A New Roof

Honduras Hope teams have built several houses in a community called Lomas Diamonte.  Translated that would be Diamond Hills.  It is a poor community with no water and no electricity.

At the top of the mountain stands a nice block building.  A large block building.  It is said the people of the community built this building.  How they afforded it, I do not know.  The problem was there was no roof on the building.

Last summer a group saw this building and wanted to do something about that roofless building.  Team Unashamed Missions from Dallas has been here all week working on that roof.  They arrived Sunday and leave tomorrow.  They had planned on the roof taking all week.  They finished yesterday, instead of today.

To celebrate, they had Carnitas cater a meal to the workers and several of the children.  This little celebration was to take place at 2:30 this afternoon.  Nicole and I decided to go up there and see the building and the party.

Anything Nicole and I do together can turn into an adventure whether or not we plan it that way.  That could be said of today.  Neither one of us had ever been to Lomas Diamonte.  I did know where to turn off of the highway.  Nicole was driving.  I directed us into a neighboring village of Cruz Roja.  As we reached the top of the mountain and saw no huge building, we realized we had taken a wrong turn.

After we turned around,  I just had to take a picture of what I saw in front of me.  Little did I know that road was the one we would soon be on. You can't even see how high it goes.

We passed several houses that had been built by Honduras Hope teams.

We made yet another mistake by not turning and we soon found ourselves going down, down, down on a very steep road.  Nicole said the people of San Francisco could no longer claim Lombard as the steepest street in the world..

We turned around again and were finally on our way.  This building really was at the top of the mountain.  The views were amazing.  As we starting winding our way up, we thought we might find a building and no houses.  This was remote.  I was wondering who would use this building.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, there were houses up there.  I was quickly reminded why Honduras is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere.

I almost cried.

There before us, stood this huge building with a brand new roof.  I had heard the group talk about how large it was, but it was hard to imagine until I saw it.

Some of the people of Lomas Diamonte had worked on this building all week.  Even some of the teenagers had helped haul dirt and rocks and then tamp to make the floor level and usable.

The people from Carnitas were inside cooking.

And then a prayer of thanksgiving was said and the children were served first.  Everyone of the children said thank you when they were served.  And many of the adults were thankful for the finished building.

Before the adults were served food, we left.

A few other scenes from the day.

When I see the gorgeous views, I am always keenly aware of the paradox of this country.  That paradox is the beauty of this country often hides the ugliness of poverty.  I had just seen poverty.  And, a nice new building.  It is really easy to dream of another feeding center and/or church.  A feeding center where those precious little children would get fed every day.