The adventures come to an end :-(

Buenas!!!!

So we have now arrived once again at Suzanne's house, ready for the return flight home to good old England tomorrow. We have had some more fantastic travelling times - the 13 hour overnight bus to Playa del Carmen was horrible as expected - but the result of the destination made it totally worthwhile. Playa was incredible - the sand on the beach was so fine and the sea was gorgeous. Kossy and I decided to splash out and treat ourselves so we went paragliding! It was really cool - the view of the coast and even the water were really cool - it was so much fun! We headed to Chichen Itza the next day (Mayan ruins) which were incredible. They were the 5th mayan ruins we have seen!

The next day was ultimate travel times - we got a bus to Merida and then onto another overnight bus - this time for 15 hours. again it was horrible but we arrived in San Cristobal once again mid day on Monday. We headed to a new hostel advertised by a guy at the bus terminal and fell asleep. We went to the market again in San Cristobal which is really cool - in the shadow of a huge cathedral, before heading bak to the hostel to sleep! We were both really ill in the night - think it was dodgy mango - so decided not to travel as planned the next day. We moved out of our hostel because it was rubbish - very cold and the staff were really rude when we were sick. We headed to another one nearby and i endud up sleeping for almost 24 hours. After that i felt alot better. (we are both fine now).

We had planned to break up the journey back to Su Su's house but now we didnt have enough time so we got a bus straight to Antigua. It took 12 hours - which in a microbus isnt very fun! Crossing the border was interesting - to get out of Mexico we had an unexpected 262 peso charge sprung upon us and we had planned it perfectly to end up at the border with no pesos left, and there was no cash machine. So we were kinda screwed but fortunately 2 very kind aussies called Kim and Vanessa who we had made friends with on the bus lent us some money. We eventually arrived in Antigua and headed straight for Su Su's and have been chilling here since eating all her food :-) - we did make a trip to Antigua today to do some more shopping (sorry Paul i couldnt find any havianas...)

So tomorrow (actually tday in less than 12 hours) we are flying home to England. We have had a truly fantastic time travelling and a brilliant experience as a whole. I have learnt so much over this past 5 months and have so much to thank God for. I am looking forward to being back in England and seeing people but i will definately be missing Central America and people here lots and lots. Maybe one day i might make my way back here.......

Thanks for reading all these blogs - i know they have been long at times1 I hope you have enjoyed them and all the details of the food we have been eating :-)

For the last time...

Lots of love,

God Bless all.

Joel

More travelling..

Been a while - in Mexico now...

Since last blog - we travelled south through belize (hitting the beaches again!) and hired bikes at one point. In a place called Dangriga we met a guy called Bob who was a tailor - Kossy and Luke gave him some money to make some clothes for them and we never saw him again. We went round to his house and he wasnt there - someone told us he was at his uncles house - then when we went back again they said he was in guatemala.... We then did a cool boat journey along the rio dulce river, before saying goodbye to Luke and Claire and heading to Coban - saw places called Semuc Champey (big river that goes underground with loads of incredible pools on top - i climbed down and up a waterfall holding on to a rope - was quite scary but im still alive) and Grutas de Lanquin (massive cave system which is not all explored or mapped - loads and loads of bats). We were in a rubbish minivan which got stuck on a big hill on the way to the caves so aftyer 2 hours of pushing and pulling using a big rope we gave up - had to walk to a nearby hostel and all cram into 1 minivan - was quite cosy... Watched Dodgeball on a TV in the hostel!

Then we had an epic day travel to get to Mexico to a place called San Cristobal de Las Casas and chilled there for a day - really nice town, lots of culture. Then headed up north to the ruins of Palenque which were cool - we are in Palenque town now. Got an overnight bus tonight to Playa Del Carmen which should be fun (sarcasm).

Generally there is lots of sweatyness and smellyness so looking forward to hitting up the beach at Playa del Carmen - the beaches are gorgeous check it out on google.

Will probably blog again at some point.

God Bless

Joel x

In belize -still alive. Spent a night on a island in the carribean (Tobacco caye - google it) which was incredible - only 20 permanent residents! Loads of sun adn the locals are all soo cool.

Heading down south to more beaches and more sun!

God Bless,

Joel

End of Step... :-)

I feel like i should blog as i havnt in ages but its 1.30am so its going to be short - that should make Paul happy though because he might actually read it...

Last wednesday we finished our time working with GEU (the house and garden looks awesome) and started our holiday which has just come to an end. We climbed a live volcano called Pacaya and toasted Marshmellows, and then headed off to Lake Atitlan for a few days which was incredibly beautiful. We have also visited Antigua (a traditional style town with lots of markets and lots of fun haggling)

In about 5 and a half hours, Claire, Luke, Rachel, Kossy and I are getting the bus to Tikal. Claire and Luke are travelling for 2 weeks, Rachel is staying on for summer step and Kossy and I are staying on for 4 weeks. Heulwen is staying for 3 weeks but is meeting up with friends so not coming with us. Everyone else (Faye, Katy, Helen, Matt and Guy) are flying home tomorrow.

Lots of sad times saying goodbye later today which will be very hard but its not a permanent goodybe.

Im shattered so cant write more - Step has been one of (if not the) most amazing experiences of my life. I have learnt so much about so much! Its just been staggering!

Cant wait for travelling - will try to keep you updated.

Much Love and God Bless,

Joel

Guatemala times!!

Wow it has been a long time since the last blog so apologies (mainly to Mum - im alive by the way...)

Building has gone really well. We have now finished all the painting work inside and outside. Over the past 3 weeks we have all been covered in paint at various different times, but enough of it made its way onto the walls to give a complete paint job!! We also finished scrubbing, sanding and painting the dreaded balcones. Seriously, those things are the most annoying things to maintain - I am so glad we dont need them in England! I almost cried when Vinicio told us that because they had been so rusty before, they needed a second coat of paint! Nonetheless, we did the job well and got it all finished! We have also had a large scaffolding up over the last couple of weeks at the front of the house in order to paint the higher parts that were otherwise unreachable. It was perfectly safe though - dont worry (Jose - the builder who is working with us is an absolute legend and an amazing ingenious builder - and he put up the scaffolding to make sure it was safe) So after lots of scrubbing, painting and of course lots of laughs, the GEU house is looking much much better. We also constructed a new roof outside because the bases were pretty much rotted through! The house looks very different now which is encouraging!

We now have only 3 days left on site, to finish off the garden that we started this week. We have become the ground force team, clearing and remodelling the garden, including fancy paths and some decking. Guy thought it would be nice to add a water feature to the garden, so decided to pickaxe his way through a pipe in the garden (which happened to be the main pipe from the housr, which drained all the water from the entire house!) Jose was quickly on the scene though, and after cutting of the water supply to the house from under the pavement out front, and blocking the tank on the rof with a cork, the leeking stopped. The garden was, however, partially swamped which put us back a bit but all is good now!

We have also had Luke´s birthday since the last blog. What a day... It started with him having a treasure hunt to find his presents, during which i was dressed as a Puffy Pirate... and Guy was the Rey de las Cocarachas (King of the Cockroaches). It was a right laugh. He had a toffee corn flae cake thingy for lunch and then at dinner had a freshly baked lemon drizzle cake. Complements to the chefs Fay and Rachel for the most amazing cake! To put an end to the day, Guy, Matt and I fulfilled one of Luke´s birthday wishes (everyone gets 10 wishes on their birthday) but giving him a dance. We danced incredibly to Shakira´s ´Wherever, whenever´ which was incredible. Probably more inappropriate than Luke was expecting but that added to the fun.

