Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Honduras Team 2
Joey Sargent, Alyssa
Sargent, Carole Maddux, Katy Maddux
(click photos to enlarge)
Greetings to all from the "Away Team" in
Honduras,
We
arrived late Sunday night after traveling from Atlanta to San Pedro Sula
and then taking a 3 1/2 bus ride to Tegucigalpa where we are staying. On
Monday morning, we took a short drive through the tiny town of San
Buenaventura before heading to the L.A.M.B. property where we are
working on the children's home. San Buenaventura is about 45 minutes
from Tegucigalpa, and is a very small town. They have once daily bus
service from "Tegu," a small school and a few municipal buildings, but
not much else. As we drove from Tegucigalpa to San Beunaventura, the
poverty was striking. Many families have barely a shack to live in,
without running water or electricity. We passed one woman doing laundry
by hand on a stone outside her home, and many homes have dogs, chickens
and even skinny cows tied in the yard. In spite of the poverty, the
people are friendly, warm and welcoming.
As
we pulled onto the 30-acre property owned by L.A.M.B. outside San
Buenaventura where the children's home is growing, we were greeted by
cheers of "yeah!" from young children in a classroom who were eager for
our arrival. We took a brief tour of the property, which consists of
four residential cottages (including the two we are working on now), a
beautiful chapel which is under construction, a caretaker's cottage and
a couple of classrooms. The buildings are basic, being built of adobe
brick, concrete and mortar with corrugated tin roofs.
Our
work has focused on cottages three and four. We have been mixed concrete
which is used to create beams to support the roof and
mortar used to stucco the walls. While this sounds like a simple
process, nothing is simple here. The workers are using the most
rudimentary tools, and have to create tools and parts we would simply
pick up at the hardware store. Yesterday, some of our team members were
tasked with making a wire mesh lath - like chicken wire - to help the
mortar adhere to the walls. How much easier and faster to have actual
chicken wire! Fortunately, we were blessed with a donation to acquire
the chicken wire, which should be purchased today to speed the process
along.
Alyssa
has been working on building wooden forms for the concrete, while Carole
and Katy Maddux and I have been dubbed the "Iron Women" since we have
been dedicated to creating rebar forms to support the concrete trusses.
(This involves cutting and bending lots of wire). We have all been part
of the conga lines moving buckets of concrete and mortar to where it is
needed.
Another blessing came Monday when we learned that, with the addition of
the latest donations from St. Aidan's, there is now enough money
($13,000) to complete the roofs of the two cottages before the rainy
season begins. This is a major step forward, and many thanks go out to
everyone who has supported this effort through your thoughts, prayers
and contributions.
We also sorted all the clothing and other donations collected by the EYC.
These have been packaged up to go to children in the residential home,
as well as at the school and community outreach program.
Today we have an early start, so I must close, although there is so much
more to tell. To learn more about our activities, please visit the
teen's blog,
www.hbm-teen.blogspot.com.
They are enjoying reporting their experiences and photos of what they've
seen and done here.
God's peace to you all,
Joey Sargent
