The Milk Man

The milk truck

The milkman dipping into his barrel

The milkman pouring the milk into a small pitcher.

The back and side walls being built up to be the same height as the front. It looks like the church building is built on the rock, but it is not.

The footers are more than half done. They were 40" deep when we started pouring concrete.

Taken from the front of the property, this is the back of the lot. Finally, starting to take the shape of a building.

When I was a little girl, I remember the milkman coming to our house. He had milk and cottage cheese on his truck and probably other things as well. He had bottles of milk and my mother told him how many she wanted and he got them for her and she paid him. We always wanted chocolate milk and sometimes we got it. A milkman comes to Casa de Esperanza. He drives a larger truck than the milkman I remember from my childhood, but operates much the same.

Today in Oriente, I saw a milkman. He had barrels of milk tied down in the back of his pickup. He had a few rounds of cheese as well. The people in Oriente came to his truck with a cup or a pitcher or whatever. The milk man opened the small barrel, and with his dipper, dipped out enough to fill each container. The pitcher in the picture held about four cups.

I was amazed. But when you stop to think about it, how else would people buy milk? People that have very little money and no electricity. They would buy exactly what they need for today.

When we left Oriente this afternoon, the footers are more than half way poured. We will begin laying block on Wednesday. I did not mix concrete, but I did shovel concrete into buckets to be carried to the footers. Shoveling concrete is one of the easiest jobs that happened today. I did not mind doing it. I love helping and being a part of the work. These are not easy jobs and I do not think prisoners in the United States work as hard as these Hondurans do. They don't seem to mind. They never complain. They work harder than three people and at the end of the day they thank us for giving them a job.

I am thankful that I get to be a small part of this as well.

Terri