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Dia 3
Day 3.. what can I say? First of all, I am not able to upload any pictures due to some problemas tecnicales... however, if we are friends on Facebook you can see what I have posted there. Waking up to a breakfast of platanos (mi favorito) and breakfast baleadas, we were off to work on the wall behind the Children's Home. Villa Soleada is protected all around by 20ft cement walls and locked gates, with security guards on duty 24/7. (Hoping that eases the concern of many mothers out there)
To build the walls here, there are many different parts to the process. In the morning, we were responsible for carrying cinder blocks to the site, along with the necessary materials, including but not limited to shovels, buckets, 95lb bags of cement, and wheelbarrows full of sand, dirt, and anything else necessary. My job today after bringing over some cinder blocks, was to climb up the scaffolding and fill the wall with the cement. 25 up in the air! Could definitely feel the adrenaline rush from up there! So I helped the workers up top to fill in the rem ainder of that wall layer and then
hopped down to start the next assignment. What comes next once one level is completed? Laying the cinder blocks for the following level! How do the workers, 20ft up in the air on the scaffolding get those blocks to lay? I got to deliver them, each one weighing approximately 25lbs. It was definitely much easier once another volunteer stood on the ladder and I could hand him the block to lift up to the workers. Did I mention that we were working in the farm area where the boys raise chickens and pigs, etc? So we had to make sure we didn't step in pig poop on our way around the worksite as well! After the next layer was done, I was back up on the scaffolding to finish the cement work. Such a daredevil I am!
Lunch break at noon (the mornings go by so slowly but the afternoons always fly by. This might have to do with the fact that morning shift is 8-12 and afternoon 1-4. During the lunchbreak was when I realized that the mini SD card I was using for taking pictures, only to be able to import them into the tablet to upload to my blog, apparently had some small disagreement with the tablet. I was gobsmacked (do people even use that word anymore?) to discover that even though I had used it in the tablet the night before, when I inserted (hahaha) into the tablet and this time and removed it, every picture from Saturday am at the airport until Sunday night had disappeared! Those of you who know me, know I am bit obsessed with photography, so this was quite the disaster. All in all, I lost about 400 pictures, including some amazing shots the kids got when they would take my camera. Fortunately, I did import about 20 of my favorites into Google Drive that I knew I wanted to include in my blog, once I could finally get it published. Lessons learned: 1. Tablets suck. 2. The netbook I hated using last year would have been a much better choice so I could have at least backed up the pictures. 3. I gotta go back out and take a shitload more pictures these next 5 days!
The afternoon shift today was a bit slow, but I did make a new friend names Roberto! Roberto, along with most Hondurans, LOVE gum! It's a good thing I brought the 100 piece container! We were working on a different wall this time, the one protecting the back end of the Centro Escolar (that's school for all you Gringos). There were many of us but very little to do so we listened to music, hung out with the workers, and watched the Hondurans drool over the 2 Iranian twins from Haddonfield.
We finished at the work site a little early since there wasn't much we could do, and Matt and I headed for the watchtower so we could take pictures of the village from up top. Climbing the ladder inside the tower was no small feat! And what an amazing view! It actually started to POUR and storm when we got to the top, which was quite cool to see. The walk back in the rain felt great, and all of the volunteers took their showers outside today. 😊
Once back at the lodge we got ready for dinner, and then off to Shin's Muay Thai gym for kickboxing and Ju Jitsu lessons. The gym belongs to one of Shin's friends, Eddie, who is actually a professional MMA fighter! We split into two groups, and my group went outside with Shin first to learn the Muay Thai method of kickboxing. Of course I was a natural due to all my training back home! Shout-out to Master RJ and Master Kii at Championship Martial Arts Plainsboro! A lot of similar moves that I already knew, plus some newer ones that are more specific to the Muay Thai method. Unfortunately, since my first partner was an orchestra teacher and has to work next week, I couldn't punch or kick the pads very hard. But then we switched and I was Matt's partner, so my former student got to beat the crap out of me. With each kick he yelled "that's for the F you gave me!" JK, he never got an F in my class. The second part of our training was back in the gym for self-defense. We watched Eddie do take-downs, release moves, and then we got to tackle each other and practice on our own. I decided working with Matt for this one probably wasn't the best option, so I found myself a female partner 😊 Got a very cool picture at the end of Eddie and me, that is on Facebook for your perusal.
Just as we were finishing up and leaving, a student approached me and said he was really confused, and thought he had hit his head. He didn't know where we were, or barely even who he was! I grabbed Shin and told him to call Ana Lucia, who happened to pull-up right outside as we were walking out to the bus in the rain! Que casualidad, no? The student and I jumped into her car and headed for the clinic, which was one block away. The same clinic one of last year's chaperones spent 2 nights in due to severe food poisoning! We brought him into the ER (small room with 3 beds separated by sheet curtains) to get checked. He kept asking the same question "We're in Honduras, right?" I had to keep reassuring him that yes, we were in Honduras, he would be fine, etc. Turns out he had suffered a slight concussion and had temporary amnesia, which was the cause for all those symptoms, including pins and needles in his arms. The sedative they shot into his butt seemed to help calm him down because he kept crying when he realized he couldn't remember anything. Needless to say, we were at the clinic for over 2 hours, and after an MRI and much improvement of his symptoms, we were able to go back to Villa. So other than him and me, everyone was calm and not even phased by this whole situation! I couldn't understand why? Ana Lucia explaine that all of this symptoms are very commun after a head injury. The kid is fine, fortunately, and I was happy to be able to go back and sleep in my "own bed." You may be wondering why I was the one who went with him, since he is not one of my students. Other than Shin, I am the only one on this trip who speaks fluent Spanish and English. I knew he would feel more comfortable and I was needed to be able to talk to him. So I was also the one who got to call and follow up with his mom back in NJ! Even she was calm and didn't seem too worried. How is that even possible? I swear if it was me my mom would have already been on a plane here! (am I right mom?) Did I mention that when we got back into Ana Lucia's truck I found one sleeping boy and 5 hens? Lol. She had picked up the hens to bring to Villa and they were in the back of her truck in the rain the entire time we were at the clinic! And no, the sleeping boy was not a street child, but the son of Maria, our cook, and close friend of Ana Lucia who takes care of him and helps with his school work.
When we finally got back to Villa, after a VERY BUMPY ride (the rain tears up the ground a lot here. And I thought Jersey roads had potholes!) all I wanted to do was shower and go to sleep. Just as I lied down, I felt something on my arm. Lots of bugs here so I didn't think much of it. Until I saw it jump off me onto the bed! It was a friggin frog!! I bolted out of the bed and flipped on the light, at no point waking Dara up, who I swear sleeps through EVERYTHING! I find the damn frog under my bed and of course the first thing I do is take a picture of it. Lol. Then I decided that I had to change beds, so I went to sleep in the bunk bed above me, and hoped the little sucker would find its way out! I may have left the bedroom door open a crack for him...
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michelle
non-member comment
You betcha
Yes..I would be in the next plane. You know me!! Glad it wasn't you, and happy Matt is better. Pretty damn scary, but you handled the situation well, mi hija. Sounds like an amazing experience, so far, and looks like you are sunburned. Be careful..ouch! lyb xo