Upcoming visits, Latrines, and all the stuff in between

Well life has been good here, but busy. The money that Pri solicited before leaving arrived, and so the big latrine project has begun. At least 105 families in 3 towns will receive pour-flush latrines, and hopefully 90 families at least will receive big water barrels to store water in (half the year these families of 8 people live without regular water or a method of storing water when it comes for a few hours...meaning they can't wash clothes, wash their kids, cook with clean water, wash dishes...imagine!). So last week I went with the mayor to Santa Rosa to buy materials and bought 120 bags of cement, 210 pieces of metal roofing, 210 30 foot pieces of iron strips, and 105 3 tubes 3 inches wide, and the porceline toilet bowls the mayor is giving. We already did the demonstration for the 40 families in Dulce Nombre, so on Saturday I invited them to come to pick up their materials. Ugh, what chaos. We tried to make it organized by giving everyone ahead of time a ticket with their name on it whereby they could get their share of materials. But with all the planning, problems still happened, and by the end we were short the iron strips because a few people had their taken when they weren't looking. SIGH. Anyway, I know all these details are enthralling, but I wanted to share my work. I never thought I'd be involved in a latrine project, but there is a big necessity here. I much prefer making the stoves and plan to solicite more money for that project.

What else is going on...hmmm. Oh, last Thursday was the big inauguration of the new central park in Dulce Nombre. I had been helping out with that new youth group I think I wrote about, and so for the inauguration they did some acts with their puppets, theater, and stilt walking groups. It was pretty cool. I sang a song in English with my kindergarten class that I had taught them - "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" - haha. But they were adorable. A ton of people came to break in the new park where they have built a new pavilion, planted flowers and trees, and put in playground equipment. The money to build it was given by Plan Honduras, an organization who does a lot of different projects down here. I help them by giving stove demonstrations now and then. Anyway, the inauguration of the park was cool, and I enjoyed hanging out with all my new friends and coworkers, but I was out in the sun for hours and ready to chill afterwards.

Chris comes in 6 days, yay! He's coming into San Pedro Sula (2 hours from me) around 1 pm in the afternoon on Saturday and I think some of the people from Dulce Nombre want to come with me to get him...haha. Very exciting though. My mom is sending a big suitcase with him full of who knows what from her and my dad...poor Chris. Anyway, this will be my first visit, and hopefully there will be many more!

That's all for now....hope to hear from you all soon!