We also spent a weekend at Su Su´s house (Suzanne Potter - our co-ordinator). It was a really amazing weekend- lots of time to relax and chill and eat Suzannes amazing food - on Sunday we had a full on English roast beef! It was awesome. On Sunday we went to the Fraternidad Cristiano de Guatemala which is a mega Church. When i say Mage i mean it - it had a congregation of 12,000 people and they meet in a building much bigger than Loftus Road (QPR´s ground for those of you who dont know!) It was quite crazy, a very good experince but i dont really think that that is what Church should be like - it definately lacked the family aspect that you can get in the smaller churches here (and in Bless!!).

Last week we went to the National Palace. It was th e 3rd time we had tried to getting in after being rejected in favour of the President of Taiwan (ridiculous i know!). This Thursday we went to the National Theatre to watch the NAtional Orchestra! It was absolutley incredible! (sorry for my lack of interesting adjectives) We got the tickets for free because we had been to see a concert earlier in the week but it was closed due to swine flu. Vinicio managed to blag us some free tickets to this one though so worked out much better in the end!

Yesterday we had an amazing day working with the El Castillo project. They work with street kids so we split into 2 groups and went to different locations. My group went to work with younger kids. We set up differentstations for them in a basketball/football court. My station involved sheets of paper with pencils and paint and the kids could do whatever they wanted. One of them used the opportunity to paint a whole piece of paper blue but he was so sweet it was cool. They loved it all so much - we gave them sweets and chocolates and then fed them some cereal aswell. Taking them back home was quite an upsetting experience. All the kids lived on a big rubbish pile where the waste and refuge from the market place goes. It was really sad to see these people and these kids living in these conditions which made me feel even more privalleged to be able to help them out, even in such a small way.

Life is going really well in general. There are so many bits and pieces that i will have missed out on because i cant remember. We have had so much fun, so many laughs all the time and it has just been incredible. I wish i had time to write about it all (thats not true actualy because typing gets pretty boring after a while) but just trust me that we are having th emost amazing experince out here.

Devotions have been amazing aswell - we are still going with Revelation - we are doing chapter 15 tonight so are on track to get it finished.

Hope you guys are all well - if any other steppers reading this have actually got this far then hello and much love and prayers.

God Bless,

Joel

Guatemala continued...

Hey everyone.

Time seems to be flying for us here in Guatemala. It seems like we have barely arrived, yet we have now spent 3 weeks here!

On our working days we have continued to paint the interior of the house and the balcones outside (grates covering windows and doors). We have now also begun work on the roof that we are building outside (Meaning we have taken it down and are now going to put up the new structure).

On Monday morning we went to a different campus (the medicine and pyscology one) to promote the small bible studies they do every week. We did a couple of dramas - the Sticky Chair drama and one called Study, ´Eat, Play, Sleep.... Die´. They both went down really well and we managed to attract a decent crowd to talk to afterwards (although that might also be because we are white... We had a free afternoon which was put to very good use - watching Gladiator on my Ipod :)

One of the guys in the house, Eduardo, is an architect and had to finish a project by Monday. A few of us had been helping him out by making little models and other bits and pieces. Kossy, Rachel and Luke ended up staying up all of Sunday night to help him out. Despite this they came on Monday to do the dramas, but were running solely on Coffee (Rachel was hilariously hyper). Unfortunately he didn´t manage to finish the project but got an extension and handed it in a couple of days later.

On Wednesday we managed to get away at 12 to the Uni campus and watched the final in a big auditorium. Everyone here supports Barcelona so it was quite a rowdy crowd. I was wearing my England shirt so got quite a bit of abuse after the game but it was all good. Barca were fantastic so there´s nothing to hold against them...

Friday we went to the Museam of the University which was mildly interesting. In the afternoon we continued with our English lessons, which we also did on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon was good fun - we played basketball and football with some of the guys. The girls came along to play basketball (Helen even scored a basket!!) but went back when we went to the football pitch. It was all great fun as usual but by the end of it i had screwed up my knee quite badly. That evening/night was quite painful - walking was difficult and bending hurt alot. IT´s much better now though.

Yesterday (Sunday) was incredible. For the first 2 weeks we have been going to a Church called El Camino, which is good, but very American (it even had a fair few Americans in it). This week we were invited to a different Church where we could have some participation. We practised 5 songs and a drama that we did, and I also gave my testimony (In Spanish!!!!) The Church had a proper upright piano, rather thatn a keyboard - which was amazing to play after 3ish months! The dramas and songs went really well - as did my testimony. I didnt struggle with the language or pronunciation which was amazing. After a break in the service (when they served sandwiches!!) we were asked if we wanted to do more stuff, so we sung a couple more songs, Guy did an instrumental of ´Lord i lift your name on high´on the sax and we did another couple of dramas. It was a fantastic service and I really enjoyed it (especially the piano!!).

In the afternoon we were invited to a guy called Victor Hugos house. His son plays piano at the Royal Conservatory or something similar and is basically incredible. We went to have a bit of a jam basically. Guy took his guitar and played with the Guys son (whose name i cant remember). Me and Guy then spent ages playing the piano which again was so much fun. At one point, he asked us all to come outside for a photo. He told us to stand by his Eucalyptus tree, some crouching to get everyone in. Most of the group, completely mistranslating this, thought he wanted us all in the tree and started to climb it very enthusiastically. When Helen corrected the mistranslation, there was a quick scurry for the ground (Luke basically dropped out of the tree) and we all looked rather embarrased for the photo.

Time is flying here and I cant believe we are almost halfway through this project. We have been having an amazing series of devotions studying the book of Revelation. It´s quite tricky but we have managed to have some awesome discussions about it all.

Thanks so much for all the prayers - our music man neighbour is still playing his music loud and proud at all hours so please continue to pray for him.

God Bless

Joel

Guatemala!

Buenas from Guatemala City!

We´ve been here nearly 2 weeks now. We arrived in Guatemala city, driven by an extremely irritable mini bus driver who liked to mutter gringo insults under his breath. Now you might think that this is a bit harsh, and it is, because we could never have done anything to aggrevate him at all... Well... When we were about 20 mins into the journey, Guy and i realised that we had left something at the hotel. Not just an item of clothing or some possesion, it was a very part of ourselves. I am talking of course about our cowboy hats. So.. after about a minute of discussion - we decided to return for them (massive amount of credit goes to Faye who helped sway the minds of other less convinced team members that we should go back.) So when we arrived once again at the hotel i jumped out and ran in. Slyly, I had put my passport in my pocket so that when I came out again - I hid the cowboy hats as best as I could while proclaiming I had what I went in for and waved my passport about in front of me. Despite the laughter/disbelief from the team, the driver was still not amused... When we arrived in Guatemala City, the driver asked us for directions to the address we had given him. Our response - completely blank faces. So after another 30 mins of driving around the city we eventually saw Suzanne waving crazilly from infront of a house. We quickly unloaded the van and said goodbye to the driver (after he tried to scam some more money out of us for apparently having too many bags!)

