22 Mayo 2015

Nobody’s Hero

5:05am Denver time is late for me in the normal world… but as the birds of prey warmed up their vocal chords, I laid in complete silence chasing my thoughts while gazing through the window nigh to me; contemplating and praying about the task before the team today. I picked up my iPhone and began to listen to some music and the song “Nobody’s Hero” was playing. That is my inspiration for the blog, no Easter eggs today. I wanted to begin writing it while I was listening to the music and share some lyrics:

But he’s nobody’s hero… Saves a drowning child…. Cures a wasting disease… Hero…lands the crippled airplane…. Solves great mysteries… Hero…not the handsome actor Who plays a hero’s role…. Hero…not the glamour girl Who’d love to sell her soul…. If anybody’s buying Nobody’s hero…

N.Peart

I began to question what does a hero look like? Do you need to be famous or flamboyant? The lyrics of the song would suggest not. I do not consider myself a hero, yet I see many hero’s around me… those in the room next to me… those in the other sleeping quarters here… those who stop and take time to help someone without prejudice… Hero’s come in many sizes, shapes, ages, genders and colors… I will simply call them Nobody’s Hero, yet they are my hero!

Today we will divide into two separate armies of ants. One will trek into the lower Qumistand valley to a school, Luz de Valle or for those who need some help, Light of the Valley which was built by the Federation in 2008. They will do some renovation updates and much needed painting in one of the classroom. Larry and Que Pasa have accepted the challenge to report on this work. The remaining ants will travel in constant motion to the Tejeras community just outside of Qumistand to assist some local people and the pastor building bathroom facilities and pila for the church there, for which yours truly will report on the progress there.

The Tejeras project started off a bit slow this morning. After a visit to the local hardware store known as Lowes to us, Jefe Mater got the team going on screening in the windows while Daniela and Marco went shopping for lumber needed for a lintel over the door openings and some nails to secure it. We returned and found Karlos the block mason back on the job. He has missed a few days because of a new virus carried by mosquitos call (Chicacongoua) or as Senor Jefe Chris says, Chica Doodle…

Together we completed the block work for the bathroom and it will be ready to install the rafters and roof on Monday. Team Zilla, Nico, Wilbur, Rosie, Office Donnie and their leader Hunterzilla finished digging the latrine pit behind the bathroom to a final depth of 12 feet! While they were on break from digging, they put on their Village People hat and lead by none other than Hodo the six string magical musician stapling two layers of wire mesh to the window opening to help with bug control. One fine mesh for insects and a course layer to protect the first from small curious fingers.

The heat today was difficult for all of us because we have spent most of our time in the mountains this week, so the blast of humidity combined with seasonal temperatures was slightly on the un-bearable side. Relief came in the form a storm that blew into town around 3pm local time to cool us off. After the shower past, the children began to arrive to receive a meal prepared by our kitchen crew of Sandra and Gloria. The rest of the team arrived shortly after to help serve the children their food, to sing songs and play games until time for us to return to the compound and eat dinner.

As a side note, I want their recipe for Pico de Gallia, the world’s best salsa bar none! Tomorrow we will take a day trip to Copan and tour the Mayan Ruins, until then folks.

Marco Francisco

Senor Jefe Chris, Que Pasa, Madster and Larry along with Little Maynor, Big Maynor, and Pablo went to the Escuela Luz del Valle (Light of the Valley) to paint. The wonderful school children already accomplished much of the sanding. While painting we discovered that we had invaded the home of a gecko. He was a very large gecko and could send the Gieco gecko packing! The children and gecko now have a room that is a beautiful shade of light purple. While we enjoyed the relative “cool” of a building with ceiling fans, we often thought of the other part of our team working next to a hot highway.  The children were naturally curious of our work and we were surprised to find that they knew a few words of English. They were sent scrambling when our fearless crazy leader Chris acted like a loco monkey but they came back for more fun.

We went to join the other team at Tejeras, help with the feeding program……

Some people may wonder why we travel to a foreign country to paint, to build, to fix, to sweat, to spend long unpaid hours performing jobs that seem unrewarding…… but it is to be a blessing to others, to bring a physical comfort and the love of Jesus.

Larry and Que Pasa