'Cementing' new friendships

Thurs., Dec. 4
We have been working very hard… instead of Carpenteros, we are thinking of perhaps changing our name to “Cementeros”!! The people who have received their floors and pilas are just so grateful. They tell us over and over what a difference these things will make in their lives. And it is so satisfying for us to know that we have made a difference here for the better.

On a personal note: Two days ago, Jim and I worked with Henk and Luiz (one of the local masons) on building our first ever pila. Today, they put us in charge of a team to build another pila without a local mason!! All things considered, we did pretty well… the homeowner was very pleased with our work and even Noel, the local inspector, said we did “excelente”! Tomorrow, we’re going back just to make sure it didn’t cave in over night!!

As some of you may be aware, we brought down more than 100 pairs of eyeglasses, which were donated from various sources. Most of these glasses were left with CRWRC in Teguciagalpa, however, we did bring several dozen pairs with us to the island. There is a young girl here, Maribel, whom we noticed had great difficulty seeing anything not right under her nose. Yesterday, she came to our work site and Christine (with the help of our translator Lisa) had her try on several pairs of the eyeglasses, until we found one suitable for her. She took them home to show her mother and within a few hours, we had three more customers. They arrived, looking a little skeptical about what the Canadians were doing, but as soon as they put on a pair of glasses that corrected their vision, a huge grin spread across their face and they walked away looking around in all directions.

The group has really gelled as a “family”… when you can discuss your bodily functions in front of the rest of the group, who know that you’ve become close knit!! And not to alarm anyone back home, we have had several instances of illness, mostly minor stomach upsets that passed by the next day.

Each night’s group devotions are enlightening times… we are learning more about the people of the island, about each other and also about ourselves. We are also attempting to learn our songs in Spanish, as we will be the “choir” at Sunday morning’s worship service… actually, we will be conducting the entire service, lead by Pastor Ken.

This afternoon we met with 15 students who are beneficiaries of the Carpenteros Education Fund (unfortunately, I have no pics of this event). After welcomes and opening prayer, each student was introduced and the results of their year’s study were given. Most of the students have passed to the next grade, but there was one who will be repeating his year. Several of the children failed one subject at the end of this year, but they will be allowed to write a make-test in February before moving to the next grade. It was suggested that perhaps we could supply a tutor to help them during the year with subjects that are causing them difficulty, and this idea was very warmly received by the parents. We were also told that Noel, the local representative of the Diaconia Nacional, has been teaching the high school children some rudimentary computer skills on Saturdays. The children who are in the Education Fund also meet one Saturday per month to do clean up around the community centre or at the beach as part of the program. We then heard from a number of the parents, who expressed their deep gratitude for the Education Fund. Prior to the Fund, they had to work long, long hours in order to earn sufficient money for their child’s education as well as putting food on the table and clothes on their backs. Now, with the children receiving the bulk of their education money from the Carpenteros, they can concentrate on supplying the basic needs for their families. The last to speak was Gonzalo Rivas, a 15-year-old student who has been helping the team with cement mixing. He said, “I promise that when I receive my graduation diploma, I will tear it into four pieces: one for the Carpenteros, one for myself, one for my parents, and one for Shirley, in whose memory the Education Fund was started.”
Awesome!

TTFN -- Audrey