We are now living in a student house with 6 other Guatemalan students near the University - Norberto, Julio César, Aldo, Sergio, Eder, Eduardo. Ouselves included there are 17 people in the house which is most definitely cosy. The lads we are living with are awesome and already feel like family - nothing like paint fights for breaking the ice! The house we´re living in is the headquarters of GEU, the Guatemalan Christian students union, it’s a space for all the students to use as well as providing living space for 6 students who wouldn´t otherwise be able to afford accommodation. The house is pretty old and a bit of a mess so our first project is renovation inside and outside, building a new outside roof ( which we´re pro´s at now) and sorting out the garden. Work on the house takes up 3 days of our week (tues-thur), Friday we´ll be helping the students with any outreach programs they have running in the morning and giving English lessons in the afternoon, Saturday we have another English lesson in the morning and sports outreach in the afternoon and Sunday is various church stuff.

Work on the house is going well, we have alreday repainted the main living area and the front courtyard which definately bright up the place. Unfortunately, some bright spark decided to pebble dash all the ceilings inside which makes painting them an absolute time consuming, arm aching nightmare. But despite that, we buckled down and the ceiling is now nice and white which brightens the room alot! Another task we are doing is sanding and repainting balcones, which are basically big metal grates which cover all the doors and windows. Scraping them of rust and sanding them so they are smooth is no easy task and takes alot of will power to stop yourself from going crazy... Painting them, however, is just as frustrating. Not the painting but the paint itself. We are using this black anti corrosive paint which when you get it on your skin, refuses to come off unless it is scrubbed with white spirit. It also means that cleaning the brushes and pots is not at all fun. Anyway - we are looking forward to getting started on the roof on tuesday and will continue with the painting and sanding nonetheless.

We have recently had the pleasure of a visit from Andy Lawrence (the Step Coordinator) It was good fun having him along for a few days, sharing stories and generally having a laugh. He very kindly shouted us all to a meal out at a nice restaurant (no idea where). Guy and I sufficiently topped up our protein intake by sharing a huge platter of meat (various steaks, sausages and chicken). For a couple of the nights, as there wasn´t enough room, all the lads came and slept over in the living room so Andy wasn´t on his own (he is scared of the dark...) Guy made him feel very comfortable by sharing a double lilo with him and holding his hand while he slept (well maybe not holding hands but they shared the lilo...) He and Suzanne led a devo on Wednesday evening, before going to bed and seeing him off at 6 on Thursday morning.

Devotions are going really well. Since we arrived here we had a mini series on Acts, before starting a series on Revelation on Thursday. It is going really well so far and im excited about the discussions we are going to have as we go further. We have just about reached the tricky stuff in chapters 4 and 5 but there is plenty more to come!!

We have 1 huge prayer point. Behind our garden there is another house occupied by someone who delights to play music ridiculously loud at very unearthly times of the night. He has positioned his speakers so that they are facing out of his windows at the back, basically at our house. Music sometimes starts at about 3-4am and continues for hours. It is also played most of the time during the day. This is obviously incredibly annoying. I have been woken up pretty much everynight by it and it is having a really bad effect on the team as a whole (health and attitudes). Last night in particular I got hardly any sleep, came downstairs ready to give an English lesson, only to be sent back to bed by Helen and Claire. Apparently my face was quite green and i couldn´t keep my eyes open. I feel much better now after sleeping most of the morning but this really cant go on. Please please please pray that this stops, im not sure what state we will be in if we have to put up with it for another 6 weeks.

There is probably more I could write but cant remember because i left my diary at home. If you guys fancy sending any post (maybe with chocolates...) then the address is:

Joel Pambakian
c/o GEU
11 Avenida 30-23,
zona 12,
colonia santa rosa II
Ciudad de GUatemala
GUATEMALA

Dios te bendiga…

Joel

Holiday time!

So...

On Monday 4th we woke up at 4am, and got to Headman Alas coach station for 4.45. That was when the tearful farewells began. Blanca, Pamela, Pastor Reny, DeeAnn and Sara all waved us goodbye as we left them for the last time. Blance obviously was especially emotional as we had all formed a very strong relationship with her and she with us. It was very hard and there were tears all round but eventually we got onto the coach and left. Bummer news was that Helen had been really ill the week before so was unable to come with us to Utila! It sucked big time so we were waving goodbye to her aswell as she stayed with the family for a few more days. We took a 7 hour coach journey to La Ceiba (which was fine because i slept for 4 hours of it) and then had to wait around in La Ceiba for a little bit before getting a 1 hour boat journey to Utila aka Paradise. Utila is one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras in the Carribean Sea. It was insanely beautiful. We arrived, however, hot, tired and burdened with all our bags, so we hurried to our hostel and with minimal stress got settled in to our rooms. We went out that night for a brief look around before com¡ng across something that God had specifically put on Utila for me. A curry restaurant. Oh Wow! It was incredible (we obviously went in there and then) as i hadnt had a curry for a couple of months. After that went back to our rooms and fell asleep pretty quickly despite the heat because we were all so shattered.

Tuesday morning we woke up late and had a lazy start. Then we made our way down to the beach. There was powdery white/golden sand with amazingly clear Carribean waters. It truely was paradise. We spent all afternoon there sunning ourselves, swimming, reading and generally chilling. Lunch was absolutely incredible. Faye and I went to a restaurant which was basically on the beach. We ordered our food (i had a huge plate of breaded shrimps with rice, salad and fried plantane) and sat eating it on a pier that stretched out over the sea, looking down into the water admiring the fish we could see swimming below us. It was fantastic! Easily the best restaurant i have been to in a long time. We went back to the house when it got dark, and then went out for dinner at a mexican place which was also really nice. The waiter was a super chilled Guy called Jean who came and chatted to us for a bit. Everyone on the Island was so chilled out - it was awesome. Its also alot safer than Tegucigalpa (although thats not hard...) which meant that we cold walk around at night!! That was really nice after not being able to do it for almost 2 months!

The beach - the hut is the place where we ate lunch.

Wednesday we woke up and had a devotion in the morning, before heading out to the same increible beach we were at the day before. Quite obviously, I went to the same restaurant, this time accompanied by Guy. Same amazing setting, but this time i was munching on a whole Red Snapper with all the same extra stuff. Again it was incredible... In the afternoon we hired bycicles and we went off on an absolutle epic cycle ride around Utila. We cycled for quite a while, until some of the girls decided to turn back. The lads and Heulwen decided to go on for a little bit longer. We saw some huge flat lava thingys which were basically a big expanse of smelly ooze. Not really sure how it was formed - some sort of volcanic activity but it was pretty cool. We also went through some really overgrown paths and eventually came across the airstrip! We went in and raced down the runway in true topgear style... When we got back to the hostel i realised that i was horrendously burnt under my knees which was incredibly whenever i walked or sat or generally moved. Lots and lots of aftersun later, 5 of us headed off to an Israeli restaurant for dinner (Guy, Matt, Rachel, Claire and I). It was a great meal and nice to chat in a smaller group over a meal aswell.

My Red Snapper!

Red Snapper is no more...

The bikes..

Overgrown paths...

By the sea.

