8/7/12 Tuesday, 

Let me explain something before I get much further,  I am posting my blogs typed from an I-phone.  Yes I have 2-thumbed all this so far.  Not to bad for me if I do say so myself... Ok, here we go, the rain from tropical storm Ernesto came thru with a vengeance starting last night around 6:00 pm and raining really hard all night.  Most nights we wake up because the mangos falling from the trees onto the tin roof makes a loud BANG!!, but last night the rain drowned out the mango drums it was so loud.  We woke up at 6:15 and the rain was just as hard as it was last night, with no letup in the forecast.  We also learned that hurricane Ernesto was passing north of Honduras and we were experiencing the outlying rain squalls from the storm, but we are safe, the storm had passed, we all figured that we would not be heading out to  Armenio Bonito since you can't lay brick in the rain because you need to control the amount of water in the mortar, what we didn't realize, was that cement can be poured in the rain, so we spent the morning helping build up the wall around the compound.  The cement mixing technique here is very primitive but it works, it's all done on the ground with shovels and a big pile of the materials.  Basically they pour the cement and sand on the ground then start shoveling it in to the middle to build a big volcano then create a huge crater in the middle and add the water, all the time 3 or 4 guys are shoveling the sides to keep the walls up and thus the cement gets mixed,  I know, I know, you have no idea what I'm talking about.  I will try to film it tomorrow.  Once we mixed the cement we had to shovel it in 5 gallon buckets and carry it to the wall then lift it up to the workers.  It was pretty difficult but we handled it well.  While the workers were making the forms for a column we needed to pour, the lead missionary mike, introduced us to the joys of eating fresh right off the tree mangos.  Since we aren't supposed to eat any fresh fruit or vegetables we had to make sure that mango came right from the tree and didn't sit on the ground to long.  So basically we had to eat it as it fell from the tree. Man, they were sweet and juicy and delicious.  After we ate around 20 mangos, we went inside and ate lunch (maybe that's why we weren't to hungry) after lunch we went out the Armenia Bonito to hold kids club for the kids.  There were about 85 kids there, and man was it loud! The gringos had to put on a skit based on a biblical passage, create a game, and help with a craft activity. The team leader Zach, the Pastor Phil, and myself had to do the skit based on Balaams Ass (Numbers 23) we needed 3 character an angel, Balaam, and the ass... Guess which one I was?? That's right, the ass....(sigh) that's my lot in life.... But we had a great time and the kids had a blast too.  After skit, we helped the kids do arts and craft, making a paper bag hand puppet of me, the ass... After we picked up all the trash, put away all the benches and table and chair we left to have dinner at a local place here.  We ate 3 things, deep fried plantain chips, fresh beans, refried, and barbecued meat, chicken, beef, and sausage.... Man was it delicious!!! Just what the doctor ordered.   All us guys sat at one table and the beans and plantain chips were devoured almost instantly them they brought out the trays of meat.i think we scared the other tables, be within 5 minutes we were done with our meat plate and looking for others....  I kinda think we scared some of the other tables because they started bringing us their trays when they were done.  We ended up with 6 trays on our table, the only thing missing were the flagons of mead and the elkhounds to use as napkins, so we had to settle for the local beer and a couple of chihuahuas,  (and the beer was pretty bad too....).  That pretty much puts today to rest.  We are back at the dorms, resting after a long day of work, fun, spreading the blessings and the word of God thru our actions and our prayers.  Good night everyone.