The Belly and Belen Gualcho

It´s about 7.30 local time and we are about to head to the work site for our first day on the job. I am amazed at how quickly the group has knit together...21 people who already seem very comfortable with each other, who share their lives and observations freely. I know we are going to work well together.

Yesterday we traveled about two hours to the little town of Belen Gualcho for the Sunday market. This was Honduras in its purest form, a place where they rarely see gringoes, where there are no turist shops or souvenirs, only the local Lenca Indian people and mestizos who come to buy produce, baked goods, clothing and handcrafts. The energy and surprising noisiness of the place is palpable, and all the way up the mountain we passed people coming to or going from the market.

The scenery is stunning...huge mountains, broad valleys, sharp peaks, flowers, pine trees, and houses that ranged from little adobe hovels to mansions. And everywhere there are coffee plantations, with the coffee plants planted in the shade of pines or more often plantain trees. Ít´s the end of the harvest, and everywhere farmers and businesses are drying coffee beans in the sun, anywhere there is a broad flat expanse of concrete, or even a sack or board in the yard.

In Belen Gualcho we held a Sunday service in the local church which was finished in 1718. The church has seen better days to be sure, but we were able to first go up on the roof and check out the spectacular views of the town and surrounding mountains.

Our service was basically the Liturgy of the Word... a reading form 2 Chronicles about the Babylonian Captivity, a psalm response (Psalm 137), a reading from Ephesian, and John 3 14 20 containing the awesome ¨For God so loved the world...¨ verse. We sang three hymns, ably led by Sherry and Keith.

The only bad thing was that I became afflicted, I guess you would say, with Montezuma´s Revenge. Thanks to the support and drugs of the team (God bless Cipro), I am on the mend and am going to work today.

More tonight!