Wednesday - Cuatro de Enero

Today was our first day of work!

Scott and I had a better night of sleep - we got up at 6! Somehow the birds just weren´t as loud as yesterday morning!

We had breakfast downstairs on the veranda and headed out in the vans to Cuatro de Enero (4th of January School). But first we had to go to the hardware store to pick up the paints. We brought most of the painting supplies in our bags. Ther hardware store was on the corner of a block so it gave us a chance to people watch while Al was inside.

There was a demonstration going on down the main street. We learned later that they are protesting the mayor, who has apparently raised some taxes/fees.

Then we went on to the school. It is a cement building with 3 rooms. Each room has it´s own door and 3 windows. The wondows all have metal bars....and lots of them. Our task was to take down the screen on the inside of the windows, scrape and repaint the bars, paint the top half of the front of the building a light green and the bottom half a darker green. Apparently these are colors that are chosen by the principal. We learned that people make requests for what they want done - so in this case the principal made the request to the mayor's office. I'm not sure what the criteria is exactly for who gets their project done or not, but I presume it´s based on need and whether or not it is feasible.

So in the boiling hot sun we worked - scraping, sweeping, hammering etc. A couple children came by, then a couple more. There is a soccer field right in front of the school with 2 homemade goals - just 3 pieces of what looks like bamboo in the shape of a wide door frame. Lots of garbage around everywhere too....

We worked for 2 hours, drinking lots of water. It was hot! Around 11:30 we had lunch. We could order what we wanted earlier in the morning and Linda and Colleen did the pick up and delivery. I had a fruit plate with watermelon, bananas and pineapples. All sweet and delicious! Scott had BBQ chicken which was good and came with rice and beans.

We painted as much as we could on the top with the light green, got all the screens off, scraped all the metal bars and started painting the bars with black rustoleum. Around 1:30 Al came and got us because it was just too hot standing on the concrete. So packed everything up, put it all in the first room and locked all the doors!

Oh I forgot to tell you that Nancy was handing out balloons to the kids and Colleen was handing out lollipops. There are 3 in particular who are hanging out the most - 2 little girls and a boy. Today they told us they were cousins. I took lots of pictures of them and htey loved being able to see their faces on the screen. I really should have brought a Poloroid (Amy V had suggested it) and I completely forgot about it until I was taking pictures of these kids.

I´m kind of hoping to be able to send the pictures to the principal of the school and see if they can´t make their way to the kids.

So back to Hotel Sherwood we went. And right to the beach. It was just beautiful! The water is so warm that it doesn´t really cool you off....but it´s soooo nice! There are even some small waves to ride.

After swimming we wanted to go up and take a shower...not possible..there was no water in the hotel. So we hung out, talked, had a beer/coke on the veranda. Scott and I also walked around town a bit checking things out.

Norm gave a little speech about his life - being born in Tela, moving to the States, coming back on the Banana Boats etc...His Dad had worked for United Fruit (yes that would be Chiquita bananas) who had a huge compound here for it´s employees and families. Today it´s called Telamar and is an exclusive resort.

Dinner....tonight we went for Chinese...yes Chinese in Honduras! It was actually really good! Fried rice with shrimp, sweet and sour chicken and beef with vegtables. We had those 3 huge platters between 7 people - some beers/cokes and it came to 75 lemira per person which is about $4 per person. Not bad....

but....last night was even better! We went for pizza and it was $2 a person including drinks!

We are exhausted but loving it!

till tomorrow..

L & S