Yesterday, while I was sick in bed, the team broke ground on the first house in Casa Hogar, which will be for Luce and her family ... she is the HIV victim whose husband committed suicide. First they had to clear the area of rocks, brush, and trees, all with only a few hand tools.

This morning I went to help with this work, which really is still at the breaking-ground stage, as we dig a trench under the perimeter of the house and of each room. The ground is basically clay, and we basically had to use pick axes to dig down an inch, and then shovel out the clods, and then pick-axe some more, etc. ... until the trench was a foot deep. Very slow, very tiring work, especially in the brilliant sunshine and 100-degree weather. Basically we would work for 10 minutes or so, and then go sit in the shade of the bus for 10 minutes or so to drink a bottle of water.

I was greatly reminded of digging the footer for the front retaining wall at our house in Perrysburg, where I had to use a pickaxe to dig into the gravel-clay combination. As I recall, I spent an entire week of evenings plus a weekend just to dig that trench, which was the hardest and most discouraging part of the whole project.

Anyway, although I was still feeling a little feverish, the work felt fine to me. As a diversion from digging the footer, we collected large rocks and tossed them into the back of a large truck, then emptied the truck near the house site. These rocks will be placed into the trench, and then concrete will be shoveled over top until the trenches are full, so that the footer will be more solid. We also visited with several kids from nearby homes who came to watch.

JJ stayed in bed this morning, and by lunchtime had quite a fever going. However, after an ibuprofen and lunch, he was doing quite well. He came out with us this afternoon to deliver supplies we had brought down with us from Toledo to the Great Commission Church here. We also made one final trip to Le Moen (sp?), to see the progress on the first house we were building. It is pretty much complete! Le Moen is a poor community in the middle of nowhere, where a decade ago the Honduran government dropped off a bunch of refugees who had lost their homes due to Hurricane Mitch. For a while they were left in complete chaos, until Samaritan's Purse came and built livable homes and basic sewage for them.

Tonight we are going to church!