Work Day #3

Saturday, April 1, 2017 Noon

Hello and thanks for continuing to follow the blog and keeping us in prayer. We appreciate the larger community supporting all that we do here in Honduras.

Friday after lunch a new crew stayed at the school to continue packing the gift bags to take to families. The rest continued working on the houses. Doors and windows were getting framed in as crews continued to put on siding. At times there was quite a cacophony of noise as some 8-10 were hammering at a time. We had one house almost finished and two plus sides done on the other.

We got back by four to have time to get cleaned up. Many of the missioners took advantage of a little extra time to go out and play with the kids as they were ending there day of school. There are about 2100 students at the school. They have one bunch who attends in the morning session and a whole new group comes in the afternoon. It is quite chaotic as they come and go each day but it is a joyful noise.

We had an early supper of quesadillas in order to be able to attend a special mass with the students from the night school. Padre (Fr.) Patricio comes once each year to have a mass with them. He is the priest who founded the organization behind this school and four others as well as a total of 42 projects helping the poor in Honduras. The students who come at night are those who for one reason or another cannot attend during the day often because they need to work. Fr. Patricio asked one of the young men his schedule. He gets up at 4:30am to catch a bus for an hour ride to the city center. He works from 6am until about 4:30pm and catches the bus back in order to attend class from 5:30 – 7:30pm. Then he can return home for a bit before starting all over the next day. These young people are there on their own initiative as no one really encourages them to go to school. Rather, they often receive discouragement. “Why go to school? That’s a lot of work.” However, they know that it is their only chance for a better life. Padre Patricio commented to us, “Thank you for taking care of your young people. Too many here have no adults to care for them and show them the way.” He also commented to me, “These young people are like sheep without a shepherd. Many have had little formation in the Christian faith.”

Though Fr. Doug tried his best to translate, it was a challenge for our missioners to understand, due to the Spanish, the poor sound system and a lot of noise from traffic outside the windows. They were real troopers as the mass and program went over two hours in a crowded and somewhat stuffy room. Still we were impressed with the enthusiastic mass, awed by Daniel the blind boy who provided the music and the dedication of the teachers and students of this school.

We ended with our junta where we had some good time to share the joys and frustrations of the day. We are really growing as a cohesive mission community. It’s been only two full days but it’s amazing all that has occurred so far.

This morning was more work on the gift-bags and houses. One house has interior walls and rafters and we’ll begin installing tin this afternoon. The other house has all exterior walls almost finished. It has been hot and we feel the effect of the sun but frequent water breaks has kept everyone doing well. (Blog post by Fr. Doug) [More pictures will be posted tonight.]