Stations of the Cross

We let everyone sleep in a little today to give them a break. However, by the time the students get home, parents, they should  be pretty used to 5:30 - 6 a.m. wake-up calls.  Breakfast was scrambled eggs, refried beans, bananas, and cereal today.

At 8:45 we headed for church and the beginning of the Stations of the Cross. It's difficult to describe what we witnessed this morning. I'd say it's as close to the real thing without actually being real. We watched Pilate ask the crowd to release Jesus, Jesus being whipped (complete with fake blood), walking the complete path all over Esquias, actually falling on the pavement while carrying the cross. all the other actors participating, wailing by the women, and nailing in the cross. The last few Stations took place in the rock quarry with the stripping his clothes, nailing to the cross, dying (with him speaking to God), taking him from the cross, and they even had a burial spot in the gravel with a cross made of rocks and a tomb cover made to look like various sizes of rocks. It lasted just over 3 hours and the heat took a toll on all of us. AND, we still had to walk back to the compound from the edge of town.

At this time we are awaiting our lunch. We'll have a little more church this afternoon with veneration of the cross at 3. The rest of the day is to be spent in reflection, laundry, visiting, prayer, and rest.

I am requesting that today's student blogs begin by stating why they're glad they came to Honduras. These will be the final student blogs for this group. We'll see all of you at the Omaha Airport on Sunday, I expect.

Mya, I heard you kept Seivert busy for a while. Good for you! I can hardly wait to see you when I return on the 15th. Jay and Miranda, it would be nice to get one message from you with information on Paige.

Shop 'Til You Drop

It's been a long day for all of us. After a breakfast of french toast, we got off to an early start for Valle de Angeles. Think Old Market in Omaha and you kind of get the idea of what the shopping area looked like. You could even get a horse and buggy ride, BUT we did not. The views along the way were awesome, as usual. Sr. Juanita was especially blessed today because she spotted her favorite Honduran bird 5 times as we drove.

I guarantee that many of you back home will be receiving nice souvenirs. Every shopper I heard was shopping for family and friends before looking for their own souvenir. We took a pizza break at noon; most then enjoyed an ice cream cone. That left an hour for shopping before we returned to Esquias.

We ate hamburgers, chips, and watermelon for supper and prepared for Mass. Janet had prepared a booklet for each of us with the readings so we could follow them during the service. None of our gentlemen got their feet washed tonight, so we watched a typical Honduran service - LOTS of enthusiastic responses and singing. During the sign of peace everyone goes everywhere to hug and give the sign of peace. During junta we commented on how the Hondurans all participate joyfully.

We weren't able to have junta until 9 due to the length of the church service and needing to allow journaling time. Thus, this blog is late and most of you will be reading it on Friday morning.

Lesley, Phil suggests you mow the lawn before he gets back. He would be forever beholden to you.

Missioner Blogs

Micah Neary: Hey Mom and Dad! Hey Morgan! Sorry I haven’t been blogging much we have been busy and I haven’t notice that you guys have been commenting. Morgan don’t worry ill see ya soon and you can tell me all about what you have been doing the past week. Mom I’m glad your golf team is doing well but Ali thinks you are talking about her this is making me jealous ha jk. Today we finished our last hard day of work and we plan to go shopping tomorrow, so I plan to get you all guys a gift don’t worry. Don’t worry you will get a good gift Morgan! J Well I better go because a lot of people need to blog so ill talk to you guys later cya! J

Ali Galles: Hello fellow family and friends. Today was our final day of work! Tomorrow we go shopping. I’m really excited for that. I will try not to forget anyone! Josie, if Tiffy isn’t looking at this tell her that I miss her and loved her letter. Tell her to tell Carly hi! Also tell Julie and Papa John that I miss them too. Mrs. Neary, I’m proud of the team still! The first meet is always the hardest! Tell Mollie and Lauren to keep up the good work. We start Holy week tomorrow so we have a lot of church to attend. Okay well other people are going to blog now so I miss you all and I can’t wait to see you all soon! Love you!! J

Janet Klein:  Hey Emmetsburg Catholic Students and Staff having a great time in Honduras but I missed your Mass today.  Hope everything went well – have a great Holy Week and an awesome Easter.  See you next Wednesday. 

