Morning in Honduras. At around 6000 feet in elevation, the weather was beautiful. Temperatures in the seventies, some afternoon rains... It was incredible.
This is what we began with. Well, all that and 160 feet of PVC. We had more fittings than we knew what to do with, three filters, one meter, one ozonator, some electrical parts, and a bunch of other fittings odd parts that I'm still not even sure what they are. None of us had much experience working with PVC, something that would, in time, come back to bite us. Each of us was excited to get the work done.
We woke up early on Friday morning (The sun comes up around 5 since they don't do the whole daylight savings time thing down there) and got started. It took us a few minutes to figure out exactly what we were looking at and how we were going to get started, but then we started assembling plywood and 2x4's so we could begin. Before long, we had mounted the board and started to place the pump and filter heads in place. The work was going faster than we had expected, and we were excited as we began to see things take shape.
By the time we finished working on Friday evening, we were ready to wake up Saturday and start gluing PVC together! We were even beginning to think that perhaps we might have clean water by Saturday evening. We thought it would leave us plenty of time to troubleshoot on Sunday and look for a site for our 2010 installation on Monday.
We were also starting to get a better understanding of what life in Honduras was like. Driving in we had seen so much, but now we were able to sit and talk with some of the people at the orphanage. I had so many questions, but the reality of everyday life in Honduras was simply so different than anything I have experienced that I still cannot grasp my head around it. I don't believe that life is necessarily better or worse, but it is so different that I have trouble fathoming it. They are certainly worse off due simply to the lack of clean water, and it is exciting to be part of something that can change that.
I have taken clean water for granted since I can remember, but being in Honduras I was suspicious of every single tap, simply because I didn't know. I can't imagine something as simple as the bathroom sink having the potential to make you very sick. It's heartbreaking to see children drinking from taps that you know are contaminated and being powerless to stop it.
The missionary families welcomed us into their hearts, into their homes, and we sat at table with them and shared in the Lord's fellowship. It was a blessing to be there, and the food was amazing!
More tomorrow...
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