Day 4; Part II: Honduras 2012 And so the work began.

Mama Tara's Orphanage is set in a beautiful place. It is full of beautiful children with beautiful hearts. The poverty however is just undeniable.  I remember the first time I walked up to this place I was overwhelmed with grief and guilt and sadness. I knew then in that moment that Mama Tara's was a place we needed to work on. We needed it to become more sustainable. A little cleaner. A little safer. 

Over time I forgot to see the poverty though. I forgot that this wasn't normal. That the children there all had lice and worms and that trash was everywhere and chickens and cats walked all over the food preparation table and that the kids drank filthy water from a plastic tub that probably held 50 gallons of stagnant water. 

After you begin to see the life in the children's eyes and the love of the caregivers you forget that you are in such a place. Or maybe that it is you forget that it is not normal. Or maybe you just can't allow yourself to "see" it anymore because if you do your heart will just stop beating. I am not sure what it is that causes it... but somehow it just becomes... normal.

On day four Alex (an awesome local missionary) handed us a list of 6 tasks that Linda (a missionary who just began living at Mama Tara's) would really like to see happen. These things will be life changing even though they seemed like small tasks. Honestly I was a bit confused. I thought we were going to be working on the security wall... In hind sight it was God's perfect plan and I am glad to didn't question it but rather just trust the missionaries who understand life there. 

One of the tasks. Repair the chicken coop!

 Yep, this is the chicken coop.  I don't remember the exact number of chickens they started with but in the last few weeks a dozen or more chickens had been stolen from them. Loosing the chickens means loosing the eggs which means the kids get even less protein than before.
Several of the guys worked and worked on that coop.

 They had to basically tear out each wall and start all over. Don't worry the chickens run free during the day. They lock them up at night to keep them "safe".

 Brandon found a scorpion on his pants! YIKES!!!

As we were calling it a day on day four we were super excited because a chicken willingly went into the coop! LOL If we did nothing else in Honduras we saved one chicken! 

The medical team started their clinic this day. I was so impressed with their organization. It was awesome to see how this all came together. 

 Lauri (the organizer of our medical group) and Maxs their God-sent translator!

 The first day of the clinic they primarily saw and treated the children from Mama Tara's. All the kids got "de-wormed" and a thorough check-up.

 Loved watching them at work!!!

Even the workers and women at Mama Tara's came through the line.

Wendy started cutting the girls hair. She lovingly volunteered to cut and all of the kids hair. You can see the grin on FB's face. It made them feel so special to have someone do this for them. 

 Mom and Janet started re-screening doors. We had actually done this last year but as you can imagine after twenty-some kids come through those doors countless times a day the screens just wore out. This time they used thicker screen and several layers of it. The screen wasn't to keep thieves out. It was to keep chickens cats and dogs out!

 Below is a picture of how the food was cooked over an open fire. As you can imagine it gets extremely smoky in there.
Another thing on our to-do-list was to cut out a window for ventilation.

 Adam and Clayton went to town and had a square window cut out in no time. They also made a shutter so that they could close the window if necessary. Good job guys!

 Scott wired the entire building so that when the electricity actually gets connected the building will be ready to go! It was amazing the amount of work he got done!  We got to turn lights on with a generator for a few minutes. I can't wait to hear the news that the power lines have finally made it from town! This should be happening late January or early February!

What was awesome about all of our experiences was that the children often jumped right in and helped with the work. It was awesome for several reasons. 1. It was just fun to have them their by our sides. 2. I can't help to hope that this inspired them and empowered them to take care of the things we were trying to do for them. Maybe since they helped screen the door maybe just maybe the door won't need repaired next time we return?