We were making good time and I was feeling pretty good considering all the hard work we had done the past couple of days and the lack of sleep as well. I wrapped my ankle for some extra stability and was praying for strength to finish without injuring it this time.
I decided that I wasn't going to chase Carlos this time, and that I would hang back and support my brothers who were having a hard time. My main concern was Bob. He was the largest of the group and had not much exercise previous to the mission. His determination was incredible and he kicked that mountains ass! I have to say that he made it on to my hero list that day.
We were told that it normally takes about an hour to climb up Jurassic Park. We did it, as a group, in just over 30 minutes (packs and all). The rest of the hike went by pretty smoothly and we finished the entire thing in 4 1/2 hours. That's an hour less than it took us to get in. The whole experience was AWESOME!
After some lunch and a little bit of rest, we attended a children's worship service back at the base. There was close to an hour of worship music (all in Spanish), and then we were invited to the front for the kids to ask us some questions. Some of the questions were - "Are you married?", "Do you have kids?", and "Do you fart?". The marriage answer was especially important for the girls to hear. I mentioned in one of my other blogs that women are the minority of the country. This is due to the fact that they are mostly just used for having sex and then they are forgotten. Left behind to raise multiple kids with no income and almost zero support from the men who put them in that position. They needed to hear that it is possible for a man to love a woman for more than 15 minutes at a time. It is possible for a man to be committed and to support his wife for years. They got that message from us! And of course I was happy to answer the question about farting. I think I farted more than anyone else in the group.
We were giving the opportunity to ask the kids some questions and one that came up was "What to you want to be when you grow up and what are your dreams?". Two thirds of the group were girls and every single one of them said that their dream was to graduate and to become a teacher. Mercy International's main focus is the women of Honduras. They are dedicated to getting the girls an education so that they can support themselves and not have to depend on the men who crapped on them. They experience freedom from bondage. That country's whole dynamic is going to change when the numbers of powerful women rise up. All because God called on Mercy International.
Contact Mercy International at merciusa@earthlink.net
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