Heulwen on the runway

Thursday was an incredible day. We woke up really early and went to Captain Morgans dive centre for 7am and got on the boat to the Cays (little islands about 20 mins away from Utila). Unfortunately insurance didnt cover scuba diving, but we had an incredible time snorkelling and kayaking around the islands and the reefs. The snorkelling was amazing - the water was so clear and the reefs were huge! At one point Heulwen and I saw a fish that was about 3 feet long and just under a foot wide, with these huge white eyes. It was easily the biggest fish ive ever seen while snorkelling. The main Cay was called Jewel Cay which was little islands joined together by a little bridge. Just next to that was Diamond Cay. We swam/kiaked there and had a game of rounders with a huge bit of bamboo and fallen coconuts. Then, Guy and I (who had snorkelled there) left on the kayaks (while whistling the Pirates of the Carribean music) leaving the others stranded on Diamond Cay. Then came along Luke on the 3rd Kyak, on a rescue mission. He tried to board my Kyak, which ended up capsizing. All good - except that I had mine and Guys flippers and masks on board. The flippers were fine cos they floated, however, the masks quickly sunk to the bottom of the sea. Quite amazingly, however, after a while, one of the dive masters who Luke had told what happened, turned up with 2 masks that he had found on the bottom of the sea. It was very fortunate and saved us lots of money! We had some lunch on Jewel cay (we bought all the Baleadas in the only shop on the Island that sold them!) before going out again for the final Kyak. We went for about 10 mins until we found a tiny little island with a house on it. To get to it we had to kyak through a little path in the reef surrounding the island. When we got on, we arrived onto the softest sand i have ever felt. We walked around it (no-one was at home fortunately) and sat on the pier for a bit. It was probably the best place to live i have ever seen. At about 3 the boat took us back to Utila and we chilled at the house and packed for the rest of the day. Packing is stressful at the best of times but i had Guy who was quite ill in my room asleep - so it was even harder!

Diamond Cay.

Snorkelling

Kyaking

Claire giving me a ride...

A few seconds later....!

Friday we travelled away from Utila (sad!) and back to La Ceiba. From La Ceiba we got the coach to Copan - to see the famous Mayan Ruins there. When we first arrived we were shattered so chilled at our hotel, but the next day we went out to see the ruins. They were incredible. Our tour guide, Oscar, spoke good english so we learnt alot - he also cracked some really poor jokes - about how these funky statues looked like Ricky Martin... We also saw Macaw parrots which live wild in the area. They were amazing too - bright red with blue and yellow and green (i think...) When we got back to the house it started raining! This was the first proper rain we had had all the time we had been in Honduras so it was quite welcome.

Wild Macaw Parrots

The ruins

Sunday we had a very lazy morning. We did nothing until 3pm when Luke, Guy, Kossy, Rachel, Heulwen and I set off to go horseriding! It was so much fun. We rode up a mountain where we could see the ruins in the forest, aswell as other amazing scenery. Despite it being my first time horseriding, i set of on a full on canter on my noble steed. She was actually called Princessa, but i renamed her to Shadowfax (obviously...) It was so much fun - Guy and I were wearing our cowboy hats so we fitted the bill perfectly... kinda... We went out for dinner that night and our legs got bitten like crazy under the table but it was awesome fun. Claire´s parents had donated some money for the team which we used for that meal - so thank you very much if you are reading!!

Horseriding - Luks horse was evil and tried to bite us all...

Princessa/Shadowfax

Heulwen and her horse

That was our holiday - it was absolutely immense, filled with many epic moments - none of which will be forgotten. After we were all ready to rock up for Guatemala to see what Latin Link had in store for us there....

Joel

Last week in Honduras

Well hello everybody. Its been ages i know (which means this is gonna be a hefty blog so i apologise...)

So... 2 weeks ago we were still in Honduras in our last week. We had slightly adjusted the timetable so that we didnt go to the school as usual on Tuesday or Wednesday, but instead spent the whole week working on the building site. On Monday and Tuesday (27th and 28th) we managed to finish off all the actual building work. This involved putting the finishing touches to both roofs that we were building. It was quite hard work - clambering over the roofs and hammering nails through metal sheets and into the wooden structure (obviously completely safely...) We were also using this big cutter to cut through the sheets of metal which was incredibly fun.

On Wednesday morning and Thursday, we made some banners to brighten up the place. They all portrayed different stories that we have acted out and taught the kids over the 7 weeks we were there. They look absokutely fantastic and really brightened up the place. It was so much fun actually painting them - mainly because just as much paint ended up on each of us. At one point my face was painted completely blue (with clown additions painted on by Guy) We also painted ´Club De Niños´ on a big piece of wood which also brightened it up.

The banners we painted.

Guys sign.

Angel wings on my back.

Wednesday afternoon was the last actual meeting of the kids club! It was very emotional... When we arrived we sat down and Pastor Reny said that this week we would just be watching as the kids performed for us. They sung us all the songs that we had taught them while we were there - Dios es Poderoso (Our God is so Big), Ser Valiente, Ser Fuerte (Be Bold, Be Strong), Marchamos en la luz de Dios (We are Marching in the light of God) and other ones that they knew. We also took some pictures of each of us with 2 kids who we will continue to specifically pray for. I had mine with a kid called Dimas who is an absolute legend - he is so passionate when he prays and sings, and Anthony who is also a legend who i have a great laugh with. They are both awesome kids.

Friday was a Holy Day so we had the day off. It was also Claire´s birthday which was awsome. We had 3 of Kossy´s frinds, David, James and Jonathon, staying with us because they were travelling up through South America and decided to come see us. They were all really cool - the lads went with them to play football at the Church for the last time! It was great fun as ever. We also went back to the Club on that day to show Suzanne the finished product. We then had to leave it for the last time :-( In The evening, DeeAnn and Sara came over for dinner. It was a really nice time (Pamela had cooked for us). Whenever it had been someones birthday here they had been given Honduras football shirts, so after the meal they presented those of us who didnt already have them with Honduras football shirts which are really cool. They also gave each one of us t-shirt´s that they had had made, with a big photo on the front of us with the kids that had been taken a couple of weeks ago at the kids club. Its really amazing and is a great memory! Those along with the army t-shirts they gave us means we all now have 3 really cool Honduras t-shirts!

Us in our kids club t-shirts.

On Saturday we went to a traditional village that had been preserved in its traditional way called the Valley de Angels. It was a really nice time to buy some souviners and have a look around. Then, on Sunday we had our last Church service at Rockafuerte... We all went up to the front and said a little bit about what God had done in each one of us and lots of thanks to everyone. After the service they put on a meal for us at the Church with loads of people that we had got to know well. It was incredible - but also hard saying goodbye to alot of people for the last time... Sunday eveing we managed to pack up all of our stuff and then spent as much time as possible with Blanca and the family.

Our experince in Honduras was absolutely incredible. I will never forget it or the people there that became so special to each one of us. We had some amazing times of worship, prayer and bible study and never forgot the reasons why we were there - to do the work that we all believed God had called us to. Its seems silly to try and sum it up in words or photos but the memories will always be there to remember the outstandingly fantastic time i had.

God Bless

Joel

Another blog coming with Holiday stuff...

Update

Im alive people but dont have time to write a blog now. Next time i will fill you in about our last week in Honduras (emotional with lots of tears) and about the week holiday that is coming to an end (its been incredible!)

Love to all.

God Bless.

Joel

Penultimate week... :-(

Hola Allabodies...

