Honduras in a CocoNutshell

Well, these posts have been so much fun and so much work to put together! I honestly had over 500 pictures to get through, and every single one made me do one of the following:

  • smile
  • laugh
  • cry
  • pray
  • think
  • remember
  • ache to go back

If you read my original post about our trip, our main mission for going was to put a new roof on their cafeteria building. Of course, as the unofficial-official photographer of the trip, I got lots of pictures of the roof and its progress throughout the week.

But first – getting into Honduras.

honduras

The flight into Honduras is definitely a big part of the experience.

When actually landing on the landing strip, you are lower than the mountains and RIGHT beside them…I mean, it’s as if the wings are going to chop right through them OR through the houses you’re flying by.

hnplane

A little scary, but beautiful at the same time. We actually had great weather both flying in and out of the country. And no delays or cancelled flights! Those were a few of the signs that this trip was supposed to happen, even with all the political things happening over there right now.

While going through my pictures, I did find ONE picture of food that I took on the day we arrived. :)  Once a food blogger, always one?

bnschs

Yup, we ate a LOT of beans that week  :)  But I was totally fine with it because their beans are amazing. These came out before our first “lunch” in Honduras which was actually our dinner…even though we didn’t really have a full meal that day until this point. They bring out these beans + chips in one and this awesome goat cheese+ salsa in another and they both have hot coals underneath them, which keeps them hot and bubbly. So good and flavorful and the cheese is so stringy.

The first day in the country included eating, walking around town, and resting up for the first day of the work (Thursday).

Jovenes is located about an hour outside of the capital (Tegucigalpa), which is where we were staying.

jov

There are 3 dorms, 1 cafeteria building, a little workshop and an administration building.

dorm

dorm

dorms

The dorms actually all need new roofs, too, so we’re hoping that we’ll be able to help with those in the future.

The roof was worked on for 4.5 days. Thankfully, another group had come in and helped start it by taking the tiles off of one side so our team could get right to work.

roof

jovroof

jovroof

jovstorm

The first day was going well until this storm came through. Every day, it seems there’s the chance for rain, but Thursday had this view (above) on one side of the building and the below view on the other.

jovroof

I was actually up on the roof when the first raindrops started falling and happened to get down just before it started pouring.

roof

Unfortunately, our first day included an accident. One of our helpers that week, Johnny, fell off the roof on the first day right after it started raining. He was standing near my dad and helping to get one of the metal sheets down when his foot slipped on the wet metal. He fell on the ground right in front of me, Cindy, and Gabby and it scared us pretty bad.

Thankfully, he was fine. A few bumps and bruises, but it could have been much worse. He barely missed hitting the ladder, the piles of tiles, and a big cement block – we were very thankful to have him okay.

roof

We were accident free the rest of the week, and the roof moved along nicely.

We did have to leave early on Saturday to head back into town since we heard that the ex-President was apparently trying to come back into Honduras. We had heard that they would be closing the city borders so we had to leave in time to get back into town. However, even with the missed half day of work, all the work got finished.

roof

cafeteria

The other side of the building still had the old tile roof on, so they were working on taking those tiles off while putting the new metal roof down.

cafeteria

roof

roof

dadroof

team

This is Johnny and Franklin, two of our amazing helpers that week. Johnny (in the white) is the one that fell off the roof and scared us (and himself)! We’re glad he was okay and that he still wanted to work with us  :)

nickbob

roof

team

What an amazing team we had. Everyone contributed and we also had a great time getting to know the boys better and getting to know each other. I already miss everyone and am ready for a reunion.

While we may have been a small group, we were able to finish what we went there to do and spend quality time with the boys.

Merle, Sadyh, Dad, Bob, Nick, Walter, Marvin, Gabby, Johnny, Cindy, Oscar, and Franklin will always have a special place in my heart. I will never forget this trip.

———-

Stay tuned for more posts about the trip, including:

  • other things we did at the orphanage
  • a post just on the boys there
  • our craziest story from our trip – believe me, it’s crazy

19 comments

  1. What an awesome mission trip! You must have the best feeling looking at all those pictures!

  2. What an amazing experience!!! I’m so glad you were able to go, despite all the political stuff.

  3. That’s such a great opportunity and it’s cool to have a “vacation” in a beautiful place, but yet your there to help out and contribute–love it!

  4. What that is so awesome! What an amazing way to spend your time, truly inspirational :)

  5. Wow – thanks for posting these pictures! This looks like an amazing time.

  6. What an awesome post/trip Brandi. God’s hand was obviously working through you and your group in Honduras. The roof looks great and the country looks so beautiful!

  7. Oh my, seeing those pictures sure makes us homesick for Honduras, the boys at Jovenes, Walter and gang! You all look great and obviously did a wonderful job. God was honored and you all were the blessed ones. Believe me, we know how that works!

  8. this looks awesome! you all did such wonderful work there, despite the current government sitch, and it looks like such a rewarding, hardworking time.

    thanks for sharing – i can’t wait to see the rest!

  9. Oh wow! That’s incredible!! Glad the guy is okay and the roof looks awesome :)

  10. Wow, what a great trip. I’m glad Johnny is okay though! That sounds really scary. You guys did a great job with the roof :)

  11. How scary to fall off the roof. But it looks like you had an amazing trip. I did something like that in Brazil when I was 16 and loved it. You do such amazing work!

  12. wow looks like a lot of fun! i used to do mission work and we often did stuff like that. it was great.
    -muffy

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