Saying english words with an accent doesn't make them understand it any better

We got the rest of the team today.  They came in on the flight they were actually supposed to be on. We had the left over mac and cheese and the sloppy joes for lunch (again). The teens have been playing soccer ever since lunch.  Where do they get the energy? Most haven't slept for 24 hours. And it is SO HOT!   These guys play a game called Mafia.  They all get in a circle and try and guess who are mafia and who are commissioners. To me, it is a stupid game, but whatever.  They enjoy it.

Today was the first day of work.  We are packed like sardines into two vans and the work site is about an hour and 15 minutes away from the campground.  So far it has rained HARD every night, all night, so the campgrounds are really wet and muddy.  We have to drive through the cane field muddy paths to get out onto the highway. We got to the work site and were greeted by a very excited Pastor.  He is THRILLED to get a new "real" church. Ok, so it is a youth team trying to build his real church so I don't know how high his expectations are… BUT, whenever this team leaves, the money they brought to buy the materials will live long after the team has left.  There are a bunch of kids at this site and it is very rural and poor.  

The children had a blast playing with bubbles, coloring, painting and playing american football and soccer.  Did I mention it is REALLY HOT??? The team went through 15 gallons of water while we were there. That's a lot of water. All have said they have NEVER sweated so much. Getting team members plugged into work is always difficult the first day. This was no exception, especially since we were only doing small sections of the wall at a time. But, the team worked hard and had a good workday. Another night of Mafia…ho hum. Where are the farkle players?

Second day of work - work went much better.  We seemed more organized and there was more for this large group to do.  Many of the teens learned to lay block and were building the walls of the church (I don't think earthquakes move too much in this area and I think they will use stucco to cover what they did…). More children showed up today which is normal.  

This time they painted finger nails, played A LOT of soccer and used crayons on paper plates.  It would seem all the art supplies they brought grew legs and walked away. Note to self, assign someone to watch this stuff!  Six dump truck loads of dirt and sand were delivered and now all of that needs to be hand shoveled into the church to level out the floor.  We now had plenty of work to do. Wheelbarrows and shovels flying all over the place. They definitely went home tired today. Of course, it rained tonight so all that dirt will really be nice and heavy in the morning when we finish it. The kids worked hard and they are hot, sun burned and tired. When I got back to the campground, Efrain told me I had a flat tire. Sure enough, another tire on the grey van was flat.  He took the van to get it fixed and will bring it back tomorrow morning.

Third day of work - Efrain brought the van back and said the tires were really bad on the van. He plugged the tire that was flat, but said there was another one that was losing air.  After dropping off everyone at the worksite, Tom and Efrain went into San Pedro Sula to buy 4 new tires. When they came back, Efrain told me the tires were a "bodega for clavas", which means, a storage room for nails.  While he was gone, I was talking with one of the guys at the worksite. 

We heard a noise and an egg dropped out of a tree, hit a metal roof and SPLATTED on the guy, hitting him in the chest and face.  It was a rotten egg.  The smell was enough to gag a maggot. It was hilarious.  Although he was trying hard not to puke himself from the smell. I ended up taking his shirt and washing it out.  Who knew a small bird egg can make that much of a horrible smell.  This was by far the hottest day yet. There was no breeze and the sun was brutal.  We went through 20 gallons of water today. We took everyone to the mall and they got to walk around in the air conditioning for a little while. They got a cultural shock when they saw how little it is.

Friday - This is the last day of work. They finished putting all the dirt into the church for the floor.  It ended up being 8 dump truck loads of dirt.  It was all shoveled by hand into the church. The children grew in numbers because word got out the Gringos were there, which means to them, "free stuff". This team was different, which I really liked.  We had asked them not to bring candy and gum.  Their teeth are rotting out of their heads from lack of hygiene, so they brought bracelets and stickers and gave them out instead.  The older kids were clambering for the soccer balls the team had brought and were really disappointed that they were given to the pastor for use with the kids that actually went to church.  We divided the team into three groups, one group passing out the items, one group getting the kids lined up and one group security.  Otherwise we would have the same kids going through time after time and a fight would have broken out.  It worked well. We left and went to a huge mall for lunch.  IT was a zoo.  Everyone else who had money had the same idea. Taking 34 people to a mall is a unique experience in itself, so we were the entertainment for the Hondurans. Then it was off to shop at the local market.  Except, the market was closed due to a special celebration that was going to be happening later that day. The few merchants that were standing around told us to go to the central park and we would find shops there.  Central park in San Pedro Sula is normally not a place we would take a group of gringos, but Efrain assured us there were plenty of police and it would be safe. They didn't have many shops, but the team seemed to be happy and managed to spend a lot of money anyway. We have been to 3 supermarkets, each time cleaning them out of vanilla and coffee. Today was no different, but everyone finally got what they needed.

