Honduras 2013 Dia 5

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Dia 5

Planning to make this a shorter entry... we shall see! So wake-up was earlier than normal today, as breakfast was at 6:30 instead of the normal 7. Because today we were off to the village of Balsamo to finish their school! The last step was laying the cement flooring in the three classrooms and main walkway. This was to be a loooong, tiring, but productive and fulfilling day. However.....there it goes again...Matt was feeling a little sick, and due to doctor's orders, we had to return to the clinic once again to provide a stool sample. We left with the rest of the group after breakfast on the bus, since the clinic was on the way to Balsamo. We got there a little after 8am, and Matt was kind enough to offer up his sample right away! 😊 But since this was daytime and they were busy, we had to wait 3 hours for the results! The bacterial infection turned out to be more fungal (lot of yeast, ewwww) so they added a new medication which we would have to pick up. But this time Ana Lucia was not with us, so we had to go via taxi (stop panicking, the driver is a trusted friend of the organization) to the pharmacy to pick up the scrip. Now they don't take American money, which was all we had, so Mauricio our driver had to to lay out the dough! All good, he got paid for the trip and reimbursed (and hopefullytipped well) once we arrived at Balsamo around noon. I was so thankful to be able to get there to help with such a big project! The classrooms were nearly finished but the walkway remained.
Since we got there right at lunch time, we ate first and then got to work. The villagers made us a delicious lunch of pasta, meat sauce, boiled platanos, and some salad. These women carried the large pots of food from their homes to the worksite, on their heads, through mud and dirt, just to be able to sever us as they stood in mud puddles... I will be forever in awe at the amount of gratitude and appreciation they have for us. Needing a cold drink, Matt and I headed to the little bodega at the top of the hill, escorted by Jayme (7) to buy some Gatorade and cold water. They only had one Gatorade available, so we got that, an iced tea, and 3 bags od purified water. Yes, the purfied water sold is in small plastic bags that you can drink after you bite the corner off and suck... Unusual for us maybe, but not here! 38 lempiras for all five drinks, but when we tried to pay, we only had American dollars, which would equate to $2.05. They said no American money, only limps, but I was able to convince them to take a $5 after explaining that woukd be equivalent to 100 limps. They were okay with that 😊
Back at the worksite it was time to mix cement, fill buckets, and form our assembly line to start the walkway. I was all about being on that assembly line, passing first the buckets of water and then my favorite, CEMENTO! Getting quite the workout with the lifting, so it's all good I haven't been to the gym for a little while. When the batch of cement ran out, I helped to mix a new batch, and even tried to wheel the sand over for a second pile...I tried... meaning I was able to push the wheelbarrow, however, I may or may not have dumped it a little too far from the cement pile 😊 I also may or may not have been trying to show off a little for the Honduran workers, and impress them with my bulging muscles and excessive strength. (love you Robert!)
With all hands on deck, we knocked out the last of the floor in under 3 hours, beating the expected deadline of 6pm by an hour and a half! It was so much fun, and I got so dirty and covered with cement, but I loved every minute of it! And I only lost a little bit of skin off my shoulder from the buckets!
On the way back to Villa we stopped at the mall to hit up the supermarket and maybe exchange some money. No one had gotten an limps yet and tomorrow is Market Day! We felt a little badly entering the mall covered in cement and mud, but we looked great! I guess it was pretty noticeable too, since a man offered to clean our shoes at his little stand! I didn't buy much the market, some juice and a little souvenir, because I need to save my money for Market Day tomorroq! Yay! The rest of the night was uneventful, a welcome change from the previous two nights! Dinner and movie. Sound like my typical Wednesday night inthe summer! Tomorrow morning we are off to the orphanage and then to market to market e goooooooo!!

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