Honduras Day 4

Happy Birthday Pop!

Today we head to the city to met Ed and Valerie and work on a daycare center. We were up and ready by 9am and met our drive who was going to drop us off at the bottom of the mountain. We had said our goodbyes the night before and were already missing the friendships we had formed at the ranch.

A slow ride down, avoiding bumps, washout areas, and people we met Ed at the Texaco station. He helped load us up and off we went into Tegucigalpa to paint the daycare. Ed told us about the daycare and what was happening in their lives.

We arrived at the daycare and walked up the hill as construction was happening on the road way for a water canal. There are houses on the left side of the ditch and the "road" on the right.


People utilize their rooftops for clothes lines, storage, gardens, and livestock.




These are a few of the kids at the daycare. There parents pay less than $2.00 a month to send their kids to this location. They are provided an education, snacks, and love.

They loved having their photo taken. The kids went to a different location for the day so we could paint.

Here are the boys moving the nap beds.

This is Val and Pati, a Honduras 3 year old girl they are hoping to adopt. She only speaks Spanish and has been living in a great Foster home since she was 4 days old. Val and Ed have been in the adoption process for over 2 years. They have been having visits with Pati for 2 weeks and hop the paperwork finalizes before her 3rd birthday in a week. She has the biggest smile and the most contagious laugh!

The view was beautiful up here.

The inside of the daycare was very dark and needed to be brightened up. Val's goal for us was to paint the outside of the building, the kitchen, nap room and classroom.

Here is Pat on the ladder and Mike below painting the outside. We had one 5 gallon bucket of white paint that absorbed quickly into the stucco.

Tom and Chris painting the street side of the building.

Kitchen before painting.

During...but ran out of paint.Val had to drop off Pati at noon so we headed out to Sherwin Williams to get more paint. I learn a great deal about local Honduras and Val and Ed's life. Val was a great tour guide and inspiration for all the work she does for the community. When we returned lunch was ready and was delicious. The family across the street provided the meal for us. Corn tortillas, hamburg meat, rice, and fried beans.

Ed painting the ceiling rafters.

Pat doing trim.

Mike finishing up the trim on the bottom.

Andrew and Matt on the job too.

Val wanted the name of the daycare painted on the side of the building so Tom drew it out based on their business card. Andrew painted it with black oil paint. Tom headed out to meet Steve and the priest that presides over the church that Steve and the boys go to on Sundays.

Matt and I started in on the nap room, there was next to no natural light in the room and the overhead bulb was loosely wired so we had minutes of light and hours of darkness.

Val doing the rafters in nap room. The walls were really dry and could have used a third coat but we ran out of time.

Andrew did a great job on the sign.

Val designed the sign on the street side of the building and the boys painted that one too.

I know it does not look like I did anything on this trip but I did. I took pictures, offered encouragement, and yes did manual labor too. There is some white paint on that shirt.

The electrical pole probably has one legit run and the families are tapping into the line.

Val and Ed and the ladies.

The daycare ladies were very happy with the newly painted rooms.

We left at 4:30pm to head to Zambrano where Val and Ed lived with their 2 sons AJ and Wess. The road up the mountain was slowed as there was an 18 wheeler flipped over on the way down. Val said they drive the trucks like sport cars and often lose control. We do not think the driver survived.

We safely arrived at the house of Luis and Mayra where we were staying. Typico supper was waiting for us, prepared by Alba, the house cook who had been with them for over 13 years.

We meet Sarah from Sweden, Jason and Megan from the US. They were all staying with Luis and his ministry. The place was setup similar to the big house with male and female dorms and a large kitchen. The center of the place was the families kitchen.

After we supped we headed down to Ed and Val's. They have a great place they rent with a big yard for the 3 dogs. We meet their sons and Kenny the boys tutors. We hung out for a while and had a delicious dessert and then headed to bed.

Big day tomorrow building a storage shed. Breakfast at 7:30am.