January 8, 2015

We arrived in Roatan early in the week and we’ve begun to construct new steps in the community.

The sand, gravel, cement blocks, and 90 pound bags of cement were delivered by truck. However, the trucks can’t get very close to where we are building the staircases (to steep and rugged) It took 14 men 8 hours to move everything up to the work site. We have 6 additional meters of sand and gravel coming tomorrow.

January 9, 2015

The construction continues and the community is appreciative and pitching in. I’ve attached pictures the progress today. Plus, residents are asking for more concrete to repair areas where there is exposed rebar. Great progress.

January 10, 2015

We have just about completed 100 steps. Here are pictures of the almost complete first 100 steps and retaining wall. Not all of the forms are removed yet.

The boy in the picture is Roberto. He helps us every day. He lives in the house next to the base of these steps.

January 13, 2015

We’ve been extremely busy so there was not much time to post in the last few days.

We are continuing to make good progress even with some rain delays. Everyone is working very hard long days. Over 200 steps have been built. Many local residents of La Colonia are volunteering to help.

Today we went higher in two separate neighborhoods. The higher we go the steeper it gets and the farther the materials have to be carried. Five gallon pails full of concrete mix, gravel, sand, bags of cement, concrete blocks, all have to be carried great distances up steep and sometimes treacherous paths.

The pictures below are of my awesome interpreter who also works building steps with us as well. His name is Oscar Orlando Garcia Cornejo.

One of the things we have to have in order to mix the concrete is water. When it rained today the local volunteers made a dam so we would have easy access to water. It worked well.

The work continues on the steps. The community is working hard, and the progress is amazing.

January 14, 2015

Community members etched the date and heart in the concrete. Wynn and I were working up above this area from 8am until 6pm. We were exhausted when we came down for the day and saw that the people who live near the steps and who have been helping us build them had put the date, a heart and a smile in the concrete. Made me feel great!

The family that owns the vegetable and fruit stand in La Colonia and live at the top one of the staircases we built.

Construction of the 106 stairs we built as one of our projects. The kids in these photo’s live near the top. Their Mom and Dad own a vegetable and fruit stand in La Colonia.

January 15, 2015

Today, standing in the spot this picture was taken. I looked down and saw an older man with a cane who had just walked up all those stairs. He was about to turn to go toward his house when he stopped and looked up. He caught my eye, flashed a big smile and gave me thumbs up.

The woman in this picture is named Karen. She lives near where we are building steps. Her son named David volunteered to help us all week. Today I saw him walk up those steps carrying two 80 pound bags of concrete on his shoulder. Tonight we had dinner at karen’s roadside stand. The food was awesome!

RECAP

Construction Volunteers did three separate project this year. The first one we built 200 steps, two retaining walls, drainage and culverts. On that project we paid for half the materials and Splash in paid for the other half.

The second was building 106 steps, a footbridge, two retaining walls and drainage. The materials for this project were paid by the Municipality.

The third was rebuilding a bridge in danger of washing out. We paid for those materials.

We paid for all the labor for all three projects.

Here is a final picture of the lower 56 steps of the first project.

Honduras 2015