Really enjoyed the day today.....
First, we picked up Lori's car from our mechanic, Fausto. Her starter went on the fritz. Cost us about $75. You son't get new parts here very often. They usually just fix what you got. Starters, alternators, master cylinders, fuel pumps, etc. all get rebuilt. New parts aren't always easy to find and when you do, they are really expensive. Cars are always breaking here. The roads are really rough, especially in many of the places we go. Cars just take a beating and there is nothing you can do but keep fixing them.
Next, I picked up Jonathan (he's pretty close to an adopted son) and we went up to a community to look at a couple of possible house sites. One was for Pedro's brother Angel, his wife and two children. Pedro is one of the security guards at Villa Gracia which is where most of our mission teams stay when they are here. He asked if there was any chance we could build his brother a home this summer. The site is definitely doable. It will be interesting as it is tight quarters, but I think we'll see if we can do it. The other site was for an older woman. She lives with about 8-10 other people in a home of about 300 square feet. Pretty normal for here. It's amazing how many can squeeze in everywhere. Two or three (or more) to a bed.
Next, I went to a place called Cemcol to purchase some new chains for a couple chainsaws. I was going to cut some trees and had pretty much overused the chains already. Buying some things here can be quite an adventure. Even the simplest things seem to take forever. Today wasn't too bad though.... just 30 minutes to get two chains for a chainsaw!
We headed to Baxter (a preacher training school) to help them cut down some old trees. I was there yesterday and was headed back for more. One of the trees was a beautiful hardwood that had about a five foot diameter. Timoteo (a good friend who works at Baxter) and I decided that it would make for some great table tops so we sliced off about six 4-inch thick slices. Timoteo is going to take a 12 foot section of the tree and have a table made out of it. It should be really beautiful. Another part of it was about 18-inches in diameter, so we cut off quite a few slices of that also. They will make some great end tables. Very cool stuff.
When we left Baxter, we came to my house. Timoteo was going to take a look at our washing machine. It quit working yesterday. We call Timoteo the Honduran MacGyver. The man can fix just about anything. Not sure what was wrong with it because today it worked fine. Timo said it was probably just tired. Who knows. We cleaned everything out real good, put it all back together and everything seemed to be fine. Keeping my fingers crossed. We don't need to spend money on a new washer.
I then took Jonathan home. He goes to school from 6-9pm everyday. He is 14 and in his third year of high school. Last year, his school was off more days than it was on. He's a really smart kid and we are hoping this new school is better. There are major problems with teachers getting paid and that makes it tough for them to make sure they are teaching everyday.
I then headed up to Villa Gracia. Villa Gracia is a retreat facility. Today was the first day of a new english class I was starting with the employees there. They have a lot of "gringos" that stay at the facility and they asked if I could help them learn some english so they could communicate better with their guests. I've never taught conversational english before, but it was a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to it.
OK, catch you later.... grace and peace.
First, we picked up Lori's car from our mechanic, Fausto. Her starter went on the fritz. Cost us about $75. You son't get new parts here very often. They usually just fix what you got. Starters, alternators, master cylinders, fuel pumps, etc. all get rebuilt. New parts aren't always easy to find and when you do, they are really expensive. Cars are always breaking here. The roads are really rough, especially in many of the places we go. Cars just take a beating and there is nothing you can do but keep fixing them.
Next, I picked up Jonathan (he's pretty close to an adopted son) and we went up to a community to look at a couple of possible house sites. One was for Pedro's brother Angel, his wife and two children. Pedro is one of the security guards at Villa Gracia which is where most of our mission teams stay when they are here. He asked if there was any chance we could build his brother a home this summer. The site is definitely doable. It will be interesting as it is tight quarters, but I think we'll see if we can do it. The other site was for an older woman. She lives with about 8-10 other people in a home of about 300 square feet. Pretty normal for here. It's amazing how many can squeeze in everywhere. Two or three (or more) to a bed.
Next, I went to a place called Cemcol to purchase some new chains for a couple chainsaws. I was going to cut some trees and had pretty much overused the chains already. Buying some things here can be quite an adventure. Even the simplest things seem to take forever. Today wasn't too bad though.... just 30 minutes to get two chains for a chainsaw!
We headed to Baxter (a preacher training school) to help them cut down some old trees. I was there yesterday and was headed back for more. One of the trees was a beautiful hardwood that had about a five foot diameter. Timoteo (a good friend who works at Baxter) and I decided that it would make for some great table tops so we sliced off about six 4-inch thick slices. Timoteo is going to take a 12 foot section of the tree and have a table made out of it. It should be really beautiful. Another part of it was about 18-inches in diameter, so we cut off quite a few slices of that also. They will make some great end tables. Very cool stuff.
When we left Baxter, we came to my house. Timoteo was going to take a look at our washing machine. It quit working yesterday. We call Timoteo the Honduran MacGyver. The man can fix just about anything. Not sure what was wrong with it because today it worked fine. Timo said it was probably just tired. Who knows. We cleaned everything out real good, put it all back together and everything seemed to be fine. Keeping my fingers crossed. We don't need to spend money on a new washer.
I then took Jonathan home. He goes to school from 6-9pm everyday. He is 14 and in his third year of high school. Last year, his school was off more days than it was on. He's a really smart kid and we are hoping this new school is better. There are major problems with teachers getting paid and that makes it tough for them to make sure they are teaching everyday.
I then headed up to Villa Gracia. Villa Gracia is a retreat facility. Today was the first day of a new english class I was starting with the employees there. They have a lot of "gringos" that stay at the facility and they asked if I could help them learn some english so they could communicate better with their guests. I've never taught conversational english before, but it was a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to it.
OK, catch you later.... grace and peace.
posted by Mark at 7:03 PM
1 Comments:
WOW!! You had a rich, full day! So much to do--and you just keep on going! I will pray God to continue to strengthen you and Lori! God bless!
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