Travels With Wesley

Woke this morning to noisy rufous-naped wrens outside the window. For small birds they make a racket.. Left for Moroceli about 7:30 this morning (Thursday, Oct. 1) and arrived to find the rig idle. Water was the problem drilling for water. To back up a couple of days, when I got to Moroceli Monday, I found Rev. Carlos standing by the pila (water tank) in the church yard. Water from flowing in from the municipal water system, which water comes from the rivers and creeks nearby. My pint is, if I have one, is the Rev. Carlos said that there had been no water for three weeks, and it started flowing about an hour before I got there. Delivery of this dirty surface water is very spotty even in the summer rainy season, and often non-existent in the dry season. This morning, there was no water in the pila, and none flowing. So, the team had to fill up huge plastic water tanks and transport them from the river. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Rather than watch the idle rig, I went to Danli, met up with Jeannie Loving and loaded up 40 bags of food and forty bags of hygiene necessities, for San Lorenzo. Also three bags of cement for the park under construction in San Lorenzo. They may not have any food, and the well doesn’t work, but they are going to have a fine park for the children. San Lorenzo is a terribly poor village of 40 families. In August, 2008, a tropical storm parked over Honduras for several days, and washed away all the crops in San Lorenzo and other communities. The people survived only by the efforts of charitable organizations. This year, the Texas Water Ministry donated $1000 of seed corn, and the people of San Lorenzo are eating a lot of corn these days thanks to a bumper crop.

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A bag of food, rice, beans, etc. costs 127.5L., $6 at $18.5L to the dollar. A week’s worth of food maybe for a family of 4. Another ministry for my Council in Lakeland. We buy it, we can get it delivered to Moroceli. The food is purchased from Sami, a Palestinian Christian who has several business in Danli. Sami gives a large discount on the food, and packages it for free.

Here are some kids from San Lorenzo.

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During our trip to Honduras in April, we visited San Lorenzo and I put a pic in this blog of a young girl carrying water. I commented that she was either pregnant or maybe had some other problem, such as worms. She is not pregnant, the picture on the right below is today, left in April. She has a problem of some sort, and her parents will not take her to the doctor, probably because they cannot afford it. I’d love to find the money to get an exam and help the young lady find and cure her problem.

Back to business, I returned to Moroceli, and they were drilling with mud.

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New work on the templo:

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They hit rock at 170 feet, and pulled back Thursday afternoon. Friday morning, they loaded the diamond drill and tried getting through the rock. that was the status when I left about 10:30 AM Friday. My next entry will update the status.

A lot of drilling today but no water yet. The crew got down to 100 feet, then had a problem with the rig. After the problem was resolved (something to do with compression I believe,) they resumed drilling, using some mud to facilitate matters. Grown men like to play in mud too.

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They eventually reached 130 feet, but the mud was too thin, so they pulled back. The area they were drilling through was soft, so the last 30 feet or so collapsed back on itself. They will have to make up some work tomorrow after mixing better mud. Mud was blowing out of the hole as they pulled the pipe out, and we had several interested spectators. Here is one:

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The shields on the front of the templo are finished, and here they are:

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More tomorrow,

I arrived back in Honduras on Sunday, September 27 after routine flights. Met John Fenley at the airport, we rented trucks, then went to Pricesmart (read Sam’s Club or Costco) and La Colonia (supermarket) in Tegucigalpa for some provisions, then I went to Zamorano and John to Oho de Agua.

Monday morning I went to La Capon early to meet John, and see what the plans were for starting drilling at Moroceli, thinking the rig would be moved to Moroceli in the AM and drilling would commence. Quickly found out that as usual in an endeavor like this, we weren’t quite ready. Paco (the Honduran driller) had gone to get parts, and another Honduran team member hadn’t shown up yet. No problemo. They would move the rig in the PM or early Tuesday morning. I therefore went to Danli to research pumps and tanks. Afterwards, I went to Moroceli and dropped off some Sunday School material I had brought for them. Discovered they had made great progress on the renovations. Windows had been cut in, the outside and inside walls had been sealed and plastered. One of the parishioners was painting shields on the front of the templo.

