Honduras Service Trip Feb 2026

7am: Breakfast 8 am: depart for work site 8:30 am: arrive 12:30 pm: depart for church/school for lunch 1:45 pm: go back to the work site 4 pm: Key handover 4:45 pm: trip to the mall -- we got ice cream and Pizza 5:30 pm: arrived back to the Missions House and had our pizza 6:15 pm: unloaded bus -- 6 wheelbarrows, 2 step ladders, 4 pick axes, 6 spade shovels, 2 post hole diggers, 2 steel spikes, 2 tampers. 1 very long piece of 6" PVC pipe -- possibly 20 ft long. 7 pm: showers and relaxation time 6:15 am tomorrow morning -- depart for the airport for a full day of travel -- 11:59 pm arrival at DTW. We are transitting through Miami. The majority of the student time today was spent painting -- exterior paint finished (JLAB Blue!). The interior was also painted JLAB Blue -- but time was running out. We did our best -- everyone was working so hard with the painting. The paint was strangely thinner compared to the paint in the states. But we made it work as best we could. Axel and I were...

Wednesday update - Day 4 of the build -- last day is tomorrow. The walls are on!!!! The cementboard sheets are on the house -- these sheets weighed about 60 pounds each and were BEASTS. Mad props to Mr. Lipman and Mr. Trout for hanging all of them. Secondary props to the drillers -- Kamryn, Calvin, and Leianna. Honorable mention to Axel who was the "spotter" to make sure the panels were on right -- ARE THEY FLUSH? ARE THEY CENTERED? GET IN A SCREW -- that was the war cry as Mr. Lipman and Mr. Trout supported that 4 by 8 sheet on their fingertips. Hero awards all around. Painting started as well. JLAB Blue again (that's for Doctor Barnett). Great work all around in terms of starting the paint job -- the painting will continue tomorrow for the handover at 3 pm. Also, the two doors and two sets of window shutters were custom made by one of the Mission workers, CJ with our window assistant, Semaje. Pictures will be forthcoming -- there is a front door and a side door. Each be...

Tuesday February 17 – at the work site all day – lunch break at the school/church   7 am: Breakfast 8:15 am: school bus ride to the site 8:45 am: arrive to the site 11:30-1 pm: lunch at the school -- see pictures of basketball and visiting with younger students. 1:30-5:45 pm: Finish at the worksite   Today’s main goal was to get all of the concrete done/poured – especially since we had the delay from yesterday (concrete machine breakdown – Mr. Lipman said “it’s got some faulty O-rings for the carburetor and this is causing oil to leak into the gas before it goes into the piston. All they need is some starter fluid.” The man was right, but humble, so the starter fluid took a while to appear and the delay set us slightly behind schedule for the start of this morning). But we ultimately finished the floor region.   Today’s secondary goal: trenching around the house for the step-up around the front/side of the house. The step-up trench was 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep an...