Sorry its been a little while since my last update. Its been an amazingly full week so i will try to tell you about it without forgetting anything...

Last Wednesday was the usual day of school in the morning and kids club in the afternoon. At the school we carried on our sequence of incredible dramas on the story of David (that instalment was where David realises Saul wants to kill him), excellently portrayed by Guy (although his version of David was slightly less modest than i would imagine he actually was... those of you who know Guy will know what i mean!). At kids club we did the story of Noah's Ark. In the evening we had an amazing team prayer session. It started of as elephant prayers (where everyone puts their hand on the person to their left and everyone prays at the same time) and then we just carried on and were praying for eachother for ages! It was incredibly powerful and we relly felt that God did some work that night! Wednesday was also Matt's birthday so we celebrated that in the evening by having bacon for dinner! It was a really great day and Matt enjoyed it loads.

Building site is going so well. Last Thursday we dug holes in the concrete 1 foot down as the foundation for the roof! On my first attempt at digging a hole i got a bit over enthusiastic and dug down 2 feet which then had to be filled in! We dug 9 of these holes around the place and cemented the long wooden supports in place. Once these were in place securely, we cut notches in the top of them with a power cutter and secured horizontal planks in place. Over the rest of Thursday and Friday we put in place the entire framework for the roof - lots of planks going forward to backwards and side to side, just as you would imagine, and hammering them all in place. Both these days were absolutely exausting and i came home caked in sawdust mixed with sweat (delightful i know...)

On Thursday, instead of walking home the usual route, we took a detour that involved going across the river on stepping stones. Going even more off the beaten track really exposed us to even more of the poverty that people live in. There is one little guy called Flavio who is 10 who is always on the building site with us (he doesn't go to school). When we walked towards the river (he was on Guys shoulders) he pointed out his house to us which was a very small wooden contraption that was very precariously hanging over the edge of a pretty steep cliff. There is another kid who goes to the school we work at who we have nicknamed 'The Gouger' because he always comes up behind us and grabs our eyes like he is gouging them out. When we walked further towards the river he came running up to us very excited and gave us all big hugs (and gouges). It was just really sad but eye opening to see people living in these conditions and it made me even more pleased with the work that we are doing, to help the kids even in th esmall way we are.

On Friday Pastor Victor insisted on bringing us a dinner of Honduran style enchiladas which were amazing. Just another example of the overwhelming generosity that people here have and show without blinking.

For quite a while we have been looking for a way to bless some of the people here who (as i just said above) have blessed us in so many ways. On Saturday we managed to organise and pull of a fantastic meal of Cottage Pie with Apple Crumble and Summer Berry Crumble. It was a fantastic day and we cooked for 36 people without burning a thing! Mainly due to Claire's brilliant planning and cooking. The guys again did out rendition of the barber shop quartet 'Wade in the Water' which everyone enjoyed. In the evening we prayed for all the other step teams (so if your reading in Chile, Brazil, Peru or Argentina then we are praying for you guys aswell!!)

Monday was another tough day on site. Because all the wood was in place, it was time to hammer in the metal sheets that would cover the roof. It was such hard work getting the nails through a sheet of metal and actually into the wood without missing it (because you cant see where the wood is through the metal you have to kinda guess a little bit) The first nail was close to impossible and took so long, but by about the 20th it got a lot easier. Pastor Reny again put as all to shame by hammering them in in about 9 strokes. By the end of Monday we had almost all of the roof up. Some of the last sheets to go up required nails to go through 3 sheets of metal which again was very difficult. We went home on Monday again as a sweatball so the cold showers were again much appreciated.

Tuesday i was on domestic with Guy which was good fun. Wednesday (yesterday) we went to the school for the last time! We did a really good drama of David in the cave cutting Saul's clothes, and of Saul eventually not wanting to kill David anymore. It was great fun and we made it into a pantomine style thingy. It was really hard leaving the school because i really enjoyed all the work we did there and believe it did make a difference to the kids. They were all so sweet and kept on giving us hugs and hugs and more hugs before we could actually leave. I think that we will be remembered at that school (maybe not for a long time..) but i think the kids will definately miss us so we will continue to pray for Maya as she continues with the lessons, and for the kids.

We went to kids club in the afternoon and did another action packed drama of Daniel and the Lions Den. It was really good fun and the kids enjoyed Luke and Matt being Lions as I (King Darius) threw Heulwen (Daniel) into the den. We had a photo with all the kids which i hope will turn out really nice and will be a great memory. Lol we had a hilarious moment when we found out that Ferse (who i mentioned in the last blog) is actually a boy not a girl. HE is still a very cute kid though.

Kossy is now sitting next to me badgering me to get off the computer because she needs to use it so instead of telling you the rest of the incredible stuff that has happened, im going to get off and leave the computer to her.

Kossy: - You can all thank me later for cutting this insanely long blog short!

Quick Prayer points:
-Helen, our team translator/mother, is really quite unwell with very bad head pains. She is seeing a doctor today so please pray that there is nothing seriously wrong and that she can recover very quickly.
-As we only have 4 more days on the building site (we leave Tegucigalpa on the 4th May) please pray that we will be able to finish the work we came to do as it would be awful if couldn't get it done.

Thank you guys for all the prayers and please continue.

Loads of love,

Joel

Holy Week!

It has been a bit of a strange past week. Last week was Holy Week so we were not at the school on Tuesday or Wednesday because it was shut, and we weren´t on the building site on Thursday or Friday either. Nevertheless it has been quite a packed full on week.

Tuesday was a relaxing day. We were all a bit shattered after the holiday and all the travelling so we spent the day going to the internet cafe and playing football with some of the locals.

Wednesday was Faye´s birthday. We spent the morning planning a drama for the kids club in the afternoon and relaxing some more. OIn the afternoon we went to the kids club which was awesome. I spent an hour blowing bubbles with the younger ones and it was hilarious. There was one girl called Fersé who had an incredible laugh and cracked up everytime she blew bubbles in my face (which she did quite alot!). In the evening we had a piñata for Faye which was great fun. Although spinning around a blindfolded essex girl with a large pole was quite scary but good fun!

Thursday we were takento a leisure centre called Parque Centrale. We spent the day playing basketball/football/touch rugby all mixed in with large amounts of swimming in a relatively cold pool which was amazingly refreshing. We spent ages waiting for lunch but it was good when it came. Thats about all we did there - got really sweaty playing sports before going into the pool to cool off. When we got home we had another immense game of monopoly. Heulwen and I (Team Joelwen) were so intent on ruining Guy and Katy´s chances of winning that we unwittingly gave the game to Faye and Matt but it was stiull great fun. We all get pretty competitive when monopoly comes out but we are very good at leaving it all on the board after the game so its all ok! Thursday was also Kossy´s birthday so in the evening we had cake and the guys sang a bar-bar shop quartet of ´Wade in the water´ because that was one of Kossy´s birthday wishes. She had a great day in all.

On Friday (Good Friday) we went to the city centre at 3pm to see processions that went through the streets. On Thursday people had spent the day making incredible drawings and designs on the ground using coloured sawdust. The processiong then came out of the catholic church in the city centre. There were quite a few floats, some with angels carrying things that Jesus said while on the cross, some with saints, a big one with Mary and then a couple of quite graphic ones with Jesus on the cross. The procession went through the streets over the sawdust drawings. It was an amazing bit of Honduran culture that im really glad we were able to experience.

