Hey Everybody! Again, lots of time has passed since the last blog, but here goes. I wanted to tell you guys about a family in the mountains outside of Guiamaca in Honduras that now have electricity. You’ll see her in the picture and her name is Maria Roenia. She has a family of six people in her home with children and grandchildren. Maria wakes up at 4am to get her granddaughter ready for school and her husband and children ready for work. She spends about 6 hours total each day cooking meals for her family. She used candles and pine torches for light to get this done. Well…she used to.
The family has a cellphone that they charge in town at a cost of 10 limpiras. The granddaughter’s school is pretty close by and I noticed that it has no electricity. We can take care of that next time.
One thing that I took away our visit, besides meeting this wonderful family, is her husband’s job. He said he is a rock breaker. We discussed this and he said that he swung a large sledgehammer all day long and breaks rocks for the road crews. That is one tough job! Now if you know me, I immediately wanted to armwrestle him. I won’t tell you who won, though.
We installed a solar system for their home and put lights in two rooms, the kitchen and the shared bedroom. They will also be able to charge their cellphones and I think that they’ll also be able to really use the USB flashlight to replace the candles and torches that they have been using.
Again, thanks to all of our supporters for their kind words and donations. We’ll visit this family again in the near future. I have been working out so I expect an armwrestling rematch.
- Jim