On Saturday we had to do what we had all been dreading, say goodbye to a group of people who were a blast to work with and hang out with. There were so many great people in that group that we wished they could all have stayed the entire length of our trip with us. I made some new friends and hopefully we'll all be back here next year and can work together again. One great thing about Torch trips is that you meet people from many different parts of the country but the part about it that sucks is that when everyone goes back home you really can't just go see them. They live all over the place. One day though, we'll all be gathered in one place. So as we said by to one team as they began boarding their planes, we had to say hello to another group that was coming through the customs lines. The group that flew in Saturday was a little larger, about 55 which makes it a total of 68 people on the second trip. There are a lot of veteran "Torchers" on this trip and they pretty much know the routine. This year however is a little different. We loaded them on a bus after lunch, 2 hours later than we had planned, and headed to Choluteca for a few days. It's tough saying bye to people you want to still work with and within minutes welcome in new people but the bus ride was a good time to catch up with old friends and start making new ones. A 4 hour bus ride later and we were in Choluteca, the hottest and most humid place on earth. Saturday we didn't really do much except go to our rooms and sleep.
The Village outside of Choluteca that we worked at is called AguaAgria, I think it means Sour Water. It is a village with about 600 people, no running water and no electricity. Although they do have a well and a generator that they carry around if they need any power. It is a farming village with fields all around it and the people work the fields to make a living. They have one church and their own school which were the two places we worked in the most. So Sunday morning we went to worship at the church and it was amazing how many people showed up. Right around 290 people were counted in the church building. Subtract the 68 gringos and you have 222 Hondurans at church. I've never been to a Honduran service where there were that many Hondurans or people in general. It was a small one room church in the midst of a bunch of trees so there was very little breeze and it was steaming inside but it was a great church service nonetheless. After church we went to eat lunch at the center of town where our choices for lunch and dinner everyday were given, KFC, Wendy's or Pizza Hut. Needless to say I won't be eating at either of those 3 places for a while. Sunday afternoon was a day for sorthing all the clothes, shoes, meds, hygiene packs, vbs supplies and other things in order to get ready for the next couple of days. I went with 5 others to the school to see where we could build a playground, but I'll get to that beast later. So Sunday was a sorting and packaging day.
Monday we really started our work. We had one team doing a medical clinic. The people would first see the doctor and he would give them medicine if they needed it. They would then go to our pharmacy to pick up their medicine. Then they would go to another building and be able to get clothes from the clothes give away for their family. That went on all day. The VBS and womens classes started at 2p.m and were a big success but our biggest challenge was in putting this monster of a playground that a few of us had in our heads onto the ground in front of us. We had to tear down the old skeleton of a playground that they had, move the new one to a new location, use all the wood from the old one and new lumber we bought to create this monster in 2 days....well a day and a half after the wood was 4 hours late. The place where they wanted the playground had perfect trees to incorporate into these towers we were going to build so you can imagine what kind of thoughts we were having, a treehouse playground. The sky was the limit....well except that we had a budget we couldn't exceed. So Monday we got all the materials, most of the post set, some flooring on one of the towers and a few other things done but I'll be honest, I didn't think we'd be finished by the end of Tuesday (we had to leave this morning coming back). So at 5 we had to stop and go to the gospel meeting that we were having down at the Church. I think there were like 150 Hondurans at the meeting which was pretty impressive. After that it was back to dinner and the hotel.
Tuesday we really hit the ground running. We knew we had only one day to finish and we had to finish. The medical clinic and clothing distribution were going nonstop again. The womens class and VBS were a huge hit again and the playground was still a daunting task. We worked on that thing for 9 straight hours only stopping for water breaks. Slowly but surely it began to come together. There was a fallen tree that we cut up and used a 21 foot section to make a balance beam from the bottom level of one platform that was surrounding a tree up to the second platform around another tree. It has a 15 foot pipe slide connecting two platforms. One tree has a 3 story tower around it. 3 slides and 9 swings, a climbing rope, 2 other pieces of the tree to climb up to other platforms. You have no idea how much I wish I was 5 years old and could play on that thing. If any of you have seen the playground that Torch built in Didasko and think that one is great, then you've got a surprise coming once I finally get a picture of this one. The reason I don't have a picture is because everything was finished except for the 3rd platform on the 3 story tower when we started hearing thunder. I was working with three others to get the floor and hand rails on when the bottom fell out of the sky and it rained like I haven't seen it rain in a while. We were determined to get that thing finished and as it kept lightening and raining we were able to finish the platform except for the handrails. The Hondurans are going to finish those themselves. We were soaked and cold but it was raining so hard that we could hardly see anything. So we finished the floor and headed down to the Church where they were nearly done with the gospel meeting. At the end of the meeting the guy that was in charge told us how thankful he was for everything we had done but the greatest blessing of all wasn't anything we had done. The area is a huge farming area and they haven't seen significant rainfall in 2 months which a surprise since it's rainy season. He said the rains that held off until we were nearly done was assurance that the crops would be able to last a little longer and give them hope of a better season than they were expecting. So it was a very, very awesome day.
Today we loaded up the buses about 1030 and headed back to Villa Gracia in Teguc. We made it back here about 4 and just had dinner and devo. It's been a very relaxed day but things start up again tomorrow. Choluteca was great. The village we worked in had many many men attending the church and leading the church which is a huge rarity in Central America. The men are a lot of time out of site when it comes to religious things and family oriented things. This village was a good exception. The stories about how hot is in Choluteca were all true. I was about an hour from Choluteca last summer and I thought that was hot but it wasn't nearly as humid as it is in Choluteca. I don't sweat a whole lot back home but all you have to do is sit for 10 minutes and you start sweating like crazy. It really is the place that the devil goes to get his coffee in the morning or as one Honduran told me last week, it's Satan's armpit. Either way it was hot with the heat index around 110. Even with the heat it was a great trip and hopefully we'll have the opportunity to go back soon. The team really worked well together in Choluteca and hopefully that will continue this week here in Teguc. I'll be building a house tomorrow and there are a lot of other great things going on tomorrow too so it will be another great day.
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