Progress Report

Hello everyone,

I just got off the radio with David Fann up at Cedeco. First and most importantly everyone is still safe and sound and working hard. The El Loro (repeater tower) team took off this morning to the tower site. Their estimate has always been no more than day to get everything up and running. Now we'll see. The water tower crew plans to swap out the tanks today and believe they will be finished with their project today. The environmentally sound human waste reclamation project (a.k.a. the toilet team) has been working hard. They're making good progress. They will probably still have quite a bit of work to do tomorrow, but with help from the other teams they believe they can wrap up tomorrow. The outreach group will also be making their second foray into the local schools. There is also a children's Bible class planned for tonight which will hopefully include a showing of a Veggie Tales movie.

Things for the three of us in Catacamas also progresses well. The computer classes are a big hit and in addition to the four scheduled classes, the Tallons are doing some special one-on-one sessions before and after the classes.

The end of the trip is rapidly approaching and soon the trek home will begin. Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

Fouss

Quick Update on El Loro

Hello,

Just wanted to let every know the the parts arrived in Catacamas sometime after midnight last night. The Pettits left about eight this morning to head up to Cedeco with the parts.

I hope to have more info later today.

Fouss

Tuesday's Tale

Greetings,

It's another surprisingly moderate day in Catacamas. The temperature is only in the upper 80s. The engineering squads all made it to Cedeco safely and are radioing back for some miscellaneous supplies. The word is the projects are off to a good start....well except for the repeater tower. We're still waiting on the airline to decide to get the rest of the parts here (like the battery and the tower itself). John Pettit and Roni left for Teguc a short while ago. The hope is the parts are on a truck they're going to meet. The parts will hopefully be back here tonight and in the mountains sometime tomorrow. Long live El Loro!!!

OK, I'll confess I may have some responsibilty for the parts being delayed. I was assigned the battery (which according the the airline scales weighed something like 74.8 lbs.) After lugging it all of maybe 20 feet up to the check in, I was really hoping for someway out of carrying it through Teguc's airport......

Fouss

Fouss's First Missive

Hello everyone,

I'm apparently the official blogger for the week. So I just wanted to say Hi from Honduras and do a quick pre-apology for any grammar and spelling typos. I'm the computer teacher, my mom's the english teacher (seriously!) The crew took off for the mountains a little after 2:00 and should actually be there now. The Tallons and myself are staying behind in Catacamas. The Tallons have a busy week ahead giving some training seminars. They're schedule for four classes a day and have about 30 participants. I'm doing some database work on the applications we created for them last year as well as creating a new application. Bryan Bates will hopefully be lending me a much appreciated hand from the states.

As always your prayers are requested and appreciated. Lord willing I will be blogging again soon with some sort of progress report.

Jon Fouss

We have arrived!

Bueños Dias. This is Amy and Matt, and the entire team saying hello from Predisan, Catacamas, Olancho, Honduras. We are all here safe and sound. We left yesterday at about 6 am from Nashville and arrived in Tegucigalpa at about 1 pm with 23 out of our 27 pieces of luggage. Unfortunately the airline decided the plane was full and some radio repeater ¨el loro¨ (the parrot) luggage didn´t get on the plane. Don´t worry though, the luggage should get here in time for the group to still complete the project, they will just have to do it at the end of the week instead of the beginning. After we arrived at Tegucigalpa we took a detour by BK, Burger King (el rey de hamburguesas) and then set out to Catacamas. To divert ourselves on the long bus ride we sang almost every song we knew. With ¨Burning Ring of Fire¨ being the song of choice of some of the group (we watched Walk the Line on the plane ride here). We arrived in Catacamas at around 7 pm and unloaded all out stuff and eat a lovely Honduran dinner complete with plantains, beef, rice, beans, and salad.

This morning we got up for breakfast at 7 am and came over here to Predisan to have a devotional with the Predisan staff. We sang some songs, every song we knew in spanish which was 2, and talked about their theme of the month, sincerity. Now the rest of the group is touring the facility of Predisan. We plan to organize all of the equipment after that and hope to set off for the mountains after lunch. Everything is going great, with the exception of the missing luggage. And to all the parents everyone is safe and healthy.

Please keep everything that we are doing in your prayers, especially the missing luggage, and we will see you all in a week with a thousand pictures and stories to share.

All Packed and Ready to Go!

Just had our packing party today. Started off with great sandwiches from Jersy Mike's. We are now looking forward to beans and rice, and rice and beans, and maybe some beans with rice. Actually Rony, PrediSan's group leader, mixes it up pretty well for us northern folks!

We get started bright and early tomorrow morning, with the bus leaving Lipscomb at 4:15 AM! Our flight is at 6:15 for Houston. I doubt many will get much sleep tonight worrying about did we forget anything. I am looking forward to 6:16 tomorrow morning when all the planning is done and the trip begins.