I really don't like concrete footings under a house site.....

Friday began a new part of the trip for me.  I was the only one staying to work with the next group and they were arriving around noon.  I road downtown on the bus and waited for about 3 hours at the airport until they landed and jumped into the extremely long customs lines.  One good thing about going to the airport is that you never know who you're going to meet.  I met who runs a youth camp near lake Yojoa which is about 3 hours from Teguc.  We talked a lot about the things he is doing there and the things that he hopes to do in the future.  He gave me his info and said that they are always looking for people to come help out so who knows what will become of that but either way it's nice to meet others who are living out their passion.  When the group finally landed we went to lunch and then back to the mission house.  We didn't really do any work but got settled in at the mission house.  I was able to weasel my way out of being in the 30 man room and into a 4 man room in the nice upstairs building with just 1 other guy.  We'll see how long this lasts but right now it is great.

Today we had two house builds in Mololoa.  With this group I'll be in charge of a build site each day we build.  So I've got 20 gringos looking to me for direction which is fun but hectic at the same time.  Just as the last house I built in Mololoa, this site was way, way up the mountain.  I thought the last one was far up but the one was up past the other one.  The best thing was that the site was right next to the road, the worst thing was that the site was ridiculously small.  The people had built a retaining wall and then filled it with dirt up about 5 feet.  Then they put a ton of concrete the next 2 feet, and then 6 inches of dirt.  So here I was thinking that this thing was going to be great.  A small site but it seemed to be full of loose dirt which makes post hole digging sooo easy....I quickly found out that wasn't the case.  We chipped and whacked at concrete for quite a while and finally were able to put the post in.  There were plenty of blistered hands after that.  I got frustrated with a person, Honduran, that I wish had not been there.  Not some of the young guys that always work with us but another that I won't name but he had seen a house built differently and thought we should do it that way.  Thankfully we had a few other guys that had never built before but they helped out tremendously since they were contractors and had an idea of how to build.  They understood I was the go to guy and pretty much ignored the other dude and we were able to finally get some things fixed that had been done wrong because that dude had been going behind me telling people to do things a different way.  Frustrating to say the least.  I finally told him to back off and stop bossing people around and he did a bit but not completely.  It turned out to be a nice 12 x 16 house though, with what I'm assuming is the first Torch awning over the front door to keep water from coming in.  It was pretty sweet.  One of the greatest things about working here is that when you deliver a bag of food or build a house you get to see pure joy on the face of the person receiving it.  I was frustrated today and the lady we were building the house for must have noticed.  She was a really sweet lady and pulled me aside for a second and said, in english, "God bless you for what you are doing, you are doing a wonderful thing for my family and we thank you and praise God" and she said it with a huge smile on her face.  That was all I needed to turn my day around.  That's what it's all about right there.  Serving in a way that people praise God for what we are doing.  I won't lie, I was a little surprised she knew english but it was a great pick-me-up.  From then on it was like nothing could get me down again.  We finished up about 2:30 and headed down to the daycare for a special presentation by the staff and kids.  The other build team finished up at 2:45 so by 3 we were all at the daycare and ready for them.  It was family day and since Palmetto Church of Christ sponsors the daycare and kitchen, they try to have a family day that we can go to while we are here.  The kids had been practicing a skit, The Good Samaritan.  It was absolutely hilarious.  2-5 year olds acting this skit out and really putting all their effort into it was great.  They also had been practicing some songs in english and sang them to us.  It's awesome to see how much of a difference we are making in not only the kids lives but also the staff and the families.  They had cake and coke for everyone and we played outside with the kids for a little while.  By now they all know who I am so when I get there they are ready to play, it's great.  After that we loaded up and came back to the mission house and we've been here since.

I'm still trying to get psyched up for the next few days.  It's still hard but it'll get better.  We have a lot of great things planned for this week and it will all be fantastic.  There is another group staying here at the mission house with us and they have said that they are going to just work alongside us as part of our group.  That will make 69 of us which is a pretty nice sized group.  We'll be able to do a lot of things but more importantly show the love of Christ to the people we will serve.  Tomorrow starts my last full week here and it is shaping up to be a great one.

Here's a great picture of the kids singing today

The house we built.  The house site was so small, not much room to maneuver.

This was moments before the Good Samaritan was beaten.  The two on the left with the gold bats were the robbers and the poor little guy in the middle right was the samaritan.

 Man down, MAN DOWN!