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
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Friday, 20 March 2009
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
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
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
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
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
Friday, 13 March 2009
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
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
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