Tues., 20 Jan. - The Texas team ‘Manos de Dios’, who paid for the construction of this church, has just left after a farewell service where they gave gifts such as backpacks to the many scholarship students they support. A brick walkway to the stairs to the 2'nd floor was installed, a storage room built, plumbing improvements made, and seminars for women were held. A successful mission trip.

After they left and the vigilante (guard) was locking up, he discovered that someone had left the tap on in the downstairs kitchen, with the plug in the sink – ½ an inch of water on the floor which we had to mop up.

There are still problems with some of the plumbing. Cristos, the Texan plumber, was very unhappy with some of the parts used, but they are the best that could be found here. He plans to bring several parts from the US such as check valves and good flapper valves for the toilet tanks when he returns in the summer.

We are trying to stick with our Ontario time schedule which fits in well with Hondurans, to bed at 10 and up at 6, (Honduran time; 11 and 7 Ontario) although we are often awake at 5. It gets dark at about 5:45 and daylight starts about 6 with a short dusk and dawn.

Tomorrow the community water is scheduled to be turned on from 8:30 am to noon, (once a week only). I will have to be sure that the correct valves are turned on and turn on the pump to fill the tank from which we get our water pressure during the week. We only have cold water for showers. I don’t think there is enough pressure to operate an electric shower head to provide ‘hot?’ water.
Thurs., 22 Jan. -It didn’t happen. No water Wed. We went and asked Betti and she told us it isn’t until Sat. (every 5 days).

Things were a lot quieter Wed. with the team gone. The turnout as opposed to those registered for Eva’s classes was again poor and it looks as if she can accept other students. She had to turn away some as those registered filled the class times available. V. Rev Alejandro, Dean, was by in the afternoon and described some of his plans for the deanery. He told us there is a deanery meeting in Santa Maria Sat. morning and we are invited to attend. He also broached the subject of English classes for the 10 members of the deanery team on Sat. mornings following a deanery meeting. This will be looked at closer at this Sat. meeting.

WED. -Eva spent the morning working on the lesson plan for Friday evening’s advanced (?) class and I installed my video editing program on the old laptop. I had some trouble running it and will try again tomorrow. It could be the computer just isn’t up to the job.

This afternoon a bus arrived carrying the kitchen cupboards for the kitchen we are using. The ceramic counter tops were already in place. They look really nice, (base units only), but they made one bank of cupboards too long. They installed what they could and will to be back Sat. with that 3 door section remade. Looks like Sat. will be busy.


Installing the kitchen cupboards

Fri. 23 Jan. - About 10 am we took a bus into Danli. It was a van which in Canada would hold 8 passengers. By the time we got to El Centro, there had been up to 13 passengers plus the driver and conductor. Cost, 5 Limperas, (33 cents) each.

We bought some needed kitchen supplies, had Honduran tacos for lunch (about $2 each for 2). This favorite is quite different from Mexican tacos and are deep fried after filled with a chicken base mixture then served with a tomato sauce and shredded cabbage over them. We then did some grocery shopping and because of the groceries & parcels we took a taxi back, 30 L ($2.00).

Sun., 25 Jan. - Saturday produced no water. We used the last of the stored water Wed. and have had to rely on bottled water and water from the hand pump on the well on church property. Unfortunately the water from the well has fine sand in it which eventually settles and a fine dust which floats to the top and I have to skim off. A member of the church was by this morning to collect a 5 gallon pail of water from the pump, which she then carried home on her head. Also, the carpenters didn’t arrive to install the last of the cupboards.


The congregation Sunday at ´Manos de Dios`

Jeannie came by about 10:30 to pick up Dean Alejandro’s alb and asked us if we wanted a ride to Cristo Rey. The service was well attended with a lot of young people. The new church is roofed but the money isn’t available to complete the construction. In the afternoon we went to service here an Manos de Dios. The congregation is young but doesn’t seem to be large enough, hence the difficulties they are experiencing in maintaining this very large building.


Sunrise and sunset here are very fast and sometimes quite dramatic. This sunset was taken from the balcony just outside our kitchen

Mon., 26 Jan. -We go water. The water tank is filled and I was able to take a this afternoon shower. Boy it felt good. However the carpenter hasn't been back with the re-worked kitchen cabinet.

Fri., 16 Jan. - I have never seen rain like this in Honduras. 3 times since we arrived in Danli Tues. The weather has been cool at nights and our blankets didn’t arrive from Yuscaran. Fortunately we were able to borrow one from Jeannie along with a few other things like a microwave, coffee maker, and toaster. The bed also came from her but was short 9 slats to support the mattress. We have had the carpenter make 9 more, which he delivered tonight. He also put the legs on the tables and took one that had been made by joining two narrow ones and re-split it into 2. These tables are getting expensive. The job on the tables and 9 slats was 700 L.

English Class registration was today. Eva has 68 registered so far and is bound to get a few more Monday, although not everyone is likely to show up. She has 3 which she thinks might be better in a more advanced class on Fridays. Since our tables had not arrived by 3:30, registration took place in the sewing room. There are so many registered that Eva will have to use that room for classes, at least until the numbers drop.

The group from Texas arrived late afternoon yesterday. The men came by this morning and started to build a storage cupboard in the church. Slo-o-ow going. The group is also planning to do some landscaping.

