a day in the life..

my dad's last group left on sunday, sad to see them go as it is with every group, but exciting to see the next group and what God will bring through them. in between trips i worked with my dad's group "the crew" he calls them. these are about 25 college age/ young adults that are staying here from the 1st of july until the 24th. on monday we spent the night in the luxurious marriott hotel getting a taste of the high life. 4 star hotel, but if i were them, i would at least have a jacuzzi and put the pool inside, that's just me.. on tuesday we set out for santa ana for what many refer to as a poverty simulation. we spent the day building a bodega(storage building) that we would end up staying in that night. it was bigger than a normal TORCH house, so it took us a little longer than normal, plus the added complications of 2 wood trucks getting stuck and having to push them out of the mud, and the always lovely getting poured on for a few hours while building. all in all we got about 85-90% of the house done, even after working in the dark using flashlights to see so the floor would be finished. we still lacked a major section of the wall, but the rains were coming down so hard and it was pitch black, we had to settle for what we had and finish in the morning. one of the steps of this poverty simulation was that every person was only allowed 4 items to bring for the night. 4 items would include anything from your toothbrush, deodorant, blanket, pillow, socks, shirt, food, water, etc.. you had 4 items and that was it. so we were all soaking wet, trying to settle in to a house that had an open wall, rain is coming down, and the temperature is dropping fast. LUCKILY, and i really do mean it, steve kemp was there, he started a fire that probably saved us all, and kept it going all night. most of us were by the fire for the majority of the night trying to warm up and dry off. stretching it i might have got an hour of sleep. one of those absolutely miserable nights that i will for sure NEVER forget. the next day we stayed at the land and we were all given 20 limperas(the currency here) for our previous days work. one dollar. that is what the average honduran makes in a day. granted, a dollar goes farther here than it would in the states. i bought 3 small bags of chips, a water, and 2 small packages of bread for 20 limps. in the states you wouldnt be able to buy food AND a drink. then again, in the states, you would have more than one dollar... that night we were picked up around 5 o'clock to return to the city, get some dinner and most importantly get some sleep. i would say all in all the simulation went well. if it hadn't been so cold, it wouldn't have been so miserable. but if it hadn't been so cold, maybe i wouldn't have got the point the way i did. i WILL appreciate a good night's sleep in a comfortable, warm bed. i will appreciate getting paid $10 per hour instead of $1 per day. i will appreciate a house with 4 walls and a neighborhood with no roosters crowing and dogs barking at all hours. i will appreciate all those things and more, but i will NEVER understand what it is like to live like a honduran lives. we lived for 36 hours in an environment LIKE one that a honduran lives in. in all reality, our situation was still better. but i knew, everyone knew, that the longest it could possibly last would be 2 days. i can't level with someone who goes home to a house like that, or worse, every night in rain, cold, hot, dry whatever condition it may be. i can't level with someone who only earns a dollar a day working harder than i work in the states. i can't level with someone who has to make decisions on how to spend that one dollar. whether to buy food for their family, a blanket to keep their little boy warm, save it to buy their little girl a pair of pants, or try and make some sort of repair to their shanty house. i cannot understand that.. neither you nor i will ever know what that feels like, we can't fool ourselves into believing that we can feel their needs. now, i might be able to see the picture a little bit more clearly, but i'm nowhere close to seeing the whole thing in focus. think about it...

blessed beyond comprehension
NCR