Honduras Day 3

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We were off bright and early to pour a concrete floor for a local family.
Some of the kids wore green and I was very excited. I was not in green during the work part of the day but later after my badly needed shower. Andrew was in green and I believe Mike's boxer shorts were. His work pants had a huge hole in the behind.

We had a great breakfast with fresh fruit, coffee grown on the ranch, and french toast...I think. The pineapple tasted a little earthy but the rest was yummy.

Will, the leader of our group today, met us by this huge machine that carried 3 wheel barrows, hoes, shovels, etc... We drove a wee bit in the back of a pickup truck while Pat drove and Tom navigated. No seat belts, but we managed to survive.


We arrived at the families house and notice that they are fairly well off as the front part of the house was cylinder blocks. They also run a store out of the back of their house. I guess they closed today as we were going to pour the cement floor in the store and the father's section.

Locals wash their clothes the "old fashioned way", which is a bucket of water and washboard. No dryers either so they hang their clothes on the line. I am surprised they get clean as the cars passing by kick up so much dust.


The store sells soda, chips, and spices. One spice was chicken consume.



The wheel barrows were use to wheel in the sand and stone. These barrows have seen some cement mixing in their time.More clothes drying in the back. Shows how many people live here.

This is the dirt floor that we were going to pour on top of. It is in fairly good condition in comparison to others. The room is really small.

The chicken was very nosey and was dying to get into the room to see what we were doing.

And work begins... . Will is the guy in red.

We had to mix the cement by hand. One bag cement, 15 shovels of sand, and 30 of rock....maybe the other way around...we did it so many different ways throughout the week I can't remember.

We start by drying mixing the concoction.

We make a hole in the middle and pour water into the volcano we made.

Then add the mix to the water.

and mix...

and mix....

This is the first match we need to do...there are plenty more to come. It was nice to mix in the same room that we were going to pour the cement in.

Pat and Will smoothed the floor while we continued to mix more.

The family had several kids and too many dogs. There were at least 2 new mom's and this little guy who was very skittish.

The floor is done. Whoa! It took about 6 mixings (5 on the ground and one in the wheel barrow) and about 4 hours. The boys did a great job shoveling sand and stone, mixing dry and wet cement, and smoothing the floor.

Adobe bricks for the future...

Got to love the recycling that goes on....3 litre bottles used as plant pots.

The daughter was shy but curious. If you looked at her she would duck behind her mom.

This is us with a few of the family members. The man in the orange shirt is the father of the family and the room we poured was for him. His son has recently been in a motorcycle accident and is not doing well. I hope he recovers quickly.

We finished this side of the building and decided not to complete the other side as we were out of materials, energy and time!

Back to the ranch for showers and lunch. We had left over lasagna and enchiladas that Shelley had made for us the night before. She is a great chef and we thoroughly enjoyed her homemade guacamole and chix enchiladas. There was no guacamole left the next day! We ate and talked for the rest of the afternoon and the boys napped, played video games, and drums and guitar.

Off to the "compo" soccer field to play the nightly game. They played from 5-6 the nights we were there. They won some and lost some depending on who was playing who. I think they had fun each night though they were exhausted.

We had super at Margarita's next door to Steve's. She made typico (chicken and rice) for us that was incredible. The dessert was the best! Pineapple filled pastries. Matt and I thought they were part of the meal so we took them before everyone else. We decided not to tell them how good they were. Matt scoffed down his share and I had mine too.

This was our first real gathering with Steve's boys and Tom's they got along great. After dinner they shared music, dance moves, and stories. Chris and Brayan spoke to each other in Spanish and Brayan was a great tutor. He was very clear and precise in his annunciation and you could hear the different words.

Later we played Mafia a game that Tom introduced us too. It was a good day.