Thursday

We had a busy Thursday, with a 14 hour work day. But we made it, and are all alive. A few of us are getting sick, but The Lord is providing us with the strength we need to get through the long days. We will be putting up a more lengthy blog this evening, but for now, we have to go out to the sight to work. 

This is our work site last night, working in the dark for a few hours so that we could finish up some work. We worked last nigh until 10

Wednesday

Today was our longest and most complicated day. Mike woke up early and went down to San Pedro with Aldolfo and Stephanie to pick up special wire for the solar panels. This is a two hour drive one way. Back at the pig farm we had troubles with both the drilling and the tower building. For drilling, we we working on making the hole wider to get ready for casing, but our mud pump kept loosing suction which means we can't drill. After multiple attempts to fix it ourselves we had no choice but to stop working. Building the tower also ran into difficulties. We are using a new set of tower plans for the first time. While the plans had a few issues we made it worse by drilling holes in 4" metal plates that were too close together. This was exasperated further by a lack of accuracy in the drilling of a local blacksmith we hired. I was about to have 32 new plates cut and drilled with four holes each. 

Mike arrived back from San Pedro around 1 pm with the operation in total shutdown. After looking further at the pump with Aldolfo, we decided it needed to be taken to a local machine shop for repairs. Mike then looked at the tower and came up with a brilliant, out of the box idea; got rid of the 4" plates! We will have to drill 32 new holes to make this work, but it is much better than 32 cuts and 128 holes. It was good to have our leader back. 

The machine shop was able to fix the pump in a few hours and we were back at it just as the sun was setting. We brought over a generator and lights to keep working into the night. We were able to widen the hole about 175' deep and stopped working around 8pm. 

Tomorrow we will decide how much deeper we want to drill before casing the hole. The tower should be able to be finished tomorrow, Lord willing. While every day has been critical, tomorrow will be key for our success. Please pray for the Lord's wisdom an mercy. He has been faithful to keep us safe and provide excellent weather. 

-Krister

Me drilling holes in the metal for our tower:

Continuing to work after the sun has set:

A wolf spider. We have these in Colorado, but they seem to have a lot more here! They are nocturnal and hunt their prey instead of spinning webs. They live in holes and are harmless to humans. 

Six little piggies taking a nap. Can you count all of them?

Monday and Tuesday

We always need to finish off a day with a good meal, sometimes aided by some good icecream from the stand across the street from our hotel. The stand has one partly speaking English lady who is learning English from university classes. Along with Mr. Douglas's Spanish knowledge, which is close to none, we were able to order ice cream. Although pointing at the sign and saying "this" is maybe how we were able to get icecream as well... We have visited this stand twice, once Sunday night, and once Monday night.

We went to dinner Monday night at the famous "House of Meats" with Mr. Adolpho and his family. From left to right, Mr. Adolpho, Zach (Mr. Adolpho's grandson), Mrs. Mayra (Mr. Adolpho's wife), Stephanie (our translator and Mr. Adolpho's daughter), dad Foreman, Mr. Buckstein in the back, Peter, Tanner, Christer, and Mr Douglas. Mrs. Mayra knows English from weekend classes that she is taking at a university in San Pedro Sula, 2 hours away. Zach is in a school where he is only allowed to speak in English, but he speaks better Spanish. He is a U.S. citizen, and the son of Stephanie's sister. The house of meats serves one big plate that has all kinds of meat, and everyone takes what they want from the community plate.

Today we our pump stopped working at one point, and we had to cut part of out tube off, because it had a crack in the end. We pulled the metal end connector out of the end, and put it back into the newly cut tube. However, we could not fit the connector back into the tube. So we put glue on the end and set it on fire. We did this to get it warm and soft, so that we could force the metal connector in with a hammer. This is Juan, the hardest working Honduran I have ever met. And that is saying a lot. Hondurans are very hard working people, always very willing to help and do whatever they can for us. Juan is more though. He is constantly working, constantly busy, constantly picking up the slack if we let it down. He is very smart as well. Even though there is a language gap between us, he still can tell what needs to be done, and he does it. Praise The Lord for blessing us with such a man as Juan.

This is Mr. Buckstein and Tanner after working with the drill. There is a reason they call it "the mud pit". The drill spits quite a bit of mud at this point in the process. What they are doing is pulling the pipe out so that they can put a different bit on the end. Pulling the pipe apart when they still have some pressure in them is needed in the process of removing the links of pipe. These two ended getting even dirtier than this before the day was over. 

Sunday night

We had a great day began with a devotion from the book: Thoughts for Yong men.  Good discussion and then off to work.  Yes, I know it was the Sabbath but we dedicated our work to Him and got right to it.

There is no doubt that this work and Central America is for those who are patient and willing to be frustrated.

But with the said we are further along on Sunday evening then I ever remember being before.  After spending most of the day setting up and adjusting things we were able to drill just 20'.  It was almost solid rock for about 15 feet and then we lost all of our circulation.  We had prepared to drill into the evening but decided with our minor set back we would call it a day and go shower and have fresh bodies and attitudes in the morning.

The pig farm is encouraging no I think will be a blessing to those that are in the CHE program. After less then a year they have approximately 25 pigs from little guys up to 220 pounders.  The well will allow them to expand the program and start selling some of them to help support the CHE program in Honduras.  

Blessings to you all th,and you for your prayers and especially thank you to the wives and children that let their boys go play in the mud.  Mike D

Saturday Evening

We arrived in San Pedro Sula on time, but our local partner, Aldolfo and his daughter Stephanie somehow believed we weren't arriving for another week! After waiting a couple hours at the airport for them to arrive, we were on our way. It was a potholed two hour drive to La Entrada where our hotel is. The roads here are dangerous as witnessed by the result of a bus vs car accident we were stuck in traffic behind. After arriving at the hotel we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant. After a long day of travel on only a few hours of sleep we had a quiet dinner and were early to bed. Well, it was mostly quiet until Marty found a staple in his chicken! The things we take for granted in the US...

Tomorrow, Lord willing, we plan to get the drilling rig set up at the pig farm about a half hour from our hotel. Prayers that this will go smoothly are appreciated. Below is a picture of us waiting at the airport for Aldolfo. There is little here that can be considered under our control. While we "hurry up and wait" we learn to go with the flow and trust God's timing. A good reminder for the reality of God's soverence back at home as well. 

-Krister

Saturday 21st

We arrived in Houston safely last night at around 12:30 and made it to the hotel by 2 am for a few hours of sleep. Our flight leaves at 9:00 this morning. 

Thank the Lord for a safe journey so far and pray for safety for the team the rest of the trip.

Be praying that the Lord would bless this trip as we know we cannot do anything out of His grace.

-Honduras team.