A Day Filled With Adventures

There is a very sweet, very hard-working lady that works for Casa de Esperanza named Elvia. Everyday she goes way above and beyond the call of duty. We found out she has a house, saved her money to have her water turned on, and paid the money. All of us would think then she has water. Not necessarily so in a third world country. She had to buy her own pipe and install it from the road to her house and she had not been able to save the money to buy the pipe. We decided we would do that for her. Marc went to survey and assess the needs and found she was living in a Torch house. He was thinking it would probably be no more than 100 yards. By this time we should know better to think, assume, or guess anything about anything in Honduras. It was about 300 feet. We tied what pvc pipe there was at Casa de Esperanza, went to the hardware store and bought the rest of it and headed to Elvia's house. This project went well and took us about two hours. Elvia is so excited to at last have running water. We could not check to see if there were any leaks or if all went as well as we thought it did because the water is only turned on for 2 hours every morning. The group that is here is going to buy her a collection tank so she can collect water and have it when she needs. I did not know this about the city water until today. Tonight, we should all be thankful for running water anytime we want it. After we finished laying pipe, we ate pupusas. One of my favorites.

One of those containers that was suppose to be in last week, finally got released today. It was our container. I still don't have my stuff, but it is in the warehouse now and it will be here Monday. We had to be at the warehouse at 3:00 to unload the container. When a time is stated in Honduras, such as 3:00 that means not before 3:00. We were planning a birthday party at Casa de Esperanza for Rudy. He turned 11 today. We were going to do a great big bonfire and roast weiners. Marc asked me to go to PriceSmart and get his cake and there was a list of stuff Karen needed from PriceSmart as well. I really was not wanting to drive in Tegucigalpa yet and since, of course, the truck with the container was not there yet. I asked John to drive me. John has driven in Tegucigalpa and I felt better about that. I told him to turn one block too soon and trust me, you do not just circle the block and get to where you are going. About 20 minutes later we found our way back to the original mistake and quickly got to PriceSmart, even finding movie star parking. We got the cake and the laundry supplies and got back to the warehouse uneventfully. Arriving at the warehouse we saw the container was there, but the locks are still on it. The locks cannot be removed until the inspector arrives and no one knew when that would be. Marc came rushing out to me and said I had to go to the airport because he locked the keys in the Toyota and the guy at the airport had another set for us. So, I had my first driving experience in Honduras and I am alive to tell about it. The airport is a pretty straight shot from the warehouse. I think I am going to get the hang of this real well. It took me about an hour to go to the airport and back. The container was being unloaded when I got back. I helped finish unloading. There were extra people helping us and everyone was rushing as darkness and rain were approaching. It was completely unloaded at 6:15 and we all headed for Santa Ana. I was not driving.

No one could get the fire started and the hotdogs were boiled. The kids were eating when we got back. We ate our hotdogs and potato salad and then we had birthday cake and ice cream. The kids were so exicited. There were many squeals of delights. Right now Casa de Esperanza is very short handed especially at night and the kids were way behind schedule. Karen usually has the kids do dishes, mop and sweep the floor and all those chores. She needed to get them to bed and told them to leave it. John, Dave, Steve and I washed and dried the dishes, swept and mopped.

It has been a very good day. I am tired, but it is a good tired.

Terri