HTP.....

Tuesday I went with a group who went on a Gatorade blitz and to deliver food bags to a community.  For those that don't know, a Gatorade blitz is when we go to the grocery store and buy every Gatorade that they have.  The city has workers that sweep the sidewalks and clean trash off the sides of the road and that kind of thing, something that you see a lot of inmates doing back in the states but these people get paid the very minimum to do this job.  So we drive around in the bus and give out a Gatorade to every one of these workers that we see.  We spot a few workers and send out a few runners who play the life size version of Frogger as they cross the streets.  They give the workers a Gatorade and say Dios le Bendiga, God bless you, and then brave the streets again to get back to the bus.  It's a lot of fun and so far every frogger has made it back safely.  After that we went up to the mission house and loaded bags of food we had prepared and went to the La Tigra rain forest and gave out 120 bags of food to families that live there.  Most of the families in the rainforest live on less than $5 a day, some even less than that.  The bags we give them are filled with enough food to feed a family of four for a week.  It has rice, beans and flour along with a few other things.  Nothing special or exciting but it's enough to get them through another week. 
Wednesday I went on a house build in Mololoa.  We had a nice hike to nearly the top of the mountain.  By the time we made it to the top most of us were ready to call it a day but we still had a family to build a house for.  We had a pretty decent work site and after we moved the wood from the road down the hill to the site, we were able to get started.  The build was one of the smoothest Torch has had this year.  Everything seemed to go perfectly.  We built the house in under 4 hours and really didn't rush at all, we took our time and took plenty of breaks.  We had plenty of time to play with the 40 or more kids that had gathered and had fun with them. 
Thursday morning we loaded the bus with food to take to Didasko Orphanage and set off to visit hospital Escuela first.  We spent 2 hours at the hospital and it seemed like it would never end.  I don't care what country or how nice or bad a hospital is, I just don't like them at all.  Add to it that I can't really hold a decent conversation with anyone over the age of 10 bc my spanish isn't that good and it doesn't make for a great time at the hospital.  So I wasn't too upset when it was time to go.  After that we headed to Didasko to deliver food, hold a VBS and play with kids.  The orphanage is running at about 50% of their budget bc some of their sponsoring churches have stopped contributing due to economic reasons.  They were almost completely out of food and have turned off their hot water heaters bc they can't afford the electricity.  They have holes in their roof with no money to fix them and cars that need repairs and they just can't afford it.  So we took $900 worth of food to them which completely filled their depleted pantries.  We held a VBS and played soccer and basketball until we could pass out.  It was a really fun day but it was also the last day of work for this first group.  They are going sight seeing tomorrow and they fly out Saturday. 
The last couple of nights I've had fun here at the mission house.  Some of you know Delmy and Carmen, two ladies that run the ice cream shop here at the mission house.  Carmen now works in the front office and Delmy runs the shop.  We've been doing her english homework the last few nights and it is ridiculous how confusing her workbook is.  Last night I showed her how to do one excercise and after she did it I realized it was completely wrong and we had to erase and redo it.  She will ask what an english word is and I'll look it up and tell her what it is in spanish so she will know but I'm also learning the spanish word so I'm not sure who's benefiting the most from this.  After about 30 minutes it gets difficult to make a complete sentence in just one language which makes for some interesting things that we say.  It's a lot of fun. 
Today, Friday, we started out by loading the bus with supplies that we are taking to Choluteca and then headed to the Valley of Angels for some time to shop.  We spend about 3 hours there and came back and had dinner at the mall.  It really hasn't been a very exciting day but it is the last day for this group and they have thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's not going to be fun saying bye to all of them tomorrow but it's something we have to do.  They have done so many things since they have been here, great things are happening here.  We are all worn out and would welcome about 15 straight hours of sleep but as of noon tomorrow we will have another 55 energetic people ready to start their portion of this summers trip.  The interns will have to get geared up and ready to go for another great 10 day stretch no matter how tired we are.  The stomach bug has hit me pretty hard today too.  A few people have been hit with it and a sinus problem but so far everyone has fought through it and haven't missed a beat.  But it's been a long day that I'm ready to end.  We will be in Choluteca until wednesday and I'm not sure if they will have internet or not so this may be my last post until middle to late next week.  So if it is I hope you all have a great weekend and talk to you soon.