“Spiders in Your Bed”

Thurs., Nov. 27th

Hola mi amigos!!

Last night, during our devotional gathering, Ken asked the “first-timers” for their first impressions of the island and its peoples. All four indicated that they were pleasantly surprised that the local people seemed to accept us so readily and were so willing to help out with the work we did. Cheryl said that, while she was tired, she had a good feeling about the things they had accomplished and she very enjoyed playing with the children during breaks. Auk expressed gratitude to the locals for helping so much with her “mini team”.

Drew told us how much fun he had working with the local men – during breaks they tried to guess each other’s ages and weights and this resulted in mostly wrong answers, much laughter… and new friends! Christine met with Gloribel, the visiting health nurse, and was looking forward to the clinics they would hold for the ladies and children.

We were up with the chickens this morning, and anyone who has been here, knows that’s pretty early!! We poured three more floors in Tiguilotada and Christine lead the health clinic in the afternoon, which was attended by about 40 children and 20 mothers.

The children were all given a toothbrush with a squirt of toothpaste and a paper cup with water. They were then shown the proper way to brush and they got to keep their toothbrushes. While the kids colored their “happy tooth” sheets, Christine demonstrated to the mothers the various aspects of basic first aid, including treatment of burns, sprains and cuts; how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on adults, children and infants and also how to perform CPR. She felt that the clinic went very well, with several of the mothers asking pertinent questions and all seeming to understand that sanitation is very necessary.

Walking around the village at lunch and after work, I saw that there were pens for some of the pigs and others were tethered to trees, which is a definite improvement over letting them run loose. The swing set at the community centre sees a lot of activity as did the various games the Carpenteros brought out at breaks – snakes and ladders was the biggest hit, followed closely by jacks, skipping ropes and Frisbees.

After dinner, devotions were centred on Psalm 139 and entitled “Spiders in Your Bed”. We basically discussed that on our trips, we should expect the unexpected but not expect that things will be like back home. This is where the Carpenteros’ ninth beatitude comes from… Blessed are the flexible for they will not snap!

Buenas noches
Audrey

PS: Thank you for your comments to date. We have included a few more pics with this entry, but it takes 10 minutes to upload each one, so bear with us. For those of you trying to find us on GoogleEarth, simply type in Amapala, Honduras and our hotel is about 1km east of the big dock and are working on the far south end of the island.