Day 5 in Honduras

I am sitting in the middle of a tropical storm – OK that might be a tad bit dramatic, but it is definitely a storm, and it is flooding our entire living quarters.  We have turned everything into a water catcher, and everyone is just waiting for the rain and lightning and thunder to die down.  It is so much fun.  Adam, John and Lizzy even decided to play in the downpour.  It was a nice break from the hard work we did today.  After breakfast, our group either laid bricks or sanded and painted a building.  I was in the paint group, and it definitely gave me a new appreciation for painters.  The sanding alone took us nearly an hour, and the next two were spent painting the wall a Grand Canal color.  After lunch we returned to painting, but the task was much more difficult – painting the ceiling.  I was the only main roller because our other rollers had been used painting the wall, and we couldn’t get all the dark blue color out of the rollers.  We painted the ceiling and trim lime green, and my role required me to crane my neck backwards to get all the areas.  By the time I was done two hours later, I was covered in paint.  Despite having a hat on, my face had speckles all over, including the inside of my ears.  I used a towel with paint thinner to get all the paint off, and I took a shower afterwards to get rid of the smell.  My hands still reek of turpentine.  Once the painting portion of my job was done, I worked with another group to sort all the donations we brought along with us.  I loved sorting the books and looking at all the baby clothes.  Clothes are instantly cuter if they’re smaller.  After an hour, we were done, and I went to the Internet café to print off my night activity.  Once that task was complete, I went to play with the kids.  I went to Sandra, Samantha and Brandon’s house and stayed with them until I had to leave for dinner.  We made friendship bracelets, did puzzles and watched Stuart Little.  After dinner, and our discussion about man purses, our group came back to the housing unit to hang out.  We played bananagrams and a few card games before the start of my night reflection, which was interrupted by the tropical storm.  And now we’re all sitting in the dark because the electricity is off, and our whole housing area is flooding.  Everyone is keeping the attitude “there’s nothing we can do about it,” and just enjoying being in Honduras.