Saturday - Off to Tela.  We left at 7 in the morning and drove to the beach for a day at Punta Sol, the national park in the middle of the Caribbean. The boat ride over was exciting for them as the boat drivers tried to make the ride as enjoyable as possible (meaning, they went really fast and it felt like a roller coaster).  I don't particularly like the feeling of my stomach in my mouth, but the kids loved it.  Only one felt a little sea sick, which was good. The weather, of course, was cloudy ( go figure, we are at the beach), but these guys are from Oregon so they said it was perfect, as it is almost never sunny there.  They got to see a bunch of howling monkeys in the trees and one actually almost peed on them.  It was very funny. They enjoyed the water and the ride back to Tela. We drove back to El Progreso and ate dinner at a typical Honduran restaurant.  When all 37 of us walked in (Efrain and family went too), a disc jockey started playing current American music.  The kids loved it, but the adults, not so much; especially when some of  the music they were playing was the "explicit" versions of several tunes.  The kids started going up and requesting songs and they sang and sang and sang.  The restaurant was certainly entertained by the Gringos that night.

Sunday - We went into San Pedro Sula for church in the morning and Efrain's church at night.  The youth Pastor, Greg, preached. As soon as he got up to start, the heavens opened up and it poured.  I mean it poured.  Have you ever heard heavy downpours on a metal roof? He started yelling into the microphone and Manuel, who was interpreting for him, was also yelling. THen, the power went out.  No microphones, no lights (except for my cell phone and Efrain's).  It was funny! I guess either God or Satan didn't like his message that night.  He kept persevering and the lights did come back on. Back to the campground and Tom and I promised to play Mafia with them. Tom tried to kill two of the favorites in the game right away. They got upset and convinced everyone not to kill them. Then they had Tom killed. Well I got to play the game anyway even if Tom didn't. They warned him not to mess with them.  We headed to bed after midnight. Some of them stayed up all night. If you don't follow what I'm talking about, not to worry.  We played the game and didn't get it...

We said our goodbyes Monday morning at the airport as we fed them breakfast. It is always difficult to say goodbye after a very close and emotional week together and knowing you will probably never see the majority of them again on this earth.  But we thank God for the opportunity to spend this week getting to know them.

We asked the kids what they thought were fun moments on the trip and these are a few of the comments they had:

The youth pastor, Greg, has a fetish with buses.   

The public transportation is old, savaged school buses from the states.  He took more pictures of the school buses than he did of his teens on the trip.  He plans on making a book called, "The Buses of Honduras."  Anyone want to pre-order??  I didn't think so.

I must be truthful.  These teens were by far, the hardest working kids we have ever had.  Usually teens start strong the first day, and by the end of the week, they forgot why they came.  These guys worked hard, never complained, and didn't argue or bicker with each other.  There were even siblings here and THEY didn't bicker.  Where did Tom and I go wrong when we were raising our kids???? BUT…..I have also NEVER worked with a group of teens that talked more and DIDN'T listen to ANYTHING the adults said than these guys. Holy Smokes!  They were terrible about that.  And I told them so.  They seemed so proud….

Two of the teen boys decided they would take showers in a second dorm area where teams RARELY stay.  They found a door open and decided to use the shower there.  This is the story through the eyes of one of them. They were in the showers at the same time 
(no, this isn't a Sandusky story. They were in separate showers) and one of them started screaming.  The shower curtain was torn down and the guy was jumping up and down and trying to get out of the shower stall. (got the mental picture yet?) The one asked what was wrong and the other said there was a tarantula in the shower with him (Betty Neighborgall, does this sound familiar?) 


They both got out of there pretty darn fast. For the one, this must have been terrifying but for the other, it had to have been hilarious. You decide.
Monday - We got the team loaded on the plane and we got to work.  Monica, the girl who is staying with us for 3 weeks, spent the day cleaning all the vehicles, inside and out (BLESS HER!), Tom got the banking done and I cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, in between loads of sheets and towels. We have a mouse who REALLY enjoys flour and bread, so I bleached everything.  Manuel, Tom, Monica and I then went shopping and dinner in San Pedro.  It was a nice, QUIET, evening. As we were leaving the campground in the van, Monica said, "wow, the quiet is really nice." Yes, Monica, sometimes, it is the best part of the day….