Honduras Mission Trip - 2010
What a world of change I’ve experienced in the last 24 hours! From the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, cold showers, sleeping on a mat on the floor of a school, hearing roosters crow all night, people working for 1 to 2 dollars a day if they can find work, and roads that are often traveled at 5 miles per hour, to the world you and I live in. Yet the people in Honduras are very warm and loving, welcoming us with open arms (literally) and desire a better life for themselves and their children.
Our project this year was to work with the community of Las Palmas in Southern Honduras to build 5 block houses 18 feet square with metal roofs and a 10,000 gallon water tank on a hill.
A considerable amount of pre-work had been done before our arrival, but considerable sand, gravel, and water still needed to be obtained from the local streams.
The most impressive thing for me was the amount of material needed for the water tank, and the energy needs to move the materials up the 45° angle hill a distance of 75 yards. The material list includes…
Local masons were hired for under $20.00 per day to be the builders for the houses and the water tank. Mason’s assistants, local people, and our trippers worked to keep blocks, bricks, stones, and mortar to the masons and to fill in any way we could to help. The day the top of the tank was poured, 19 batches of concrete were mixed on the ground in 2 hours and passed up on the tank in buckets.
An agreement has been reached with a nongovernment agency to drill a well at the foot of the hill to provide water to the tank for the community of 80 families. The people will dig the trenches and install the water lines themselves.
At the end of group #2, the 5 homes and the water tank were complete, and in an informal gathering up on the hill by the tank, we turned over the responsibility of the tank to the community.
MISSION COMPLETED!!
Bill Hare
Project Coordinator
Our project this year was to work with the community of Las Palmas in Southern Honduras to build 5 block houses 18 feet square with metal roofs and a 10,000 gallon water tank on a hill.
A considerable amount of pre-work had been done before our arrival, but considerable sand, gravel, and water still needed to be obtained from the local streams.
The most impressive thing for me was the amount of material needed for the water tank, and the energy needs to move the materials up the 45° angle hill a distance of 75 yards. The material list includes…
All of this was carried up the hill by 4 mules, dozens of local people, and trippers in our groups. Our people contributed only a small part of the work, and the local people a huge part.
Sand 60 tons Gravel 7 tons Rock 10 tons 230 bags of cement 10 tons 3500 gallons of water 14 tons 4000 bricks 14 tons TOTAL 115 tons …plus lumber and 220 pieces of 20 foot long re-bar.
Local masons were hired for under $20.00 per day to be the builders for the houses and the water tank. Mason’s assistants, local people, and our trippers worked to keep blocks, bricks, stones, and mortar to the masons and to fill in any way we could to help. The day the top of the tank was poured, 19 batches of concrete were mixed on the ground in 2 hours and passed up on the tank in buckets.
An agreement has been reached with a nongovernment agency to drill a well at the foot of the hill to provide water to the tank for the community of 80 families. The people will dig the trenches and install the water lines themselves.
At the end of group #2, the 5 homes and the water tank were complete, and in an informal gathering up on the hill by the tank, we turned over the responsibility of the tank to the community.
MISSION COMPLETED!!
Bill Hare
Project Coordinator
<< Home