Roatan Mission Trip 2008 - Day 3

DAY 3: Hello church! Today was our first work day. Bill, aka "El Capitan," was excited about the start of the work projects. He banged on everyone's door this morning at 6:25a telling us that we had a meeting at 7a. Most of us were late as we needed a little more time to get ready! After breakfast we split up into three groups: construction, medical and VBS. Four ladies helped in the clinic today, primarily with organizing supplies and the office. Several men took pick axes and worked on laying pipe for the water. This was a difficult job out in the sun as the area was difficult to dig in. There were layers of rock as well as garbage in the ground they were working with. Others of us, myself included, participated in a VBS program in the morning at the elementary school in the village in the mountains across from our inn. We did another one at the church here in the Inn during the afternoon. The teacher at the school is responsible for about 50 children -- and I thought class sizes of 30 were too large! We have seen incredible poverty while working in the village and it's really hit our hearts a lot. The ground is muddy, there's a lot of garbage everywhere and chickens are running loose all over, pecking through the muck and garbage. The area smells like a feedlot. One family's house consisted of four trees with tarps tied to each one and four plastic lawn chairs for furniture. A stove was made out of concrete with a thin piece of tin across the top. Some small children were running naked in a muddy ravine and we are worried about their health. Words cannot describe it, even pictures won't show you all the details of what we've seen today. The only way to see it is to come here. Yet, the people go about their daily life and they seem content. This is all they know so it is only from our eyes that they seem poor. They're clean and dressed just fine, the women's hair is done up nicely. They take pride in how they look when we come around with cameras and they want to look their best for our pictures of them. The children at the school had on crisp clean uniforms and you could tell their mothers had styled their hair. The children that came to the church later were dressed in their best for VBS. I talked with a young Honduran lady today and she said a big problem in Honduras is that people start living together at age 14-15 and some are having kids at 13 years of age. They don't legally marry here for the most part, and often the men will find a different lady and father more children with various women. She said it is common for a man to have 25 children from various mothers. Despite all of this poverty and lack of good sanitation in the village, it seems strangely comfortable as we walk about. Everyone is so friendly to us and we feel very welcome here. They appreciated the shampoo our men working on the pipes gave them today and some immediately started washing their hair. It's been another very hot day but we have gotten used to being sweaty and shiny all of the time. As you will see from a slideshow sometime, we definitely are looking less than our best but we're family! The guys on our team have been walking around very sweaty from their work but so far I haven't noticed that any of them stink. Ha! I think we have all been detoxified with this natural sauna! I haven't had any asthma problems which is really neat. I thought it would be worse here but I'm breathing better than I have for a long time. Something rather funny tonight was when several of us were watching as Johan tried to entice a big blue crab out of its hole under the deck. We were on our knees and bellies in a big circle, heads together, peering through the slats in the deck with flashlights. Johan dangled a string and the crab would grab at it but then it would run back into it's hole. As we worked on this crab, Bill came along and wondered what in the world we were all doing on our knees with our faces to the boards. We realized that simple entertainment such as luring a crab out of its hole can be as entertaining or even more entertaining than a movie. We also enjoy cheering on the geckos as they run after bugs and when the bugs get away a disappointed chorus of "OOOOOoooooohhhhh" goes up from the group. We have been humbled by the hospitality of our hosts and the way they spoil us. Again we were served a fabulous breakfast, lunch and gourmet dinner. We thought we were going to starve on this trip and instead we have enjoyed flavorful, hearty meals that can rival any five star restaurant and dessert is even included every night! Please continue to pray for our team, our hosts at the Inn, the Spartanburg Angels, other missionaries here at the Inn, and of course the Honduran people to whom we will be ministering. Please continue to pray for our safety, health and for hearts to be reached for Jesus. In addition to our regular work tasks tomorrow with the construction, clinic and VBS, some people will visit the jail and we will distribute bags of hygiene items to people in the area along with a trac in Spanish. I'm attaching some photos and hope you enjoy them. Love in Christ, Gabra and Team Roatan 2008