Lauren Eide- HEY!!!! It was nice to finally get messages! I thought that you guys were probably struggling with the whole blog thingJ and its okay for you to write me too brenden!  Today was our last big work day! YAY! And then tomorrow we get to go into the city and go shopping so ill be sure to get you something good. I woke up this morning with this huge blister thing on my foot and I have no idea where it came from. Love you guys I’ll blog again soon!

  Megan Heissel- Hello family and friends! Today was finally our last full work day! I could not be happier but it was rewarding helping the people of Picacho. We played spoons with Tacha tonight and it was a riot. Today might have been the hottest day yet. Tomorrow we are going shopping! Can’t wait to get everyone something! Senorita Eli! Rachelle and I picked up the guitar today! It was rough! Eek! Cya in 4 days! J

Chad and Joe Langel- Shout out to our sister Katie on her birthday tomorrow! Hope it’s a great one! If you’re going to have the kid, have it tomorrow or wait 5 days so it’s on one of our birthdays’! J Today was our last full day of work and it seemed to go by really fast.  We ended up digging about 400 meters total according to Frank.  Chad even managed to find a few girls who thought he was cute today.  One was 11, but the other was 20 – is it okay if he stays?  Katie Langel – I ate a lot of rice the other day when everyone else had fish.  Luckily they promised me they would have something else on Good Friday.  Glad you are enjoying your fish because I’ll be home soon.  Tomorrow is a shopping day in Valley of the Angels.  We’ll try and get you all something nice.  Don’t worry about us; we’re having a great time.  Love you all.  Byeeeeee! (From Chip)

Brittany Loutsch: Hey guysJ we played spoons with Tacha tonight. She cheats and has more than four cards in her hand. Also I spend all my time turning the water off after Lauren; she forgets to turn it all the way off. To Steph Rohe: I hope Coach Ryan is holding up the team, and you don’t even get the channel E! So how can you keep up with the Kardashians?.... thanks for the moral support. Mom I guess I would like an Easter basket with bacon in it. If you could make that possible I will be one happy kid. DJ keep watching Teen Mom and Tosh.0. This little kid Jose seems to love beating me up, so he is definitely taking your place. Of course, I always win against him just like I do to you. You know you love me xoxo Gossip Girl.

Rachelle Lipper- Well, our snack table has completely been demolished and we only have popcorn left.  Also we have an excessive amount of peanut butter.  That’s okay with me though.  I feel like all the colors of the rooms in my house are based on some of the houses in Honduras.  Mom, did you come here before we painted our house? I saw some, party time pink, and some honey dew colored casas (houses).  Kaitlin- the stars aren’t really that much closer here as far as I can tell.  We are going to get stuffs tomorrow at the Valley of Angels. I hope I don’t forget anyone! Okay. Bye! See you soon.

Alec Mousel: Hello fans, I’m sorry family I did not see you commented on anything. I figured you had forgotten about me; I’m having fun and am having buckets of fun. Brittany thanks for remembering me also, I know you’re enjoying your freedom from me. Other people have seen cats but I’ve only seen one, I told you I would win that bet and you wouldn’t get a cat before I left.  Oh hi Zach. Steph my girlfriend mentioned Trevor in her blog; I would appreciate if I could get a shout out as well. Oh and thanks to Amanda and the Sitzmann family for putting my awesome nickname all over the internet. I’m thinking of my own for you while I am down here. See ya’ll on Sunday.

Joe begnoche: Hello Begnoche’s! How is it going? Still doing well here and can’t wait to see you guys when I get home. I’m glad that you will be at the airport to get me but not so enthused that you are going to the zoo without me;) haha well that should be fun for you. Wish I could join you but I will be on my way home by that time. Today was our last full day of work and it went really good. Tomorrow we are going shopping and I will try and get a little something for everybody. I might even get something for you KendallJ Well that’s all for tonight. Goodnight everyone and see you on Sunday. And Kendall still can’t wait to see you!:) Good night!

Mike and Ross Ruhland: Hope everything is well at home. Kids are having a lot of fun and learning a lot like being able to using a shower towel more than once and how to swing a pick ax. Ross has only gotten sick once (that I know of). I think it was on the rice and beans or maybe the beans and rice. Take care and see you soon. Have a safe trip to St. Louis.

Mick Sitzmann:  Hey family and Monica! Miss you guys more everyday! All is going pretty well around here and everyone is having fun! I think I might just stay down here with my new friends so if you guys could catch the next flight out, that would be much appreciated!! Ok, that was a joke, I know you would miss me too much Dad! Hope you are feeling better by the way! Monica I am a little upset that you went and saw Mason and the boys without me! I miss them more than you do!! I can’t wait to tell you guys about the “Dave” I met down here! He is exactly like him except for the obvious and that his name is Marcello! Ok well hope the place hasn’t burnt down without me there to take care of it since I do all the work!! Miss you guys! See you soon, love you!!

