Anyway, instead of the orphanage, we went on to the worksite a day early. There were two vans and a box truck traveling 2 hours into the mountains. Once we got there, the Honduran driver of the box truck casually told us his brakes were out and we would need to get the truck fixed. What exactly did that mean; the brakes are out? After an animated conversation of tarzan spanish, it was determined the brakes were COMPLETELY out. He had driven two hours with no brakes, up and down mountain roads. Hmmmmm, guess there is something to be said about driving a standard shift vehicle. Glad the clutch worked.
The work project was to start the foundation of a new home for the pastor and his family. Typically, when we do houses, the local people have the foundation already dug and we swoop in and start laying block. This, of course, would not be typical. The teens got to finish digging the foundation. Remember, no machinery here. They used a pick axe and shovels. The first day the teens tried to show how awesome and how hard they could work. They lasted the first day. They quickly realized you gotta pace your self. The kids worked hard (for kids) and the adults worked real hard.
In May, the pastor's wife had (what she thought would be) reconstruction surgery as she is a breast cancer survivor. The doctor butchered her. He cut her from the lower back all the way up her side and across her breast. And it was infected. She thought she was going in for an implant and she came out with a doctor that tried to make an implant from her own tissue, which is why she had such a humongous scar across her entire body. There happened to be a medical brigade(nothing "happens" by chance) working at the local hospital so we took her there and a doctor from Tennessee operated on her to remove the infection. He couldn't believe what had been done to her. He did the best he could and told her he would be back in September to finish the job. He opened her up and is going to leave the large area open and her daughter must clean it every day until he comes back. It is pretty gross. She still has some infection there, but hopefully by the time the doctor comes back, it will be gone and he can close up the area.
She was typically our cook, but this time, she was not able to because of her surgery, so she had 3 other women cooking for us. The food was ok, but not as awesome as before. We had A LOT of refried beans and tortillas. You can imagine how well that went over with a bunch of teenagers.
Then I got sick. Boy, did I get sick. It is kind of funny now, but at the time, no one was laughing. I kept passing out while on the toilet (too much info, right?!) Tom had to hold me there, trying to get me to wake up. He admits he was very worried at the time. Once I did wake up, I had to puke. Note to self. When staying at a hotel, make sure the trash can doesn't have holes in it when you "gotta do what you gotta do." Poor Tom. That's all I got to say. Poor Tom. He got me back into bed. I yell, "I'm hot!!!". Tom puts a fan on me; directly on me. He goes back to try and clean up the bathroom. I yell, "I need a wash cloth." He brings me one. Poor Tom. He goes back to the bathroom. Remember, this is not your typical hotel you would find in the US of A. It is clean, but you get one tiny roll of toilet paper, and two hand towels you are suppose to use for a bath towel. Poor Tom. Two days later, I emerged from my room. Poor Tom. He had to run the team all by himself. He did get one of the adults to drive my van so everyone could get to the worksite.
Then Tom got it. Poor Tom. I had taken 2 tylenol PMs and was out for the night. I had also put my earplugs in so I could sleep. Apparently Tom was "doing what he had to do" several times in the bathroom and I completely slept through it. Didn't hear a thing. Poor Tom. Then it was his turn to stay back and rest while I took the team. We made it through.
Since we couldn't go to any orphanages, we stayed and worked an extra day. On the way back to the campground, we did stop at a government run daycare and played with kiddos there for the morning. I took some incredible pictures of the children and couldn't wait to get them posted on facebook. One of the adults was going to print the one of the little boy she was bonding with and have it framed. They got erased. sigh.......
Oh, I forgot to tell you we had to rent a van in order to get everyone from point A to point B. This was the most "used" van we have rented. When you rent the van they take a diagram of the van and mark any dents or scratches. You would have thought the van had chickenpox when they were done. Every morning we had to push the van and pop the crutch to get it to start. I also forgot to tell you the day we went to the airport to get the team, The Honduran pastor driving the box truck kinda hit the van we rented. Yep. Hit the van and lifted it up. We stopped him and we slowly backed away. In Honduras, everyone (except rental van companies) do not care about little things like that. Oh well, it is what it is. Tom looked the van over and if it caused any damage it was not noticeable compared with all the other dents and scratches (thank you Lord). Another Honduran from the church we were working on was using our truck to pick up the cement block we needed. He hit a car with it. He was absent the rest of the day while he fixed and painted the car he hit. Try that in the USA.
After a week of mixing concrete by hand, tying a ton of rebar columns and playing football/soccer, we left to go back to the campground. The campground is located smack in the middle of sugarcane fields. There is no road going back to it; just a dirt "road" tractors from the sugar cane company have beaten down over time. We are in the rainy season now. The "road" was one long mud hole. It was very interesting getting in and out of there. A truck delivering our drinking water got stuck coming back to us. Pastor Efrain called Tom and asked him to take the box truck and pull them out. Tom pulled the truck out of the campground to help and the truck driver told him ( at least Tom thinks he told him) "no way you can pull me out with that thing, we will both be stuck." Finally two tractors from the sugar cane field came by and pulled him out. We got our water, the truck left, and unfortunately he left two big ruts where he was stuck.
The "fun" day was going to the beach. We took the group to Punta Sol, which is a national park in the middle of the Caribbean. They had a lunch of fresh fish, rice and beans, and plantain chips. Then they played in the Caribbean. The boat ride over was 45 minutes and the kids were stoked during that ride. We had a nice day for it and the day went quickly. One more wake up and it was off to the airport. We jump into the van and nothing. So, out everyone goes and they push it to pop the clutch. It wouldn't start. They push from the front to back it up and do it again. Nothing. they do it again. Nothing. It is like 100 degrees and just as humid and these guys are dressed to go home. They are sweating. They are pushing. Nothing. Tom gets jump cables (oh yeah, we have those here at the campground...) We are off to the airport. I go with the kids to get them checked in and Tom takes the rental van back (I'm not an idiot, let him try and talk his way out of the damage). We get the kids all checked in and fed. We say our goodbyes and off they go. When you return rentals here you must be very leery of them trying to charge you for previous damage. The van was so incredibly covered with mud from the "road" that if there were any new scratches or dents (we don't think there were) the woman couldn't tell (thank you Jesus for the fresh rain that night).
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