Greetings and Salutations from the JessieOlan superhero squad!

We are learning so many great rhymes from our wonderful friend Luis Vega - "Hannah, banana, campana, mañana." Or consider this catchy phrase we've very recently acquired: "Don't let the bedbugs bite. And if they do, squeeze their necks 'till they turn blue!" Blown away. :D

Our team has been splitting up into two separate teams in the morning; one team continues house construction and the other does VBS type programming with the beautiful children of AFE. Thank you to Carol Fricke and Blackhawk Children's Ministries for lending us such wonderful robes and beards. The fro wig has proven to be quite useful, especially with our skits involving Jesus, Zacchaeus, and a multitude of fantastic disciples. :) The Lord is breathtakingly evident in the smiling, goofy faces of our audiences. Leily (a student from AFE) reminded me (Olan) today that "The Lord already has my heart" when I half-jokingly suggested that I should give the peeling fabric heart from my "I [heart] NY" T-shirt to God. Why was I surprised to hear such truth coming from a young peer? I shouldn't have been, especially in light of the child-like heart that God calls us to adopt. Our rotating AFE teams have been bracelet making, Duck-duck-goosing, water bottle decorating, Sharks-and-Minnowing, and soccer-playing their hearts out! So much success, so little preparation. It looks like the hand of God once again! Praise the Lord for our translator and fellow Honduran teammate, Nancy, for carrying the AFE teams on her back. Honduras would fall without her. It's true.

Up in the Dump community, the other incredibly important part of our team has been learning how to build a house. Yesterday, we finished three out of the four exterior walls. Today, we worked on the interior walls and moved a whole lot of dirt! It's been amazing to see unexpected construction abilities blossoming in our unlikeliest of teammates; Jessie, the one who was intensely afraid of sanding off her fingers in middle school wood shop, is dominating the chop-saw. Sin Miedo. Without Fear! Others have been hammering up a storm, despite bent nails, split wood, and incorrect form (I didn't even know that existed). Shoveling was also big part of our agenda as we tackled some piles of debris to clear out important areas. Tomorrow, we will hopefully get started on the roof!

Today, we were pleasantly surprised by a strange phenomenon to our fellow Wisconsinites - RAIN. We could actually see the rain clouds moving towards us over rolling Honduran mountains. It was like, no it was. the rain APOCOLYPSE...even though it only lasted around five minutes, we managed to transport tools to safety while squeezing in a gnarly dance party. Thank you Matt Berry for bringing back that excellent adjective (gnarly).

Throughout both the AFE and construction experiences, we've been immensely blessed to be working alongside the world's coolest Honduran personas. We know not how to build a house, communicate in Spanish, or how to properly cross a Honduran street (these have proven to be three invaluable abilities thus far).

Thank you for bearing with our, hopefully informative, several day synopsis. It's getting far too late for coherent sentences, so we send you off with the great words of Matt Berry: "Thank you Twizzlers, for always being there."

Buenas Nachos!!

Love, OlanJessie