Success!

Friday, Dec. 5

Well, the work is completed: 18 floors and 6 pilas in nine days -- that’s more than 200 bags of cement! We had hoped to finish the kindergarten latrine as well, but at the last minute it was decided that the pit needed to be enlarged, and with the rocky soil they have here that was a half-day’s work. In the afternoon, the team did manage to make a good start on building the latrine walls, and with the supplies we have provided, the local masons will be able to finish it next week.

On our walk to Juanita’s for lunch, we came across William who builds boats for a living. He paid 5000 limpiras for the log, which was harvested from an old-growth forest on a nearby island, and it will take him three weeks of 8-hour days to dig out the boat. He uses only a curved chisel, a machete and lots of elbow grease to hack out the hard wood, leaving a finished shell of about two inches. He has already sold this boat to one of the local fishermen. During our talk, he promised Henk that when he comes back (next year??), they will spend a day making a small scale version of the dugout like the ones he makes for the children of the village.

During our time here, we have also cemented some great relationships with the people of Isla de Tigre. While it is difficult to have real one-on-one conversations with the people because of the language barriers, we have discovered that lots of hand gestures and attempts at Spanish words usually manage to convey the message… or end up in lots of laughter on both sides, which is even better communication!!

Tomorrow morning, a few of the guys are going fishing again and then we will all attend the kindergarten graduation ceremony in Islitas. While we think kindergarten graduation is “cute”, here it has real significance, in that it is the first step to a child’s education and possible life-changing improvements. Tomorrow afternoon, we will be taking a sightseeing tour of the island and stopping at several of the villages and scenic areas.

Henk, Drew and Jim decided that, if time permitted, they would make new doors for two of the poorest homes on the island. One would be for the elderly couple who received a new floor, because now their old door no longer fits. And one would be for the lady and her daughters who received the first pila that we built. Her door was literally falling off the wall as the hinges were all broken. These folks have absolutely no means to buy their own doors, so the guys will be installing the new ones after the graduation ceremony on Saturday.

Sunday morning we will be leading the church service at the local CRC church. After lunch, we will attend farewell get-togethers in Tiguilotada and Islitas, where we will present our thank you gifts to our hosts and helpers and, of course, set up the piñatas for the children… we have about 40 lbs of candies and little trinkets to go into the two crepe paper dolls, which I’m sure will be quite a hit – literally!

Monday morning we will leave the island for our return trip to Tegucialgalpa where we will have a debriefing meeting with the CRWRC and some free time to shop or just relax. I hope to send my final report from our Caribbe B&B, if their Internet connections are up and running.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Audrey

PS – Hope everyone had a happy Sinter Klaas Day