It Was A Cold Day In H... onduras

Doubt my mother appreciated that title, but I thought it was somewhat humorous. Of course, she probably wouldn't appreciate my driving here either... as I don't think the passengers in the van do either. But you win some you lose some, right? Anyway, I got to build my first house yesterday since I got back here. I know, it's about time, huh? So Joe gets around to calling us at about 11 or something when he finally has the team to the work site. Luckily, it was just down the road from us about 5 minutes. But, it was a late start nonetheless. So, as you may know, it's the "rainy season" here right now until about August or so. And this term, rainy season, is no lie. We got to the site and they were finishing up clearing out the remains of the old house which was built completely of old tin. A funny thing that happened, though, was that when we (Karen, Nicole, and I) walked up the small hill to the actual site, we could here the sound of baby chicks. Now, that doesn't sound wierd in and of itself, but the odd thing was that we couldn't see them anywhere. I was looking all around me and then I figured out where they were; inside the woman's shirt that we're building the house for. Needless to say, we got a good laugh out of that. There were two small dogs and some chickens running around the construction site the whole time that made it interesting to build. Basically, they were like moving landmines.

Now, the construction itself was eased a little by the fact that it had been raining a lot over the past several days in a row because the ground was so soft. Therefore, the hardest part, digging out the post holes, wasn't as bad as usual. Granted, there were quite a few rocks... some rather large ones actually... but all in all, the digging was a lot easier than what I'm use to being down here when there is not a drop of moisture in sight. So, about this time, we felt something... can anyone guess what it was? Yep, raindrops. And they kept fallin' on my head. Get it? Ok, bad joke. Anyway, the rain came down, but no floods came up (I'm on a roll). And the rain just kept coming, and then it got harder. Needless to say, everyone, with the exception of one girl who was smart enough to bring a pancho-like thing with her, was totally soaked from head to toe. And this was just at the digging stage. But, since I reminded Karen on numerous occasions that we were giving someone a new home, she stopped complaining eventually. haha... of course I'm kidding. Well, I really did say it (anyone surprised), but it's not like anyone was really complaining about the rain... except one girl who I thought was going to go into hypothermia from how bad she was shaking. But, she made it, so on with the story. Now came the fun part of getting the wood up to the site. It really wasn't that far from the road to the site. I mean, we're talking like 100 feet or something like that. But, what made it exciting was that there was this small incline about halfway that was completely muddy. So, it was entertaining to see everyone trying not to slip and bust themselves while carrying the wood. One unfortunate gentleman lost his footing while carrying a 2x4x10 by himself... ouch. But, I had a new friend, Taylor, that carried wood with me... we decided that it wasn't good enough to limit ourselves to a certain number of siding pieces on our trips. Therefore, we though it would be a good idea to increase our load during our trips. Some might call it showing off... but I think that we were merely lightening the load for others and cutting the overall time for construction. :) We got up to 8 pieces of siding before we ran out. Good times though... I mean, we just almost only killed one person. No big deal. I'm kidding... it wasn't even close... from my angle. haha.

The fun thing that we found, and this is true no matter where you are, was that when you're wet and there's a breeze, you feel about 30 degrees colder. I remedied this by moving around and lifting a lot of wood... as previously stated. This, the coldness, became more and more of a problem as the day went on and the temperature around us went down. We got everything up in the normal fashion... well, there was one Honduran step ladder used which apparently this group had never heard of before. I call it a step ladder when someone light, in this case a girl, gets on a guys (or bufftruck girl's) shoulders to get high enough to nail the upper siding panels on the high side of the house. A full Honduran latter (someone standing on someone else's shoulders) was not necessary here because the guy was tall enough so that the step ladder was sufficient. So anyway, we got all the walls up and got some guys up there to start on the roof. Nothing more terrifying for mothers than to see their sons getting up on a roof and balancing themselves on the siding and the 2x4's I'm sure. But they had an extra good time since it was all wet. But, they were troopers and got the 4x4's, 2x4's, and then the 1x4's on without a problem. Ok, so I might have almost speared one of them with a 1x4 when I was heaving them up there, but I really don't think that it should be held against me. Right? I mean, I didn't jetison him off the roof or anything.

While all that was going on, there was an army or people putting the floor down, and some others finishing up the high pieces of the short wall. I got to help put in (or take out I guess you could say) the window inside the house. I had never done this before as I am always on the roof at this point. It was a lot easier than putting the roof on, that's for sure. And speaking of the roof, the fun part came about the time that the window had been finished being cut out. As I've noted, there was a fair amount of moisture in the air... and the groud... and the wood... and on us. This really wasn't that big of a deal... until the roof guys had to get down. As some of you might know, tin isn't exactly the easiest thing to walk on normally... but this tin was wet. So, just think ice rink. One kid, upon his dismount, broke the end of a 1x4. That wasn't good because it dented the tin and could have allowed water in. After some attempts by Joe to fix it from underneath, we ended up supporting someone while he put a new nail through the top of the board to support it. That worked out well. Kind of felt bad for the last roofer to get off the house, though, because he was on the side of the house with the broken 1x4 and wasn't big on the idea of trying to walk on the slick tin downhill to the other end where we got the 2nd roofer down. But, they had been up on the roof the whole time with the wind and he was shaking like a leaf. So, before he froze to death, we convinced him to come to down to the other end and get down the way the other guy had. He got down just fine and is alive and well. Then, the last boards were cut down and the house was complete.

We all gathered in the home to pray with the woman who we built the house for. This house was for her and 8 other members of her family. So there are now nine people that are going to live in that house. NINE! In a 16x16 house. And these aren't all just small children either. While we prayed with the woman, and had it translated for her, she was crying. She came around and hugged everyone that had helped build with tears in her eyes... so very grateful for this new home. Certainly assures anyone that all their work was for a good reason. And then you realize that this is what they've got. We get to go back to our abode and get in a hot shower and change into any of our big selections of clothes while they move their now wet belongings into their new home. But, they couldn't be more grateful or happy about what they've just received. Love it.

Oh, I would also like to say that I had to name Joe "Bob Villa" since he was all about marking off boards for perfect fits. I guess when you just have to tell people what to do and not do much of the actual work yourself, you have the time for perfect measurements. haha. I'm just kidding, if you know Joe, you know that he's a very hard worker. Just had to share though. Maybe you had to be here to think it was funny... but oh well.

Be sure to pray for Jen as she is "roughing it" back at home in the States. Yeah, I come down and she catches the first plane home. I guess I'll just put the huge spiders that Mike finds in her room while she's gone. :)