An enormous welcome by the villagers of Rio Azul tonight made our journey seem real, and worth all of the time and energy to plan and solicit support for our journey.
A highlight of final three hours of rough roads to get here from the mission house in Barillas was watching Tom throw soccer balls out the window to the gleeful delight of their young recipients.
When we arrived at the village around 5 p.m. we were first greeted by two girls holding a big welcome sign for us. As we stepped off the bus we were swarmed by hundreds of colorfully clad villagers of all ages, offering hands and hugs. It was enough to make at least one of our team become a little teary eyed. That was followed by a series of welcome speeches by the town mayor, the principal and others.
We all introduced ourselves at Willy’s prompting and a couple of us gave short speeches.
Earlier in the day we attended church in Barillas. A few of us rose early to take a walk around down. Barillas is not a sleepy town at all, by 7 a.m. on Sunday the city was full of life, most stores already opened, the marketplace crazy busy with people and streets filled with vehicles.
Tomorrow we will give out the school supplies and start our stove work.
