Our trip will begin March 15, 2015
Everyone arrived at the church early as we prepered to leave by
8PM for FLL airport. Ross and Idalmis arrived with Mac and Patty,
Eliesha arrived with Rick and Cordella, Brittany's Dad dropped
her off and Greg, having his own parking space arrived by himself.
We distributed several bags of donated items and we made sure all
bags weighed less than 40lbs. Mother
Kimberly met us to pray for a safe and successful trip and then we
were off to the airport. Mike was prepared to drive some of team
members but due to last minute
cancellation Mac and Rick were able to fit everyone into their
vehicles, including our 16 bags. The
road was crowded going to FLL but we still arrived in less than
one hour. We unloaded and got in line while Rick and Mac parked
the cars. After hunting for the longterm economy parking they
decided to park in the long-term garage which was still quite a
walk. The check-in line appeared long but it moved quickly and we
were even made it through security with ease.
The flight is only two hours so we barely had time to fill out the
immigration cards and we landed in San Pedro Sula. Arriving at 1AM
we were the only flight arriving and we moved through customs and
immigration pretty quickly with ease. Rick met an 18 year old boy
traveling by himself to Roatan where he would later meet his
family going on a mission trip. He had a 7 hour layover in San
Pedro so Rick gave him lots of advice to keep him safe. Outside
Daniel was waiting for us with the OLR 24 passenger (coaster) bus.
We loaded our bags and we were on our way to OLR.
At OLR we hauled our bags up stairs to the apartment, assigned
rooms, took sheets and towels and everyone quickly climbed into
bed.
Rick was the first one awake as he put on a pot of coffee and
started to organize a few things for the day. Ross was soon awake
and the two went down to meet the girls as they prepared to leave
for school. Everyone was so excited to see Rossito and Ricky as
they got hugs from everyone. The girls were gathering their book
bags, finishing their breakfast and the bigger girls helped the
little ones get ready. The girls who go off property for school
travel in a the blue mini-van which apparently can seat 29 people
including the driver, tia, Ross and Rick. The first stop was only
elementary school, one mile away where 9 girls get out. Ross and
Rick walked them to their class rooms and said hello to all the
other students. The bus then goes to the middle school and then
on to the special education school where Vanessa and Iris attend.
The school drop-off take about 45 minutes and Rick encourages
everyone to take the ride. The bus then weaves through the
traffic heading back to OLR where the rest of the group was
waiting to go downstairs for breakfast. At breakfast we all gave
thanks for arriving safely and for guidance as we proceed to do
our work. After breakfast Mayra, the Director of OLR, met us to
give us an introduction to the home and we took a tour of the home
and the school. This is the one time we get to enter the girls
quarters as they are out at school. They live in simple rooms
filled with bunk beads and lockers. It was interesting to see the
things they hold most dear on the shelf by each bed: photos,
journals and maybe a favorite toy.
After the tour we went for a ride. We rode along the river and
saw El Bordo, the slums where 10,000 people live. Tia Belkis
explained that this is where some of the girls from the home were
born. We then drove through the city and saw the jumble of modern
conveniences and poverty, people living in dirt floor shantys but
with electricity and no running water, traffic lights where cars
and horse drawn carts pass together, people in suits waiting for a
bus as children, who should be in school, sell fruit on street
corners. It's difficult to process and make sense of so many
emotions. We crossed the center of San Pedro and arrived at la
Guamalito craft market. We pent about one hour looking at the
hand made items, wood carvings, pottery, weaving and souveniers.
In the back of the market there are two rows of stalls where women
and girls make tortillas at a pace of about 5 seconds each.
Everyone purchased a few items and then we were off to the grocery
store. From open stalls in la Guamalito to a modern grocery store
like any that we have back in Florida. We purchased a few items
for our stay in the apartment: yogurt, coffee, milk and of course
some chocolate. By the time we arrived back at OLR it was already
lunch time. It was easy to see the trip was going to pass by very
quickly. Mariam, the cook, prepared a lunch of beans, beef and
platains for our nine team members. We enjoyed the meal, shared
some observations and then went up to the apartment to gather
items for our projects.
Movie night.
Movie, Annie
Cameras, Movie Focus. Hardware
store Eliesha,
Cameras, pool, hardware store,
Price Mart, BDay party,
Fr day celebration, hardware
store, Umberellas, International review, band, KFC,
