The Week in Review

Team NGF at Baile Brea elementary school after installing a water purification system 

Puro Catracho: a commentary

Only in Honduras

So how long does it take a group of STMrs to become puro Catracho? (That's what Hondurans call themselves.) My answer...one week! Let me explain.

At the beginning of the week:

Team leader is Richard.

Everyone was particularly unhappy with the early bird behind the hotel. This rooster, as most roosters do in Honduras, lives in another time zone. They live by the old beer drinkers motto, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere." Of course these roosters mean 5 am, but somewhere in the great time zone of life, they have lost the idea that crowing should happen at daylight.and should be synchronized with that. Instead they merrily begin crowing as early as 2 am. But hey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Driving here is a bit different than in the States. There are a lot of slow moving vehicles which translates to a lot more passing on short distances (that's why I love American V-8 power) and a lot of other people passing towards you at very, very short distances. So on the trip from the airport there were lots of third party brake stomping, awh ohhs and then sighs of relief.

The language barrier at first seemed insurmountable. Just ordering a coke required an inordinate amount of effort.  Forget trying to ask for an extra room key or hot water to be available at 5 am.

Seven days later:

Team leader is now known as Ricardo.

Everyone sleeps through the early morning cacophony. Catrachos or just too tired to care? Don't know. If Richard, perdon...Ricardo, gets a rooster for his own back yard in Florida, then definitely Catracho.

On the way back to the airport the team is cheering as we come in to a blind curve and find cars passing three wide at us. They urge me to, unsuccessfully I might add, pass on a blind curve also...just so we'll fit in.

In one short week, my team became fluent...in sign language. Sometimes it felt like we were playing at charades. But it didn't stop there. By mid week "buenos dias'" filled the morning air and each night we parted company with tired but confident "buenas noches". I even heard a few "alohas" thrown in for good measure.



Sorry Pastor Steve, not sure how this got in here, but...

So I promised in my last post not to tell about zip lining, but I can tell you that some of the more daring, and need I say younger crowd, did go behind the waterfall. I chose not to, not because I'm too old, but because I'm a non swimmer. Those that did go reported back that it was awwwwesome!


The following four days included visits to schools, mornings spent preparing for VBS and the actual VBS in Oriente with Pastor Allan and Nicole. This part of the missions trip was a joint effort with Community Church in Orange, TX. As I was not with this part of the group much, I can only say that everyone had a great time. Harriet and her mother made over 200 hand sewn soccer balls to give to the kids. They really where a work of art as well as love.

My half of the group, with the help of Paul Hosier, installed a water purification system at a public school up in the hills on the other side of town. This ended up being a great "hands on" project for the men in our group. I will write more about this project and our desire to continue it, but all I will say for now is that this is a great project for a family to fund raise for and then come down to help install it. The entire system is very reasonably priced at just over $1000 and the health benefits of providing perpetual clean water to schools and communities, priceless.

Building a shed around the tanks, moving a lot of concrete blocks, installing the system, purifying the water and then drinking water from the system was all part of a job well done. Lauren and Emma where even able to go into the classrooms and give a brief explanation on why drinking purified water is important to health.

 

 

Author's note: Although all facts in the author's commentary are based on truth, the author may have used a storytellers right to embellish or exaggerate slightly.