Day 6 - Muy, mucho si

Today was our last work day in Honduras. We were left inside the gates of El Hogar because of the ongoing transit strike. We woke up at 7:30 and went straight to a breakfast of banana bread and watermelon. Our work consisted of digging more holes, weeding, cutting wood, hanging a sign, and making compost rollers. In the morning hours, we hung up a sign that says "Huerta: Sembrando Esperanza" or "Garden: growing hope". 

The blog will pause here because the writers (Reed and Chris) have just seen a giant cockroach and need to find a more secure space to continue. "Is it still there?" - Lizzy. "Yeah, it's just chilling." - Chris. Also, we just learned that cockroaches fly because this one just did. Lizzy named this cockroach Juan 2.0, in case you were keeping track of cockroaches.

So more about our work...

We dug A LOT of holes. Like 16. Which means an almost equal number of blisters. But we got a good system down by the afternoon, so we did 7 holes in an hour which was very efficient of us, don't you think? There was a very useful heavy metal rod thing that had a somewhat pointed end, and that was easily the most useful tool. In fact, it was so useful that we used it to cut through what we thought was a rock, but turned out to be a sewage pipe from the volunteer house. Five of us had been chipping away at the rock for a good 20 or so minutes and Chris finally broke through the rock and we all celebrated. Then he burst through the sewage pipe and we were all stunned. It was an outgoing sewage pipe, so it really smelled. Yuck! But someone came and helped us by cementing over it to fix it, but we were very careful with the next holes.

Lydia and Thyra varnished the sign for the garden, but it should be known that they didn't have to work nearly as hard as the people who varnished the entire floor of the art room last year, twice Emma D, Emma W, and Robert). They think they are better, and we're just letting them think that to be kind human beings.

Ultimate frisbee was a big hit today. The teams were the families (Rappoles and Aldriches) and the two Honduran girls who were playing. So basically it was all the tall people against everyone else. To quote Jake, "It was a group of giraffes against us little people." So it's pretty obvious who won, if you ask me. Fortunately, we had to quit for dinner, which was quesadillas again. We are a fan of the quesadillas because they're not refried beans (which were all shocked that we've only had once).

Then we played with the kids, as one does. Chris lost at soccer with his team of little kids twice and doesn't remember how he did when he, Abraham and Edwin played against Emma, Lydia and Sergio. Reed played soccer not on the main pitch, but in the penalty kick corner. Also, she learned to dance from the high school girls, but we're unsure how well that went. Hit activity tonight was drawing (dibujar), which Lizzy brought out with us.

We had a lovely religion-oriented team meeting. Discussion included the meaning of prayer and how much influence prayers have. Jake was going to quote Dumbledore, but we got so excited that we got a little loud and asked a few too many yelled questions that he declined to actually tell us the quote. (He might tell this story a little differently, but we're writing, not him.)

Parting words: "We hope Juan 2.0 doesn't catch us on the way back." - Reed. Chris is looking at a scrape on his leg, so we will tell you about his wonderful socks: they are American flag socks, with stars and stripes and a hole in one of the toes. Earlier today, as a magnificent hole digger, he tucked his zip-off pants into his socks. It was a look. "I don't have any." - Emma.

Chris is wondering about whether Jake will stay up all night tomorrow night. We'll update you on that another day.