Sunday April 11

Exhausting, heartbreaking, and fun.  Three words to wrap up this day.  Because this was a no work day we all got to sleep in a little.  Mass was at 8 but we walked over a little early so everyone could see the church.  Two most memorable moments of the mass were the dog on the altar before mass began, and the way the Hondurans do the sign of peace.  In a Honduran church, you get out of your seats, move all around and hung everyone.

After mass it was on the bus for 2.5 hours to Sulaco.  Our first adventure happened on the way to Sulaco.  Last week the Gehlen group had a flat on the way.  While waiting for it to be fixed, the encountered a lady carrying sticks on her back.  They saw her house she was walking to up on the hill and that it was made of sticks also.  Well, the Gehlen group wanted to help her so they arranged to send supplies to her via our travels.  Today she was delivered rice, beans, sugar, salt, flour, lard and laundry soap.  We had the experience of delivering these items up to her house.  I have never been so stunned.  The structure and conditions she was living in stunned us all and it is indescribable.  Hopefully the pictures will be able to tell the story.,  From here we went to the malnutrition center.  It was touching and emotional to the team to hold these children, and I was distressed to see two of the children I saw there last year were still there.  We had the honor of delivering brand new high chairs to the center that was purchased from the Gehlen team which was here last week.  Gehlen, we were honored to deliver your gift and very proud of your contributions.  The chairs look great, and I promise we took lots of pictures.  The most emotional moment came when it was time to leave and several members of the team had to put the children down and the children cried and clung to them.  The children at the center are in their 3rd stage of malnutrition and if not reversed they will die.  Holding the victims of world hunger in their arms will leave a lasting impression.  Our group has set a goal of raising money for cribs that they so desperately need because apparently they are expecting many more children in July.

We also delivered medicines and supplies to the local hospital, visited the sewing school, woodworking school.  The day ended with a visit to a friend of Sisters for tortillas, sodas, and the most fabulous bread we had ever had!

After such an emotional day, the ride home was full of fun.  For one thing, Chastyn drank a coke, and for those who know her know what that can mean.  Also, we teased Megan relentlessly because it appears she stole a role of toilet paper from the  malnutrition center.,

Dinner of fried chicken was served soon after we arrived, and that brings you up to date.  I would like to stress again how proud I am of this team.  Bob Becker and Chuck and Kim Donica have been amazing, and the students keep surprising me with their strength.  They have yet to however beat Sister in poker!  Tomorrow we say goodbye to the people of La Florida.  As sad as that will be it also means we are one step closer to being back with our family and friends.  It will be a bittersweet day  Thank you for the comments, we love reading them. Hasta Luego!