Honduras Construction Team Report

Many thanks to John Schmidt, who supplied these pictures.

The project begins. 

First day crew, getting acquainted.

The supplies are here.

Raulito, Ferdinand, and helper sifting sand for the mortar

Preparing to mix the mortar. Might as well do it on the floor, it's going to get tiled anyway.

Wish we had a cement mixer! Oh, wait . . . we do! Thanks, John.

Making sure the first course goes down right.

This is going to be a big job.

The first course goes down. Need a lot of mortar to level it.

The first cross-course goes down.

Time for a lunch break

John gives his kneepads to the main Honduran tilelayer.

Progress!

 Ken keeps Nathan well-stocked with tiles

 More sand-sifting. One of the toughest parts of this job was the preparation of mortar. No wheelbarrows were available for the first half of the week, and the water had to be carried to the worksite.

The first day there was only one tile-layer. But starting on the second day Nathan began laying tile and progress increased.

Nathan tries to sharpen his pencil with a machete.

 Ken works on the grouting.

 Almost done.
 

Our construction team all but finished the floor. There were a few details to be completed, but the members of the El Socorro church would finish them.

The team faced multiple challenges during the week, a lack of needed equipment and insufficient workers topping the list. But they accomplished the task!