it has been raining for 72 straight hours down there which is causing us to not be able to go on Friday but to wait until Saturday now. We are still going to try to build as many houses in a day as is humanly possible so it'll still be a tough weekend. The main group is leaving on Monday so the ppl that are going to build houses will come back to Teguc on Sunday and the interns that are going will stay with Nathan Reeves and his team to work until Monday evening and then we'll come back.
Today, Friday, I went to paint Jenn Arnolds house. A team of 11 of us went out to paint hers and Josue's house and it was a really nice and easy day before the trip to San Lorenzo tomorrow. We got nearly the entire house finished, outside only, before the rains set in for the night. We then came back to the mission house and had devo and now I'm in the bed about to fall asleep. Tomorrow will be a long day because we will leave at 8:30, get to San Lorenzo around 10:30 or 11 and start building houses by noon. Hopefully the rain will have stopped by the time we get there and if it doesn't I'm not sure what we'll do. I've heard that they haven't been getting just normal rainshowers but that it's been torrential downpours for days. So hopefully everything will work out.
The intern team only has 10 more days down here and it's in the back of all of our minds but we aren't ready to face that fact yet. In the past few weeks together we've really grown into a family and it's going to be tough to say goodbye to each other in just a few short days. The past 3 weeks have been incredible and hopefully our last 10 days together will be just as amazing. I'm absolutely looking forward to the team from home coming down here. I'm excited to see the rookies and how they react to the things they will see and to have my brother down here for the first time will be great. My trip is nearly halfway over and it seems like it just started. It has gone by so quickly, it seems like just yesterday we were landing in San Jose. But as amazing as the first part of the trip has been, the second part is shaping up to be incredible as well. The interns will be leaving Teguc on Tuesday for Santa Rosa de Copan for a week. It'll be my first trip up there and should be great. I hope everyone back home is doing great.
One of our interns is a girl I've known for a few years and many of you back home know her as well. She does the Torch blog every night and a Torch trip just isn't the same without her. Brandy Barnett received some terrible news when we returned from painting Jenn's house today. Her father passed away earlier today. She was scheduled to fly home on Monday but she will now be going home tomorrow, June 2nd. I ask that you all keep her and her family in your prayers. He has had some health issues of late but this was still unexpected. The next few days, weeks and months are going to be tough for her so please keep her in your prayers.
July 2-Day 24
We left the mission house about 9 this morning and started heading towards San Lorenzo. Since the main team leaves out Monday morning, those of us staying here in San Lorenzo until monday evening had to say goodbye to all the great people we've met. I'm a huge fan of the show Survivor. I always wonder how the people on the show can say they've created life long friends while only being around those people for a couple of weeks. This year I can honestly say I can understand how they do it now. There have been some amazing people on this team and I am really going to miss seeing a bunch of them. Saying goodbye this morning really really sucked. I wish them the best as they head back home on Monday and hopefully I'll get to see some of them soon once we are back in the States. We made it to San Lorenzo about 12:30, after we had a time and a half finding the hotel. Made it to the house sites around 2 after we realized they booked us in the farthest hotel from the site. Then we quickly realized that the way they wanted the houses built and the way we do them are completely different. The wood lengths and quantities we gave them were for a 16x16 ft house on the ground. They have it laid out for a 24x19 ft house 3 1/2 ft off the ground. So we quickly realized that we wouldn't be doing anything today except figuring out how to make this work. I understand the plan that we have created to make this work but I just don't see it working too well. I hope I'm completely wrong but I don't see these houses being here in a year, but we'll see. We are going to build them on 6 inch diameter circular concrete columns. I'll try to get a picture up of it but it scares me. We are back at the hotel now with a few of the guys swimming so it's really been a productive day. 16 of the 20 that made the trip down are going to have to leave at 10 a.m tomorrow to get back to Teguc since they leave for the States Monday morning. The 4 of us that stay will meet up with a team of 6 to work until Monday afternoon. So it's been a frustrating and boring day. Hopefully tomorrow we can get rocking and rolling with these houses. It is pretty HOT down here too. It's like South Carolina in the middle of August but with higher humidity, a good 20 degrees warmer than in Teguc. The houses that the workers live in, the ones we are building new ones for, are terrible. There are about 70 houses in this little worker village on this farm and most of them are made with sticks about 6 inches apart with mud pushed up between the sticks. With the flooding they've had, the bottom 2 or 3 ft of the houses are washed out and they have cardboard or vinyl or sacks or garbage bags to enclose the bottom parts of their houses. Some of them don't even have a wall or two, it reminds me of the kind of little shacks the ppl on Survivor live in for a few weeks. It's pretty terrible. This wouldn't be high on my list of places to live. Today is the halfway point in this trip 24 days down and 24 to go. A lot of firsts and a lot of surprises made up the first half of the trip and hopefully the next half is just as GREAT!
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