Austin Meyer: Hello Mom, Dad, Tyler, and Emily, Thanks for the birthday wishes. We have been playing a lot of cards down here. Hopefully my car is still going good! Tomorrow we are driving 3 hours on bumpy roads to go shopping. Maybe I’ll get something for you guys. And to Mary, thanks for the birthday wish! Hopefully Addison and Mike had a good birthday too. Cya on Sunday!

Trevor Bouma: Hey family and friends, thankfully today was our last day of work. Tomorrow we are going shopping and I will look for gifts for everyone. We had a birthday party for me, Dean and Julio. It was pretty cool. Steph, I am pretty sure Friday is a really important day. I think someone awesome has birthday that day. Shout out to my buds Jordan and Zach for blogging to me. Miss all of you guys. See you in a couple days.

Birthday Celebration

Tonight we celebrated three birthdays - Austin Meyer, March 30; Trevor Bouma, April 6; Julio Rivera, April 7. We sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish and enjoyed a delicious Honduran style birthday cake.

The guys react when their birthday candles relight.

Discussion at nightly junta

Villagers of El Picacho with missioners

Carlos poses with the family who got the cement floor.

Final Full Work Day

Due to our rainy evening - a big thunderstorm that knocked out the electricity for the evening - we had a little difficulty getting to El Picacho today. The road we normally take was pretty wet and soft, so that first mountain caused us to turn back. Frank and Julio found alternate route that bypassed the bad area, and we were back in business.

The missioners began digging a bit more slowly each day. Like one of them said, "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." Each day more of them discovered it was easier to team up with a Honduran worker because those guys are machines! Once again we dug through horrendous terrain, mostly rock, and if we were lucky, some clay-like dirt. We also put the finishing touches on the cement floor, and Carlos fixes their window sills with the leftover cement. Linda took the family's photo with their "Extreme Makeover" home.

We knocked off work at noon for lunch. As soon as we'd finished eating, we gathered together with as many of the villagers that showed up and took a group photo. We'll print the remainder of the photos we've chosen for the village's photo book. We've been printing them as we go on our portable printer.

I know everyone is looking forward to our day off tomorrow. It's "shop 'til you drop" day in Valle de Angeles (Valley of the Angels). It's a quaint little town with many tourist shops and artisans. Our noon meal will be pizza, which I'm sure sounds great to the kids. We've been eating well, but there's nothing like pizza. As soon as we return, we'll eat supper and prepare for the 7 p.m. church service. I may not have time to blog until after all those activities are complete.

Hello Back Home

Megan Heissel- Dear people of Le Mars, tomorrow is our last day of work, I am so happy that it is! Mom-remember everything I told you to bring when you come get us. If you can fit the shower in the car, bring it along, we didn’t shower for three days. Oh and my bed. We are all working hard and becoming closer. The meal tonight was amazing; our cooks need to take some lessons from Tacha! J Love and miss you guys, see you in 5 days (:

Bervs(what Dennis calls me);Brittany Loutsch: hey guys! How is L-town holding up? I never thought I would say this but L-town seems to have a lot more then these Honduran towns. “I’ve been working on the railroad(aka trenches).” Megan and I sing this song when we are diggin. And the song off the movie Holes. We also had a light show and puppet show with our flashlights. We are becoming deprived from technology and starting to get back our childhood imaginations. I got to talk to Seiv today so got a dose of home today: he cried so much because he missed me. Happy Birthday to Chucks and Kenzie from everyone here!!!! Also Cheri if you could bring me a shower and bed to the airport too I would be grateful. Peace, Bervs

Lauren Eide: I’m done blogging until someone writes me back…I am beginning to think you guys don’t care about meL

Rachelle Lipp: These past few days have been some pretty tough work for me- just ask Seiv.  I took some time out of my busy schedule to talk to him on the phone.  The electricity is out for the night, but at least most of us got showers! It’s storming; it’s pretty awesome.  I love it.  Anyway Krista I miss you too and can’t wait to tell you all about it.  Marisa there is a girl named Lilly that reminds me of you! She is so sweet and kind.  Andrew, none of the Honduran boys remind me of you because they are pretty creepy here.  Thanks everyone for thinking about me and all the prayers.  J I’m not sure I’ll be ready to leave.

