Honduras part 2

On our first full day in Tegus we bussed out to the community behind the city dump for a "house build in a day" project.  After arriving the guys got to work passing the boards for the house down a hill to the small plot of land purchased by the receiving family.  This family works in the dump sorting out recyclables, and have developed a relationship with Bread & Hope for Honduras through their feeding days twice a week at the dump.  Since the girls couldn't spend much time right at the build site (too many chainsaws & swinging hammers), we spent the day helping them pass out goodies to the kids & entertaining them with games in horrible spanish. 

 This is the school - 3 classrooms in all - this room for all elementary aged kids.  Shortly after we asked to peek in the room & pass out jelly bracelets the teacher just gave up & dismissed all the kids to play with us.   A bus full of gringos caused too much distraction!

 This tent & wooden platform is their church.  We spent most of the day underneath it playing duck, duck goose (pato, pato, gonzo?), red light green light (roho/verde?), jacks, and other playground games.

 Whenever Mae explored Anna was never far behind - sweet protective sister.

 The boys passing boards & then tin down the hillside to the home site.

 Katie & Mae taking a break on the bus.  We had to eat snacks & lunch (first of many days of pb&j) on the bus because the kids asked for anything we had (wedding ring, watches, sunglasses, water) - heartbreaking to have treats to share but not enough to meet all their needs.  A sweet couple approached me that afternoon & in our conversation of a handful of spanish words & gestures they asked me if I could build them a house next.  So sad not to be able to do just that.

 Mae pounded on this nail for five minutes but didn't make it budge.  Her one teary moment of the day was when I made her stop to move away from the dangerous work area.  She would have stayed here all day.

 This sweet toddler kept running out of his house to his fence to yell "ola gringo!" at us before running back in to hide.  We finally convinced him to come play & he just shimmied under the barbed wire fence.  Little ones this size (I'm guessing he wasn't 2 yet, no pants so not yet potty trained) just hung out with us all day & evening wherever we went all week.  No mamas to be seen.  My 9 year old can't play in the front yard alone so this was pretty shocking to be surrounded by these street wise kids!

 The girls loved for us to take their picture & show them their beautiful faces on the camera display.

 Katie & Mae spent an hour or so making a "chicken obstacle course".  There were a handful of chickens & their babies wondering around so the girls strung cassette tape from pole to pole & stuck straws & sticks in the ground to provide the chickens some entertainment.  When you have no toys to play with you play with trash, which is basically what all the kids in this neighborhood did all afternoon.  They spent forever running to jump off the edge of this stage onto flattened cardboard boxes that they found laying around.

 Teaching the kids how to play with the jacks Mrs Suzanne brought.

 Charley, Kylee, & Bobby helping this pregnant mom haul buckets of water up the hill.  Our nurses had already talked to her earlier in the day because she seemed to be in early labor.

 Tom worked like a dog all day... and loved it.

 The girls got to help move in the mattresses.  After this we all crowded in to the house with the new homeowner & prayed over her new home.  She was so, so grateful... she & her children said that they had never dreamed of living in their own home, especially one so nice.  Very humbling as she was moved to tears over her uninsulated home with no running water or electricity.

 After the build we bussed back into the city to visit & eat dinner with another ministry team - Breaking Chains.  David & his team work with the homeless families & teens in the city center.  They house 5 families & 20 teens in a converted building downtown & just love on people.  Hard, gritty, Jesus work.  We visited, shared tacos with them & the girls got to play with the kids living at the center as well as all the various creatures - a puppy, a few kittens, and a couple of birds.  Long, great day.