Days 7-8

Day 7, Wednesday August 10
Still no pipes! Since there was nothing that we could do without the pipes the group decided to spend the day in Trujillo. We headed off to Trujillo right after breakfast, since we only had one car we had to travel in two trips. Once the entire group arrived in the city we walked around trying to figure out what to do. There were not very many shops and sights to look at. After we finished in the city center we then visited the Artisan shop that was started with the help of Diane Karper, our NGO, and sells many crafts of forty women within Trujillo and even some of the women from Guadalupe Carney. The women have learned how to run the shop and they each have a specialty craft, some make jewelry, some make bags. Everything within the store was very well made.
After everyone was finished at the store we all decided to head down to the beach. We spent the afternoon on the beach and playing in the Caribbean, hoping that the pipes would come soon.

Day 8, Thursday August 8, 2011
Our second to last day in the village and the pipes have not yet arrived. We were expecting the pipes to arrive that morning, so after breakfast we all gathered at Maria's house to await the pipes only to find a surprise awaiting us on the main road. There was a blockade on the main highway outside of the village. According to some villagers, a member of the community's son has been in jail for three years and has not yet had a trial. The village had decided to protest and in the process setting up a blockade on the street, using rocks and brush. This posed a problem for the expected arrival of our pipes. Fortunately, the pipes were delivered at 11 am with no problems. Since half the team was at lunch and the other half had decided to go for a swim in a nearby swimming hole the team decided to resume after lunch. The team returned to the site to find the last two culverts already in place and the back fill already started to be put in. The goal was to get at least 6 inches of compacted fill on the pipes because a front loader was expected in the morning to push the remaining piles of dirt onto the roadway. And the remaining portion of the headwall was being completed by Santos. Once all of this was completed the team split up for dinner and to get ready the fiesta that night. Everyone met up at the fiesta around seven to watch a few skits and we got to see traditional Honduran dancing and some Garafunda dances.