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