Achin' Bacon: or A Firm Foundation, It Matters How You Start

Oh my achin' bacon! Yesterday afternoon I went to El Campo de San Fransisco to help pour footings for a small church building. Allan and his wife Nicole are planting a church in this small village on the outskirts of Siguat. They live in a small, but very comfortable and cozy adobe house on a hill above the church. Allan is Honduran, but grew up in the States and Nicole is from TX. They are expecting their first child in May. I will introduce them soon.

Back to the reason for the achin' bacon. The ditch for the footing had already been dug, by hand with a pick axe. Glad I didn't have to do that! We mixed the cement with shovels on the ground. 10, 5 gal pails of sand and gravel to 1, 90# bag cement, mix that together, dig a hole in the center of the pile, pour in 15 gals of water and begin mixing from the outside in. Shovel the mix back into 5 gal pails, carry to the ditch in which rocks have now been placed to give strength and take up space. Add concrete and more rocks as needed. Repeat process. Repeat process. Repeat process...

About 4 pm we stopped and had fresh tortillas, beans and coffee (very tasty) provided by Danny and his wife, a Honduran family helping start the church. Danny's grandmother donated the land the church will be built on. When it was time to go, Danny gave me a bag of corn tortillas his wife had just made and Romaine lettuce fresh from the garden. All in all... it was a great day.