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The logo on the right will be the shield of the Diocese of Honduras, and the shield on the left will be the shield of All Saints’ of Lakeland.

Tuesday morning, I got to Moroceli relatively early, and the rig was there and preparing for drilling. At 9:15 AM, the drill bit hit the ground.

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An exciting moment. At 9:30 AM, a weld broke on the drilling rig, and we came to a halt. Paco and John went back to El Capon to get the welder. After some time, Paco began welding the piece back on the rig. The welder needed an electrical hookup, so Manuel, the Senior Warden, performed some electrical work, not quite up to code, at least in Polk County, Florida.

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The photo on the right is the connection for power to the church building.

Welder powered, Paco did his magic.

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The rig back together, the drill head would not attach to the pipe. The connector must be bad, so John and I go to El Capon to get an new piece. When we returned, the Honduran team had decided to drill for water the old fashioned way:

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Actually, they were digging a hole for a piece of PVC through which the drill pipe would run to keep the mess down when hitting or using mud. The 10“ piece of pipe was cemented in the hole, and dirt filled in around it. Should make for a cleaner drill. Make sense? Well, at 1:50 PM, we were ready to start drilling again. Luckily, we had one mature member of the team who knew what he was doing:

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As soon as we started again, the rain started. But no problemo. After all, we were drilling for water. When I left for Zamorano about 4:00, the drill was down 40 feet and moving. More tomorrow.

The rest of the week was uneventful. I spent some time in Moroceli and saw the progress being made there. I tried to get out early, but the airport was shut until Wednesday, and American didn’t start flying into Toncontin Airport until Saturday, my original departure date.

On Saturday morning early, I drove Kathy Pennybacker’s car to Danli and met Jeannie Loving there. We took Jeannie’s car, me driving, and headed to Tegucigalpa to the airport, leaving plenty of time to get there. My plan was to be at the airport about 3 1/2 hours early just in case. The just in case happened. We got to the airport exit in Teguz, and the exit was closed due to protests in or around the airport. No problemo, we decided to try to find another route to the airport. Right. We got lost, as might be expected, finding ourselves in the depths of old Teguz, on the wrong side of the river, wandering though a large market area swarming with people. I fully expected to hear crunching under my tires, putting some poor Honduran out of their misery. I would have loved to be in that area with my camera and unlimited time, but not trying to catch a plane. After about an hour and half, I noticed an empty taxi in front of us, and asked Jeannie to get out of the car, get in the taxi and tell him to take us to the airport. She did, and he took off. About two blocks later, he turned left and I turned right. Half an hour later, we got back together and proceeded to the other entrance to the airport. Sure enough it was also blocked by protesters. Luckily the taxi driver knew a back way in, and we finally pulled up in front of the terminal.

The airport was swarming with police and soldiers, keeping the protesters at bay. The inside of the airport was swarming with people trying to get out on one of the two flights left that day. I did make the plane, obviously as I am writing this in my basement surrounded by my toys.

Am I going back? Of course.

July 6 and things are still quiet. The airport remains closed according to the Embassy. Last night, I was the only person in the Conference Center as far as I could tell. I went out to pick up my laundry, and when I returned at 6 PM local time, the reception desk was closed, and the gate into the compound was being closed. Almost spooky here by myself.

I’ve had a touch of the traveler’s scourge the last couple of days. Something I ate?

Yesterday was a quiet day, had lunch with John Fenley, other than that, read and wrote some. I must be a writer, I sure suffer from writer’s block.

Was supposed to pick up Jeannie Loving, SAMS missionary, today at the airport, returning from a few days in the states. Looks like she won’t make it, or will have to fly into San Pedro Sula and bus it down.