Days 5 and 6

Dear Mas Vida Followers,

Whew! It has been a long two days. I am sorry that I did not get a chance to blog yesterday. Our day got flipped upside down, so our class did not start until 7:00pm. Since there were no pictures the day before, I am going to overload you with pictures today. Let's start with the scorpion that was found the night before when the power was out at the girls compound.

The power came back up shortly after I wrote the blog. Needless to say, the girls found out about the scorpion.

Yesterday we traveled just around the corner to a local school to hold a class. Unfortunately, the teacher of the school called in sick, so class was cancelled for the day. Our team quickly assembled and put together a battle plan. We had a room with chairs, we had our team, and we had all day. Just then, passing by was a young man on a cart being pulled by a donkey. He was saying something in Spanish over a P.A. system that he had on his cart. Our interpreter told us that he was advertising for his metal recycling business. Then it hit us! Let's buy the kid and his P.A. system for a half an hour, so he can advertise us!!! So, we did...and he did.

After a half an hour, nobody showed. Except one young man. He was there since the beginning. He stood outside the door for the two hours that we were there. We decided that we would come back at 7:00pm for a youth event that was being held in the building that night. We told the young man, and he agreed to come back at 7. He seemed like he really wanted to be there and really wanted to learn. My heart broke when he never showed up to class last night. I never really got a chance to talk to him because of the HUGE language barrier and our interpreter was busy trying to sort things out for us. I call this feeling: "missed opportunity". I pray for him and his life, and that our team crosses paths with him again. We lift our heads up and are only inspired to work harder and do more!

We got to help serve lunch yesterday at Charlie's Lunch, which is an organization that feeds children in the community at various locations. Before lunch we took the opportunity to tell the kids about washing their hands before eating, bathing, and helping an injured person. The kids ranged from 1-13, so we made it more of a theatre production than a classroom lesson. Lucky me, I got to play the injured person who fell down and went boom! We not only fed the children, but gave them important information that will help keep them healthy. God is Amazing!

We had just over 30 kids at the class last night, along with some adults. We had a lot of fun and the kids learned MUCHO!

So, this morning we decided to venture off to the Mayan Ruins in Copan for our free day. Well...God had other plans for us. On our way there in the rental van, we heard a "clunking" in the left rear tire. We checked the tire to make sure that it was okay. It was missing a lug nut, but it seemed to be pretty sturdy, so we continued driving. As we cleared the edge of town, just entering the winding road up to Copan, the "clunking" turned into a "CLUNKING!!!" we pulled over and noticed that we were now missing three lug nuts. As it turns out, the actual bolts for the lug nuts were sheered off.

Well, apparently, Honduras has Gorilla Warfare-like roadside assistance. Two men came out of the wood works to help us fix the problem. Within minutes, they had backup with a truck to go get the parts that we needed. Within a few hours we were on the road again. We decided to take a different van just in case. Since the Mayan Ruins were two hours away, we decided to go somewhere closer yet equally awesome. We visited a Fort at the Sea of Cortez. Ironically, while in route, we read in a local newspaper that the route to the Mayan Ruins had been washed out the day prior, and no traffic was allowed through.

We are about to head out for dinner and have an early morning for church tomorrow. We will be attending a morning service, then will be traveling into downtown San Pedro Sula.

Until Tomorrow!

Matthew Reece for Team Mas Vida