Armando is standing in front of the little roof over the kitchen which has to go. Once it is gone, the floor will be extended to the wall behind and a new roof at the same level under which we are all standing will be built.
Problem: the drill (taladro) has a broken switch, so when Gustavo plugs it in, the drill works and has to be unplugged for every screw in the roof! We decided to buy a new drill for later work. But, of course, the drill was not all that needed to be bought. We brought money from the Diocesan fund that furthers the Companion relationship with Honduras, and after all of the details were worked out, we went to the hardware store.
Meanwhile, Alice had found her group of children who gathered around her to have fun and also learn a little English. They like to do it and she says they are all quite intelligent, even if slightly distracted after a few minutes!
We see here Tim and Bob standing in front of the Todo Fácil Ferreteria, that is, the "everything is easy hardware store". We thought of it as a kind of ironic joke, since buying things at a hardware store is never easy in Honduras.
Bob and Gustavo are sitting with a man with a computer now actually buying the things for which Gustavo worked out the estimate. It took a while for all of this to be written out and verified. Then Bob had to go to the caja--the business office, to pay for it all--and then he was issued with a receipt that was good for the delivery.
Meanwhile Tim and Michael were trying to buy miscellaneous items, for which the process was nearly the same. You find the item you want and take it to a clerk and she makes out a purchase order and you go to the business office to pay.
As long as it took us, this was easier than the store at which we bought the drill--another step was included, so that after paying you had to go a place where the bill of sale was entered and then the item brought to the clerk. At least they verified that the drill worked before we took it!
When we returned Armando had taken off the metal roof and knocked down the front part of the wall, leaving the metal studs with the reinforcing rods connecting them and the wires for the lighting snaking through the studs (canelitas).
Fredy our driver pitched in and used a tool to cut the re-rods away.
Down below on the next level, the women who run the tortilleria were hard at work. You can see here the two relatively new stoves that were constructed several years ago.
the tortillas are made by hand and sold two for 1 Lempira. The women make something around 2000 per day. That means they make about Lps 1000, which, in dollars, (at 24 to 1 exchange rate just now) is about $42 for three women. Every week one day's earnings go to the parish, a
nd of course, the supplies have to be taken out. 
Some of the women in the parish prepared a wonderful lunch for us: grilled chicken, steamed vegetables and rice with corn and cilantro (or perhaps culantro, similar, I am told).
There was plenty for all of us and the children who had come and/or accompanied their parents.
Of course, all the rubble had to be carried down 32 steps to a place where fill was being supplied. We were blessed that Aron and Daniel (and also Justin--not pictured) did some of the heavy work. I (this is John writing) tried to make light buckets for them, but they added more if they were not heavy enough.
Michael asked me to make sure we had a picture of him also carrying rubble, so that no one thought that he had avoided the labor part of the project.
Bob Canter overseeing our work. Without whom nothing would happen--he is the major domo of the project and of all the groups that come here, making headaches for him left and right. THANKS, BOB!
Michael found some new friends and the work seems a little easier than hauling the rubble. ¿Es verdad?
Handsome young man to say Adios for today
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