Some of the artwork on the street.

Saturday was a fantastic day. We were picked up at 11am and drove for about an hour to the Primer Battalion De Communicaciones for a Colonel´s birthday (in case you have forgotten, Don Galo is a Colonel in the army and it´s his house we are staying in, hence all the army connections..). We arrived there and helped set up the room by blowing up`balloons etc... Luke and I went for a wonder in the woodland around the place, just looking at some of the fantastic views when a huge eagle flew over and started flying around us. We think it was probably checking us out for size but eventually lost interest and left. Was pretty awesome though. We went back and had an awesome lunch, BBQ chicken and some frijoles in BBQ sauce. Friholes are starting to grow on me which is good because they have them with pretty much every meal (including breakfast!). After lunch they took us to a shooting range! Those who wanted to could fire 9mm pistols and an M60 submachine gun. The force in just the 9mm was amazing, everytime i fired it jerked my hand up so far, and the noise was horrendous! We were all covering our ears as much as possible. Then i had a go on the M60. It was absolutely immense - just standing on the big concrete platform when others fired it I could feel my whole body vibrate. We used it on semi (1 shot at a time) but it was great fun. When those who wanted to had had a go, Guyy and I asked if we could have a go on automatic. They let us fire 5 bullets each on automatic. The power of it was amazing. By the end of the 5 shot burst my gun had raised so much it was ridiculous. It was hard to see if we were actually hitting the targets or njot because they were paper. Don Galo then showed us all up. Hector ties a balloon at the very end of the range which was about 30m away. Don Galo then popped the balloon with 1 shot. It was an incredible experience and made us all think alot about how horrific it must be in an actual war situation. At about 6 we climed a hill to watch the sunset (yes more sunset pictures...)It was absolutely awesome. The pictures didn´t do it any justice and it´s impossible to sum it up in words. It was absolutely breathtaking. Majestic... Awe inspiring.. its just so hard to sum it up! We sat there and admires the wonders of creation, praising God. We sat there until it got dark and went down to join the others. Back down the hill, another Colonel shared his testimony with us about how God is moving among the army which was really cool and gave us a sort of preach which was really nice. We then had fresh watermelon while looking up at the stars!

The inspirational sunset.

On Sunday, we went to Church as usual. They don´t really make a big thing about Easter here, most of the congregation were away but it was still a really good service. Pastor Victor was preaching from the bit of scripture about Jesus rising from the dead, but the message wasn´t necessarilly what i expected from a talk on Easter but it was still really good and the worship as ever was fantastic. Even though it is just from a CD and its in Spanish, its still amazing. After Church we went to yet another Army base (I think that makes it 4 army bases we have now been to!) where there was a swimming pool We spent the afternoon chilling, playing some ultimate frizbee, swimming and reading by the pool. It was a really good day and in the evening we had a really good prayer session as a team.

Yesterday Kossy and I were on domestic and we made an easter egg hunt for the team! I had brought out quite a few cream eggs and mini eggs and some fairtrade chocolate for Faye and Guy (who has now said that after giving up chocolate for lent - he is now only going to eat fairtrade chocolate). It was great fun and we all had a laugh.


The team is getting on really well. People are still getting to know eachother i guess but we now all know eachother pretty well after living together for over a month now! Its really exciting to see the work that God is doing in all of us so keep praying that it all continues. Pray that we all have patience with eachother, we haven´t had any arguments yet so im keen for that to continue!


Also, as you may know, Tegucigalpa is not the safest city in the world so please also pray for our safety at all times. Work on the site is also getting a little dangerous (working on the roof now) so also pray for that.


I dont really have any more time so will update more sometime soon.


Lots of love


Joel

Beach Holiday!

Friday morning we were picked up by Sarah (Honduran lady who works with a mission out here and goes to the same Church who was organising our trip) and Mario (our driver for the weekend) and set out on a 6 hour cosch journey to San Pedro which is on the North Coast of Honduras. When we arrived on Friday afternoon we met Don Hector (the husband of our host) who had sorted out accomodation for us. Don Hector happens to be a Colonel in the army so we were staying in army barracks on an army base! It was a really beautiful place, accomodation was basic but that was to be expected... They had filled our fridge with a few bottles of coke and had some buscuits and coffee for us which was really sweet. We had a quick bite to eat and drink with the Colonel and then went to Puerto Cortez Navy base which was about an hours drive away. One of the big wigs in the Navy came to meet us and gave us a quick tour of the base and of a ship aswell. It was great fun looking around the place and then we went to the Navy Base´s private beach and had a swim in the Carribean sea. It was amazingly warm just relaxing in the water but was still refreshing compared to the heat outside (the North coast is much hotter than Tegucigalpa which is in the south of the country). We watched the sunset in the water after taking some amazing pictures of it from the land.

Sunset from Puerto Cortez

Me and Heulwen in the sunset from the ship

When we got out it was dark (obviously because we watched the sun set...) and we went to get some Baleadas for dinner (tortillas with frihollis, chorizo sausage, sour cream and salsa) which are really tasty. That night was swealteringly hot so sleeping wasnt pleasant át all but I managed to get some eventually.


Saturday we spent all day at the beach. We were picked up in the morning and drove for about 2 hours to get to a nice beach. The initial reaction was a bit dissapointing. All the sand had huts built over it because no one ever sits out in the sun, and there was really loud music playing. We walked along the beach for a little while until we found a spot which had a little biut of sun with some tables and chairs and some sand, with no music. Needless to say we were in the sea in a matter of seconds, lounging about and chilling in the sun. We swam along the beach a little bit and when we went around a very lttle rocky headland, we found a gorgeous little deserted sandy beach/cove. I went up and sunbathed on that a bit and then we sat in the breakers letting them push us up and down the beach. The disaster struck.. One particularly big breaker rolled over me and ripped m,y glasses off my face. I panicked and told everyone who was with me in the cove. We all stood in the shallows (about 7 of us) looking through the water with our hands for a couple of minutes, and praying, but none of us could find anything. I gave them up for lost (i have a spare pair) so we all stopped looking. I walked back to the others and just at a whim, reached down, put my hands in the sea, and my glasses were right there, where i had put my hand in! It was an absolute miracle! Thank God! Lesson learnt though - remember to bring my lenses whenever i swim...


Ever since we arrive here, Guy and I have been trying to buy some cowboy hats which everyone wears and are incredibly cool. We saw some in the market ages ago but they weren´t very good. A guy was walking down the beach on saturday and we saw that he had some, checked them out and bought a couple of good ones. We managed to knock the price down from 120 lempiras to 70 lempiras which i was pretty proud of. They are amazing!

Hats!

Sillouetted Hats

We went back to where everyone else was sitting on the beach and had lunch. Cue begginning of rant about food... I had a ham sandwich which was very nice but quite small. When Guy´s full English breakfast came out I was quite jealous. He was still hungry aswell afterwards so we went back to get more food. He got a BLT and I got the full english. Thing is we both fancied the pancakes aswell so we shared some of them aswell :-) So for lunch we both had 2.5 meals each but it was so worth it...

