Today was one of those days I will never forget. Early this morning we headed up to the village- little did we know what an adventure this would be. After a trek up the mountain, dodging potholes the size of China, we turned off roads and before we knew it we stopped and were ready to “wade” across a “little” river. Once you got past the mud it was “sandy” and a little farther it dropped off just a bit, so they told us. Waste deep, rocky bottom, rushing current and an adventure worth remembering. After the whole group crossed, 21 Americans and 15 Hondurans, loaded into the back of a plantain plantation truck where we dodged giant tree branches while the local kids laughed at us, and finally we arrived at Monterrey.
We were greeted by some kids and took a walk to see the new Eco latrines. These toilets are being built throughout the community for their health and long term benefit. After this the team split up with one group organizing lumber by height and width into stacks in order to make building easier. Another group went farther up the mountain to build a latrine which mainly consisted of cutting wood in order to create a foundation around the toilet for privacy. Lastly there was a group digging a trench where rocks and roots had to be removed before the real digging could begin. After a morning of hard work and lunch, several began teaching VBS. To begin, we sang songs and gave the kids their pictures wearing the full armor of God (the summer VBS theme). Because today’s lesson was about the helmet of salvation, we made salvation bracelets, which are a colorful reminder of all that God has done for us. We ended the day with coloring and playing before packing up. Just as we were heading out, a down pour began of a quite frigid rain. Now just imagine all of the journey that was described to get there backwards with the addition of rain… fun right? Though the journey was hard, the outcome was worth every minute of it.
-Caroline Clark