Ali Galles: Hello family! Okay Mom, the child was three years old and hadn’t been there long. It is downpouring here right now. This is the second time! I love it. The work is hard but tomorrow is our last full day of it. We have zero electricity right now and Carlos (main man) is saying it will be out all night. Dad, you don’t blog much. Tell Michele and Colten I say Hi! We go shopping on Thursday so I will get everyone gifts. All the Honduran kids are awesome and they remind me of Calla and Emma. I love you all and I will see you soon!

Mick Sitzmann: Hey family and Monica! I miss you guys! Dad I just want to tell you how much I feel like Red Green donw here with all of the duck tape I have been using! I have used it from patching holes in my gloves to completely covering my knee wholes in my pants with it! I know, I know I’m awesome! Alright well I just wanted to clear everything up about the fish things. .. . Joe and I shared an entire fish! So ya I did eat half of one! Expect no more of eating that stuff from me! Alright I gotta go now so ill talk to you later! BYYYYYEEEEE

Dave and Janet Klein:  Glad to hear from all of you oh none from our friends and family??? Having a great time poured cement with Carlos today – Janet has learned a lot about mixing and making cement she just about has it down.  Digging was a lot easier today got a lot more done.  Hope everybody is doing good at home see you Sunday!!!

Alec Mousel: Hello I’m still here. Brittany and Jordan you have blog for journalism what else do you have to do. Blog me.

Trevor Bouma: Hello Family and Steph, Today we dug trenches again. It was very hard. Right now it is pouring rain. Its been awesome so far down here. See you guys in a few days. Also I agree with Moose Steph and Jordan you guys have to blog in Journalism. Give us a shout out.

Chad & Joe Langel: Its storming pretty good here right now but we don’t mind, it’s a nice way to cool off after a hard days work. Tomorrow is the last hard work day then we are another day closer to you guys getting to see us which I am sure you are missing  my jokes.. Byeeeeeeee

Joe Begnoche: Hey family!!! Still doing good down here and having a blast. Still miss you guys a lot and can’t wait to see you when I get back. I will answer all of your questions when I get back cause that would take me forever to blog that haha. It is storming pretty good here right now and this is the second one that we have had in the past couple days. I heard the weather there has been pretty warm? I hope you guys are doing good. Tomorrow is our last hard day of work and hopefully it goes as well as it has been for the last couple days. Alrighty well that’s about all I have to report so see you in a couple days! Miss you all. And Kendall I miss you too and can’t wait to see how many messages I have from you on my phone when I get backJ Can’t wait to see you and to hang out! Later Gater!!:)

Carolyn Bickford: As you’ve probably read, we’re getting lots of rain tonight. Honduras really needs it, so that’s good. The days are passing quickly and very soon all the missioners are going to be back home. They’ll have lots of stories to share, I’m sure. Jay, give Paige a kiss; Drew give Mya one. Take care.

Phil & Bryce: Things are going good. Looking forward to seeing you in a few days. Can’t say more because we have power problems. Love your eternal husband and son.

Mountaintop Central Report

I'm sitting atop the mountain this morning. Linda and I have climbed up here to do the blog and to send you the current photo of the tank. The last time I climbed up here the base was in. Now they have built up two layers.

The missioners are digging along the road again today. They've stated the top layer is as tough as yesterday, but they're reaching the softer underneath layer a little fast. That is great news for weary pick-axers.

The water situation has not been the best the last couple days at the compound. Apparently a broken pipe prevented Esquias from getting water yesterday and it took quite some time to fix it. We were promised water at 5, but it was closer to 7. The first people in the shower were able to get wet, soap up, only to discover there was no water to rinse with. We carried buckets of water from the pila, and gave them little scoops to use.

We had scrambled eggs, refried beans, tortillas, and fruit for breakfast. Everyone has been eating and resting well.

AFter last night's junta, Janet led a short prayer service. We sat in the courtyard and used candle for light. It was nice and we hope to do that nightly now that we are close to Easter.

We've begun scraping the second bedroom in the house where we're installing a cement floor. By the time we leave today, that house should have at least 1 floor completely done.

I plan to have the students blog tonight.

Big hug to my Mya from your grandma!

Janet prepares the floor for cement.

Water tank being built that will hold 10,000 gallons of water.

Carolyn blogs from Mountaintop Central.