We chilled out on the beach and in the sea for the rest of the day until sunset where we all took ridiculously large amounts of picures, before heading out to a mall to grab some dinner. Most of us, myself included, were too tempted by the Subway so had some subs and then the most amazing fresh fruit smoothies.. We then went home, had a group prayer session, and then went to our much needed beds. That was until Katy found a huge cockroach in her bed. For the next 10 minutes Luke and I tried to capture this suprisingly elusive monster while Guy played intense music on the guitar and Katy and Heulwen stood their letting out sporadic screams. Eventually we managed to trap the beast and i took it outside and with a bit of cricket bat action made sure that it didnt bother us anymore.

Sunset from the beach

Katy

Sunday morning at breakfast the colonel gave us all presents. He said that they have a tradition of giving gifts to anyone who stays there. They had got some Honduran army uniform T-shifts made up with our names on which are insanely cool!! We went to Donya Blanca´s sisters house for lunch and we set up`a party because Sunday was Blancas birthday! It was great fun, with lots of balloons, singing, sweets and presents. We also celebrated the birthday of 4 of our team members who have birthdays in April. After that we went to a beach and played some frizbee (which im getting pretty good at) and just relaxed before going home. That evening we had the most epic game opf monopoly. We played for about 4 and half hours until 1.30am which was so much fun - there are plenty more games to come im sure! I didnt win this time but only because i wanted it to be a good game (i could have won easily but wont bore you with the details)...


Monday we went out for breakfast and smoothies and then chilled out at the army base for a few hours before heading back to the barracks to pack and take the 6 hour coach journey back home.

Me and Claire


I have just tried to upload some pictures onto facebook but the internet is rubbish today so will do it another time. I just realised that you can upload pics onto this blog so have done that and will probs do it more in the future.


Thank you so much for all your messages, please keep praying for us that we stay safe and healthy.

The Team. Back: Guy, Matt, Pastor René
Me, Heulwen, Helen, Hector (Blanca´s Son)
Rachel, Blanca, Claire, Sarah
Anna (Hectors fianceé), Pamela (Blancas daughter), Faye, Kossy
Luke








Joel

Wedding bells...

Alan (aka superman) who helps us out on the building site got married last Friday to a woman called Mayra, and they invited us all (10 of us!!) to his reception in the evening after the wedding. It was so nice of him to invite us and it was quite a small thing which made it even more special. He sang her a song which was ridiculously cheesy but pretty awesome at the same time. Everyone had a good time though and it was a great night!

On Sunday we went to Pastor René´s sisters house for lunch. Pastor René is one of the Pastors of the Rocka Fuerte Church (the one we go to) and he is with us most of the time. He works with us on the building site and he walks us to and from the school on tuesdays and wednesdays (because its too dangerous for us to walk alone) and he leads the kids club on wednesdays. He is an absolute legend, so kind, understanding, patient and generous. On Sunday i was looking at his tie and said that it was nice so he took it off and gave it to me! Everyone here is so generous with everything that they have it is just amazing. Anyway, we went to his sister´s and her husbands house for lunch after Church which was amazing. The usual ridiculously large quantities of food and Rafael (the husband) has it in his head that i eat a huge amount (which i am very happy about) so he kept on giving me more and more food. It was awesome!

Katy Dennis, our 11th member of the team arrived late last night. Her sister got married last saturday so she waited until after that to come her but she arrived safely and everyone is very pleased that she is now here with us. Me and Guy had an interesting tiome trying to tie up some balloons to the light bulb in the ceiling, but the ceiling was quite high so it involved standing on chairs with brooms in our hands trying to wrap the string around the light bulb... It was a complete failure and ended up with Guy flat on his back (fortunately there was a mattress on the floor next to him!)

Site is going really well aswell, we have almost finished concreting the floor of the kids club. Next we are going to be replacing the roof which is in a bad state at the moment. When we finish that our next project will be to put a second story onto the Sunday school classrooms attached to the Church.

This weekend (Friday-Monday) wer are going up to the beach on the North coast!! The guys here arranged that for us and we are so looking forward to it. Will be amazing im sure. I wont be able to get on the internet for a little while probably because i will be far too busy sunbathing, swimming and gettiong an amazing tan. After that though it will be back to work. I might be able to get back on the internet some time next week so will let you know how it goes then!

Concreting, football and food.

Hey everyone. So.. whats been going on...

On Monday a big truck came along with a huge mound of sand which it dumped in the middle of the street in a huge mound. We had to wheelbarrow it inside which took ages and was very tiring. When we had just finished taking it all inside the same truck arrived with another huge pile of gravel. Same drill ' they dumped it in the middle of the road and we barrowed it in. That was much harder though cos it was really difficult to get a spade full of the gravel because the bits of rock were actually quite big... That took up most of the day but we also managed to attach the pila (big concrete water tank) to the pipework that we had put down (we are now pretty good plumbers). It was incredibly hard moving it and when we finally got it into place we realised that one of the pipes it had to attach to was about half an inch out of place. There is a guy called Alan who has been helping us out on the building site since we started who is an absolute legend. He thought about it for about half a second and then proceeded to light a fire in the middle of the building site. He then partially melted a piece of pipe and made a kink in it so that the pipework was all correct. It was crazy but amazing.

Today people actually started the concreting but i was on domestic (doing the cooking, cleaning and planning that days bible study) so i didnt get to do any concreting today but there is plenty more to do so im looking forward to that tomorrow. Scariest moment of the week was on the building site on Monday. We had to move a pillar slightly (which was actually the supporting pillar for the roof) so 2 people held onto it and i hacked away at the concrete at the bottom with a pickaxe. When i got through the people holding it realised how heavy it was and it dropped down 5 inches so the roof shifted a fair amount! Luckily it didnt collapse and we managed to lift it up onto a couple of bricks to secure it again.. Definately got the adrenaline pumping though..

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week we were at the school in the mornings teaching a lesson to 11 classes. We were teaching the story of when God chooses David to be King which was great fun. We did a drama and the kids loved it. I was the oldest son who was big and strong and i made them all laugh with my antics. We then sang light of the world to them. On Wednesday Guy (our musician) was on domestic so i ended up playing guitar for them which was actually quite fun. I enjoyed and it didnt sound too bad which is also good! Wednesday afternoon we were at the kids club playing sports with them (they cant do what they usually do because where they usually meet is our building site at the moment!!). It was so much fun, they are all full of energy. There was one little girl who was about 5 or so called Anita (or something similar) who was incredibly cute. I picked her up once and she didnt let me put her down afterwards. Whenever i tried she would keep her hands tight around my neck or just grab onto my legs. And she kept on stealing my glasses aswell! The kids are all adorable and we all think its going to be quite hard leaving them all!

After Church last Sunday we were invited back to Pastor Victor´s house for a BBQ. Wow. I dont thyink i have eaten so much meat before (which is quite something) and there was still so much left over.! There was loads of the most amazing spiced beef steaks which were beyond words, chicken (obviously because they always have chicken), pork and then another meat that i wasn´t sure what it was. I tried a bit and it was absolutely revolting. I then found out that it was cows liver. Absolutely disgusting but still ate a bit.. What an amzing lunch though! Wenesday morning Lucy (the most amazing cook) made us cinnamon buns for breakfast which were absolutely amazing. I dont think there is a better way to start the day.

