We just got back from our first heavy workday. Sat in the back of a pickup (like a real Hondureno!) to go pick up sand for the filters from a factory about 20 mins away. We sat around for a while and watched some of the workers have their lunch and then the epic lifting began. I don't think we moved everything today, but we did move at least 5 tons. I know some people took some pretty gnarly photos :] After we got everything loaded, we drove to a church next to the cardboard villages to unload and store everything. Then, we started assembling some of the water containers that the villagers can use to store clean water. It was rather boring but I think it gave me a greater sense of appreciation for the factory workers we saw. They work 6 days a week doing the same thing over and over again and on average they make $4400 a year :[ I realized how fortunate we are considering how most people in the world live such lives.
I don't think we were dry all day long. I have a video of me wringing my shirt out :] We actually jumped in the pool after we got back and then it started raining cats, dogs, and elephants when we were swimming so I'm pretty much still wet. There was supposed to be a gringo vs Honduran soccer game tonight, but we're not sure if it'll happen.
Day 3 - Tuesday
We started installing water filters today and it was such a blessing of an experience. I don't know how quite else to put it. It was at once what I expected but not at the same time. I mean, at home you can picture the villages and how poor and desperate the people will be but you can never prepare yourself for the laughter of the children and the hospitality and smiles of toothless villagers. The first family we visited was a grandma, grandpa, and their granddaughter. It was the cutest because I was trying to give the grandma instructions on how to use the filter in Spanish and I'm pretty sure I didn't say a lot of stuff right, but she nodded and tried to repeat what I said. In any case, we got through to each other alright and the grandpa brought back a bottle of orange soda for us after :] It was touching because these people are the poorest of the poor and I hear on average they make $1 or 20 lempiras a day, which is about how much a bottle of soda costs. They also had a pet pig they kept on a leash and they let us take a picture with them, pig included :]
My team installed about 6 more filters for the day in between trips to the church to pick up half a ton of sand and rocks and more filters. We got to pray with some families and it was an amazing experience knowing that a sand filter was bringing people from different worlds together :] Can't wait to go back tomorrow.
We just spent some time sharing and I guess I have a few more thoughts. We were reading a psalm and it was talking about how God detests pride and I guess I was thinking about how easy it is for me to take pride in installing water filters because it's such a tangible thing to do and evokes gratitude and such positive reactions. But, I've been reading a book called "Following Jesus through the Eye of a Needle" and it talks about how charitable acts like dropping coins into a Salvation Army kettle can be considered cheap charity because it only requires you to give up some negligible amount of money without any personal investment and I think simple installing water filters as an act in itself can at most be considered a half step above dropping coins into a kettle because we're just putting in a couple weeks of sweat and work (sorry for the long sentence). I have to remind myself that what we're doing is so much bigger than filters and that the filters and our interactions with the people serve as stepping stones and conduits for us to share the Word in the future.
I've been listening to this song called " Embracing Accusation" (Idk if I told you about it) and it's essentially about this guy who feels like the devil is saying, "Cursed are you who can't abide by God's laws." He feels like the devil is right but what the devil has left out is that Jesus saves. The song's kinda despairing throughout but it ends in a climax that just says, "Jesus saves," as though that silences everything else the devil says. The song has been speaking to me because I can't help but think that some villagers feel like they're wretched and poor because they've done something wrong, like when that one pastor said after the Haiti earthquake that the Haitians deserved the devastation because they made a pact with the devil. I want to bring them a message of hope, that God doesn't wish poverty upon them but rather, He wants to Jeremiah 29:11 them.
We got to play with some children today. It was beautiful to see them smile and laugh and run around like kids back home. It breaks my heart to know that the circumstances they live in will probably be the only ones they will ever know because of the lack of education and opportunity. I can only trust that God will lift them out of the aldeas (cardboard villages) and give them a brighter future.
On a lighter note, we also got to play with some puppies (I want one now) and we saw a hen in a pot and realized it was hatching its eggs in the pot and there were a few chicks running around in the pot. I have a pic :] Mega cute.
Day 4 - Wednesday
The people here are wonderful :] They're always smiling and laughing, especially the children. My Spanish is not that great but I remember having conversations with some mothers who we were installing filters for and how they said what we were doing was beautiful. There's just no sense of "You're rich. I'm poor. I deserve to be helped." We got to pray with some families and that was a great experience and testimony for both us and them methinks.
I learned quite a bit about the facts of life for the people in the aldeas today. One family we were installing filters for consisted of 3 sisters aged 17, 18, and 20. They had five kids between the 3 of them and the eldest kid was 5. It blew my mind just thinking about how crazy that would be back home. Back home, these girls would be considered just kids! On top of not being able to enjoy their teenage lives, they have to raise kids, worry about their next meal, stress over their kids being sick, etc. I think the whole experience so far has given me perspective on our lives and how fortunate we are to have won the economically-well-off-from-birth lottery.
There were some beautiful moments today :] Towards the end of the day, when we were waiting for our pickup to pick us up, we ended up playing with some of the kids. We started out with like 6 kids and ended up with 20. And when it was time for us to go, they came and hugged us all :] Also, some Rotary Club members who helped provide money for filters came to visit and it was just cool explaining who we were and how we installed the filters. They seem truly impressed that we were these students from a renown university in the US who were willing to come down and get sweaty and dirty for the poor.
Which brings me to my next point. I think one thing that's been put on my heart when interacting with the villagers is being prideful. It's easy for me to think that I'm this First Worldeducated citizen coming down to aid the poor. In reality, we're really all part of God's family and we need to remember the fact that the villagers are our brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews. It's not that we could be here if we chose to do so but that we should be here.
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