Building a building

Day three and day four in Honduras followed the same routine.

We all drug ourselves out of bed around seven to get breakfast at the hotel. It's hard to distinguish the traditional Honduran food from the American food they put on the buffet for us. Either way, I could probably exist solely on pineapples and live a happy life.

Then, around eight a van from La Providencia would come to our hotel and pick us up. One thing that has surprised me about Honduras were the nice roads. Well, nice road to be more exact. There is a nicely paved four lane highway that we travel on for the majority of the time. Any other streets that run off of the highway are gravel, but the highway is pretty good.

We pull off from the highway and onto the bumpy gravel roads, passing by houses, fields, and animals until we reach La Providencia. From there we grab the necessary tools and haul them up the hill to where we are laying the foundation for the fifth grade classroom. La Providencia sits on rocky mountain soil-- it wouldn't be such a big deal if we had a jackhammer. However, we just have some metal sticks, pickaxe, sledgehammer, and the like, to pound away at the rocks. Suffice to say, I think I have gotten my workout for the entire summer done and finished with.

Knowing nothing about construction work was a little hinderance but we all made do, learning as we went. It's hot under the glare of the sun, but nothing unbearable.

After a couple hours of work it's time for lunch, and a much needed break. We hang out with the kids and get some food before running back outside to play with them during recess.

They've really started to warm up to all of us, impatiently pulling at our hands, wanting us to all play every game with them. Some of us started teaching them little games, and they taught us one their games.

They were all so adorable, the younger ones rummaging through the few English phrases they knew to try and explain to us the rules of their games. There was one similar to ring around the rosy, except for when the song ends you had to freeze or you were out.



After the too short break we were back at construction, starting with digging trenches and ending with pouring concrete.

Tuesday night we headed out to a local restaurant for dinner. And when I mean restaurant, I mean some stoves sitting alongside the road under a canopy, with some people hanging out around front. We weren't really sure what to do so we passed the kitchen to where some tables were, though none of them were large enough to fit our group. Next thing I know we're following some guy in a white shirt back away from the street, into a dark backyard.

Oh great, I thought, we are all gonna get mugged. However, a couple seconds later the guy was flipping some switches and the darkness fled away to reveal another seating area, huge picnic tables meant for groups our size. Later, I'll try and post some pictures here.

[EDIT: finally added those pictures!]]

The food was delicious, authentic and cheap. I was really suprised how good it was, considering how sketchy it first appeared.

The 'kitchen'

I'll write about wednesday night later-- right now I'm off to take a shower and then fall into bed.

Thanks for reading!