After the Pastors lunch on Sunday the lads went with Hector (the son of the woman whos house we are living in) to the Church to play street football with the Hondurans. It was absolutely amazing. There was about 20 npeople there and we played 3 a side winner stays on. It was so fast paced because it was such a small pitch and it was swealteringly hot. We `played for about 3 hours and sweated enough to fill a swimming pool. The Hondurans have such amazing stamina that eventually they beat us. They were running constantly, but for the first 5 games we won quite comfortably. After that though we just couldnñt run and they beat us. It then carried on with us beating them until they got too tired and started beating us... It was fantastic though and was really good to get to know a different crowd of kids. Whenever we are walking anywhere we always end up walking past some kids that know us and say hi which is great.

The spanish is improving lots day by day which is a great relief. I can just about hold a conversation but can understand alot more than i can actually say which is frustrating. People on the team are starting to get a bit ill with stomach problems which was expected but is still not good so please pray for that.

Anyway, i must go now but will blog again sometime soonish.

Hope your all well.

Joel

Quickly...

I dont really have anytime but thought i should write something seeing as im on the internet.

Another hard day at the building site today. Almost ready to start concreting the floor which we might be able to do on Monday which should be good fun. We dont have the luxury of a concrete mixer though so its all spades and big piles on the floor... We took down a roof today, dug some trenches and laid down a load of piping so i was a plumber for the day. The school yesterday was amazing, the kids were amazed by this group of foreigners and couldnt stop staring. When i whipped out my camera and took a picture i was surrounded by kids wanting their pictures taken which was great fun.

The staple food here is frijholes (or something with similar spelling) which is some kind of bean (bit like kidney beans usually eaten with rice or a tortilla). They usually have it pressure cooked and mashed up. It´s absolutely revolting. Unfortunatel its about all we can afford so we are having it every day. I am just forcing myself to like it though.

And come on you R´s for beating swansea! I will wear myt QPR shirt with pride tomorrow.

No more time im afraid. All is good, nice and hot, loads of moscito bites (2 really bad ones on my righjt arm about 15cm wide) but generally life is awesome.

Joel

Work begins....

Hello.

We had our first day at work on the bulding site yesterday. We are working in the house of an elderly man in the Church which is where the kids club of about 80 kids meet every week. The outside bit of it had a very shaky roof on it and a dirt floor. We started digging the floor yesterday to get it ready for the concrete. Its quite difficult getting the levels right, especially as it has to have a slant on it because at the moment all the water from next door leaks through the walls and floods the place...

It is amazingly hard work. We have to pickaxe the floor and shovel the dirt into wheelbarrows and then wheel the wheelbarrows outside, up a relatively steep hill for about 20 meters (with cobbled stones which makes it much harder) and then onto the site next door (which was the place the church was trying to buy to make the brand new kids club...) The thing is, to get it onto that site you have to push the barrows up a very steep hill (only about 5 meters) which really took it out of us. Two of the guys (Guy and Matt) were on domestic yesterday so weren´t at the building site, so Luke and I were the only guys there, and try as hard as they could, the girls couldn´t manage to get the barrows onto the site next door so Luke and I had to do them all...

After lunch, loads of the local kids turned up which was amazing. They were so happy to see us and were so full of energy it was quite hard keeping up with them.. They came along and started wielding the pickaxes a bit too crazilly so we had to take them off them and load them up with shoivels instead. They were like little machines - they shoveled the dirt into the barrows and then attempted to get them up the hill (usually stopping half way for me and luke to do the rest) and then we would give them rides down the hill in the barrows... It was so much fun, really enjoyed it all.

By the time we had finished I was basically a walking sweat ball and was so looking forward to a shower but when we got home, the water wasn´t on, so I had to fill up a bucket at one of the tanks (they store water when it is on because it often isnt) and have a cold shower with a bucket and a cup. It was heaven. Felt so good after it but now i have slightly aching muscles. Fortunately i was on domestic today so i had a nice rest.

We work on the building site on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. Tuesdays we work at a school in the morning, teaching them bits and pieces (not really sure what because i missed it today as i was on domestic) and Wednesdays we work at the school in the morning and then at the kids club in the afternoon, which is when all the kids meet.

Went to the Church on Sunday which was a bit wierd cos it was all in Spanish so didnt understand the sermon abart from bits and pieces. We could work out what the songs were saying but it was just great fun - they get really into it with horrendously out of time clapping but its all good...

Honduras is amazing, its lovely and hot but gets cool at night so its not hard to sleep. We havn´t had any trouble with anyone and havn´t even seen any gangs yet which is good. Everyone we are working/staying with are really nice and welcoming. There is one lady called Lucy who is the most amzing cook. She made us cinnamon buns for our first breakfast which were amazing, and she cooked us an amzing dinner one night and then on saturday we had the most amazing brownies that she cooked. Unfortunately i think that was only because we had just arrived. Now we are cooking for ourselves which is still good, but not as nice as Lucy´s cooking!!! We are eating lots of rice, pasta and potatoes with basic additions because they are cheap and we are on a very tight budget... I still manage to eat lots though which ios very nice!

Team is getting on reallywell as well which is great - really looking forward to the next few months!

Cant really think of anything else to say so will end it there and will hopefully update you again soon with more news!!

Joel

Lots of travelling...

Hello.

We arived in Guatemala on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning after travelling for a ridiculously long time. The first flight we got (from London to Houston) took about 10 hours and was actually quite fun. We had little TV consoles on the back of the seats so had a choice of over 300 films we could watch and other TV programs. The next flight (Houston to Guatemala City) took about 2-3ish hours and was much less comfortable but bearable.

We arived at our hostel at about 5 in the morning English time (11pm Guatemalan time). We then spent the wednesday sightseeing around Guatemala City before waking up at 4am on Thursday to catch a coach to Tegucigalpa (Honduras). Coach journey took about 15 hours so we arrived in Teguc very tired and stiff.

We are staying in the house of one of the Church members here in Teguc which is cool. Me and the other 3 guys (Guy Matt and Luke) are in a room which has a bathroom attached. We havn´t yet had any running water which is a shame so we kinda stink but have been told that it is going to come on very soon. We still have drinking water though because that is not tap water - its all from bottles and bit containers.

We spent today looking around the place and had a sort of orientation. We went to the local fire station and ended up having a ride around the place in the fire truck and they dressed us up in their fireman clothes which was really cool. We were then walking past a school and said hello to the kids in the playground and they invited us in to say hello. We ended up having all the kids sitting in the playground and we sang ´We are Marching in the Light of God´ to them which was great fun.

We also went to see the project which we are gonna be working on - the kids club called Niños de la Roca Fuerto. Unfortnately, the plan of building a new place for the kids club is not going to happen because the church couldnt get all the land purchased and planning permission etc... What we are going to be doing instead is helping to revamp the place they currently meet in which is very basic. It has an indoor area and an outdoor area. We are going to be lowering the floor on the outdoor part to make it level with the rest and putting up a roof for it. We will also be helping put a second floor onh the main church building... So... there´s lots to do but it is a bit dissappointing not to be able to do what was origionally planned.

We saw some of the houses that the kids who attend the club live in which was quite a shock. Its amazing the places that some families are staying in. We all came away from it really wanting to be able to help in some way which I guess is why were here... We start work on the kids club on Monday.

Thats enough for now. And i have not lost anything at all!!!!

Joel