On Monday morning I woke up an hour before my alarm, but not to women singing. This time it was to tropical birds. It sounded like the bird house at the zoo. I loved it. It was so relaxing. 

I met everyone upstairs for breakfast and then after we gathered our things and I exchanged my dollars at the hotel desk for lempiras before we left. 

Our job site was only about a 15 minute drive out of the city. On the first day we began to dig trenches, clear rocks, rebar, and move cinder blocks. I chose to dig and move cinder blocks. 

I helped move most of that stack of cinder blocks from the house in the background to our worksite and I was so proud. I know that before I changed my lifestyle I couldn’t have done that. Physically I wouldn’t have been strong enough, and I wouldn’t have had the endurance or the confidence. I could actually see the change in myself and I loved it. 

My leader was really great about making sure everyone took snack and water breaks often.

After lunch (meat, rice, veggies, and a tortilla) Luis took the group on a little tour of the neighborhood. That little green building to the left is the bathroom we were using while we were on the worksite. It belonged to the church. 

Luis took us into a local elementary school. The difference between this area and the US is that you have to walk through metal detectors and get buzzed in to get into some schools in the US nowadays, but there, you just walk right in and nobody says a word. It’s definitely a culture shock. 

The kids in the classrooms were so excited to see us and they all jumped up from their desks to wave to us. The kids in this classroom even sang a song for us. 

This neighborhood contains over 50 Habitat houses. 

Luis even managed to score us a quick, 5-minute tour of an Auto Hotel. You can Google it… Some people in our group who were a little more conservative decided to stay outside, but I was happy he showed it to us. It may be different from my culture, but it’s a part of theirs and I thought it was a really interesting thing to see. I love learning about all aspects of other cultures. 

The local kids were so friendly and rode with us during our entire tour. They even invited us back to their home to pick nuts from the trees. 

This was the back of the house closest to our worksite. We had to walk right through here to get to the bathroom across the street and nobody seemed to mind. 

Post-lunch progress. 

Making the pieces needed for re-barring. 

Our tent.

Before we got back to the hotel in the evening we walked a few blocks to a little grocery store to pick up a few snacks. Then we came back to shower and relax on the rooftop again. I could barely move at this point. My shoulders were so incredibly sore from wheelbarrowing all of those cinder blocks. 

We went to dinner at the Honduran version of a BBQ place. It was an awesome environment. Half inside, half outside. It’s like a real Rainforest Cafe. 

It ended up storming during dinner. This was the perfect spot to sit if you love thunderstorms!

Chips and cheese appetizer. 

Another yummy pomegranate drink. This is considered a smoothie and no, there was no alcohol. 

Dinner was really yummy. I had different types of meats, potatoes, and fried plantains which were delicious! 

The next morning I completely forgot to take a picture of breakfast. I was feeling a little funky so I didn’t eat much. 

I spent almost all day on the worksite re-barring. It was repetitive, but easy. I needed to give my shoulders a break. After work we changed at the hotel and walked a few blocks to visit the girls orphanage. 

We played volleyball and basketball with the girls. They also love to dance!

Luis loves music so he had his music playing the whole time. 

The girls also love music videos so we sat there watching them on Luis’ phone for about a half hour. The girls don’t get to watch videos on a regular basis, so when they get the chance, they get so excited!

The girls love taking pictures too! 

This little one kept stealing my phone and snapping all kinds of pictures. I had to delete so many! 

After we left the orphanage we wanted to walk straight to the restaurant for our reservation. It was Italian night! On our way there the rain started AGAIN and this time it was a complete downpour. Everyone was soaked. We took cover in the Plaza Cafe and grabbed drinks to warm up. I got a hot chocolate since I can’t stand coffee. It was so good! 

We hurried the rest of the way through the rain and made it into the restaurant. We had two types of pasta. The spaghetti on the left wasn’t nearly as good as the noodles on the right. Those ones tasted like something straight from Olive Garden, which you all know is my favorite! 

And the dessert… amazing. We ate so well on this trip. I ate some and gave the rest of it to one of the other girls who decided to skip on dessert until she saw mine. I was way too full and tired to eat any more though. 

Once we got back to the hotel some of the group stayed up to play HeadsUp, but I was far too tired. I went straight to bed!