We’re wrapping up our first full day in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Already I know this is going to be a great trip. Yesterday we traveled from Kansas City to Honduras, waking up before 4am – a time I usually don’t see unless I haven’t gone to bed. We arrived in Honduras, got to the mission house and ate a late lunch. The rest of the day was spent getting acclimated before our first day of work.
During our flight from KC to Atlanta I started to feel ill. The feeling only got worse throughout the morning and afternoon. There is not much as unpleasant as being sick when you’re flying on an airplane. It’s unpleasant for you and for the people sitting next to you. Last night I went to bed early and took the morning off from work to sleep. Sandy, the mission coordinator, was very concerned that I got sick because of something here. That’s not the case, it was just my luck to come down with something right as we left the country. I spent the afternoon working at the site and feel almost back to normal.
Model of new Honduras UMC headquarters building.
Today was the team’s first full day of work. We’re working on the construction of a new building for a congregation in Tegucigalpa and the mission headquarters. When complete the building will have an apartment for mission teams, the parsonage, offices, worship space and a garage. It’s going to be a great facility. The two main projects for the day were moving sand and gravel for the footings of the retaining wall and building the rebar “castles” that will provide structure to the concrete. The local workers and our translator have been great.
I also got my phone up and working this afternoon. I unlocked my iPhone before leaving on the trip and put a prepaid SIM from Claro in it. There was a bit of a hassle with getting the sim cut right and installed, but now I have mobile data (for photo posting) and enough balance to call home a few times. I expect that tomorrow will have some photos posted to Twitter/Facebook throughout the day.
Tomorrow is an early start with breakfast at 6:45am. I’m looking forward to actually being able to enjoy some Honduran coffee in the morning.