Jack Melvin and I hosted the architects from Inscape Publico a couple of weeks ago per the last blog. After church on Sunday, we had the afternoon free and decided to go down to Comyagua, the original  Capitol of Honduras.  We toured a 1725 Cathedral which was beautiful.  It was a gloomy day and dark inside, and since there were people praying, I didn't want to use the flash, but the interior behind the altar was huge and all gold gilt.  They had what I think are the most beautiful stations of the cross I have ever seen.  They looked like porcelain in wooden frames.  In the park in front of the Cathedral the stones mimic the shadow of the church.

We toured what was "reported" as being the tallest bell tower in Central America

And the view was beautiful

Not only of the town but of the building itself

Thanks to Greg, Stefan and Kevin for the good company.  I really enjoyed the day with you.  You too Jack.  I look forward to working with all of you in the future on San Juan School Project.

San Juan School

I'm living in Siguatepeque at the Bishop's request, in order to supervise the construction of a new school here at San Juan's Church.  Actually, San Juan's is where my love for Honduras began.  It was one of the churches I worked on here, during my first trip in 1989.  I've been here for eight months and other than doing a lot of emailing with folks who are interested in supporting the project and getting some soil samples taken, not much has happened.  However we made a big leap week before last.  Jack Mevin is a SAMS missionary and architect working with the  Diocese of Honduras.  Great guy and a good friend, who's swamped with work.  Jack made contact with a company named Inscape Publico out of Washington D.C. and we hosted their architects for a week.  Inscape Studio is a profit making architectural firm, but two years ago, the owner Gregory A Kearley, AIA, started the "Publico" branch of the business in a desire to give back.  They have done work for non-profits all over the world and helped them to raise the funds to have their buildings built.  I am so excited!

Jack and I took Greg, Stefan and Nathan to visit two existing schools in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro.  Kevin had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras for two years, four years ago.  (Said he felt like he never left)  We met with school administrators and teachers and gathered a lot of information about the schools.  We had meetings with contractors and city officials, took a mess of photographs and measurements, had a meeting with Bishop Allen and Steve Robinson, the new administrator for Episcopal Schools in Honduras, and just got a lot of work done in the short time they were here.  They will be drawing plans for the entire school campus and then a set of plans for the first building which we hope to have ready for next year.  

San Juan School has been in business for 7 years.  We have twice as many students as we did last year and we are growing.  It is a faith based, bilingual school as are all the Episcopal Schools.  We have 5th graders this year who have been with the school since it started and who will have no 6th grade classroom if we don't get something built by August.  My faith was getting a little wobbly till these guys came along.  No doubt they can help us get this accomplished.  And on top of that, they were just really cool guys that spoke English and I really enjoyed hanging out with them.  What a pleasure.  On Sunday afternoon, we went down to Comyagua for lunch.  I'll tell you about that in another blog.

Thanks be to God