We are still having to cook in the kitchen downstairs and are still having problems with the water. I thought I had the system figured out but went to take a shower this evening and there was no water.

Sat., 17 Jan. - We were able to move into the upstairs kitchen today and no longer have to navigate 23 steps to go from our bedroom, where we kept the food, good pots, etc., to the kitchen.

The Texas team continued working on the storage cupboard, held a seminar on growing vegetables and started to build sample plots, a leadership seminar, and a vision clinic. all were very well attended.
Josefina Santos who many teams from past years will remember was by this afternoon and will be here for the dedication of the second floor tomorrow. Bishop Allan will be officiating. We had a good visit. Josefina continues to work for the Lutheran Church. Last year she was sent to England, Germany, and Italy to take courses. Later this year she expects to go to Chile for a 2 month course.

Tues., 19 Jan. - We went to Yuscaran with Jeannie for the meeting of the staff of Yuscaran Deanery. However when we got there, no one was around. Jeannie phoned Dean Dagoberto and learned the meeting was in Ojo de Agua, 20 km away and which we had driven by. With us was a family who were meeting Kathy Pennybacker to go Tegucigalpa with her. The little girl, about 2, was sick in the car.

Deacon Lourdes Herrera is to be ordained priest in March and will be the Vicar of the town of Yuscaran.

After the meeting Jeannie dropped us in central Danli where we visited the hotel where the ‘Pilgrimage’ team will be staying in March, then had some keys cut and returned home.

Eva had her first English classes yesterday and as usual, only some of those registered showed up. There was a slight confusion with some of those registered and they thought they were to come Tues. They didn’t meet for long as there was a lot of noise from the construction and it was

We’re in Danlí!

The trip down was long as we had to be at the airport for 5:30 am. We arrived in El Salvador about 2:30 pm Toronto time, (1:30 Central Standard), and having only had a breakfast on the plane about 9:30, we bought a Subway sandwich for lunch. Before we continued on to Honduras at 7:30 we had dinner in the airport ‘secure’ area which we never left. Our friend Pati picked us up and took us to her home where we visited with her and her 3 children, then spent the night.

Next morning we went to the ‘Mall Multiplaza’ to exchange money and get ‘SIM’ chips for our phones. As usual we encountered Latin American bureaucracy, but with Pati’s help, were able to manage without too much trouble, Cell phones here are quite cheap and for just over US $5 we got both phones working with US $5 air time, (about 24 minutes). After a light lunch, Rev. Deacon Kathy Pennybacker picked us up and drove us to Nueva Esperanza on the outskirts of Danlí where we will be staying in the church apartment.

We are the first to stay here and all the furniture etc. had been piled in here and in the kitchen downstairs that we will be using temporarily. Our first job was cleaning and organizing. By the time 10 pm arrived, we were tired and headed for bed. Unfortunately, our blankets had not arrived and it was cool with only a sheet over us.

Wed. we did more organizing and SAMS US missionary Jeannie Loving drove us to a major supermarket to do some shopping. Spent about $130. We have a new fridge with a large freezer so there are no worries there. IT HAS A FREEZER DOOR THAT CLOSES!! We met an itinerant vegetable seller this morning who told us he will be by every day about 8 am. Also, the Jr. Warden (Betty) of the church lives just down the street and she makes and sells tortillas, (starting about 4 am). Some things haven’t arrived yet such as the gas tank for the stove. Fortunately it has one electric burner so we can do simple cooking. We have also been able to borrow a few things left behind when SAMS US missionary Dotty Gleason returned to the US a week ago.

The Texas group ‘Manos de Dios’ who built this church are arriving Thurs. On Sunday Bishop Lloyd Allen will be here to dedicate the second level, which contains the apartment and the room in which Eva will be teaching, plus 3 other rooms. The church sanctuary was dedicated last year while we were here.

This is thesite of the mud slide that sent a motel crashing down on a number of houses below. There were 3 more of these slides on the way to Danli that destroyed part of the highway.

Here you see the motel that slid about 50 feet onto the houses that you can just see in the bakground. No one was seriously injured.

Honduran weather continues to be very different from the rainless 3 months we experienced when we first arrived. On our way out from Tegucigalpa we stopped to view one of the land slide areas from the recent rains in Oct. Half the road was gone, the motel below slid down and into some houses which also slid down the hill possibly 50 ft. Fortunately, no one was badly injured. However lost crops are continuing to cause severe hardship for many.

That’s it for now folks. Keep tuned for further news.

Preparing to GO

Happy New year everyone.

We are in the final stages of preparing for our 2009 mission trip to Honduras. It seems to be comng up so fast, with so much to do, but I'm sure everything will work out.

We go to our daughter's on Monday, 11 Jan. and spend the night. At 5 am we will be picked up and taken to the airport for our 8:30 flight to San Salvador where we wait 6:5 hours for our 40 minuite flight to Honduras. A dear friend in Tegucigalpa will take us to her home for the night. On Tues. am we have meetings in the capital and will then go to Danli, (100 km).

We will be staying in an apartment in the church 'Manos de Dios', (Hands of God), in the community of Nueva Esperanza on the outskirts of Danli. There is a classroom available in the church compound that Eva will be using to teach English. Keep watching our ongoing saga.



This is the church 'Manos de Dios'. The apartment is left hand door you see on the second floor.