A look behind the scenes with the Gym'Backs

Honduras 2008

Journal Entry by GymBack Senior Alex LaChance

Last week Alli, Emily, and I were blessed with the opportunity to travel to Honduras with Arkansas Athlete Outreach on a mission trip. We stayed in the little town of Yamaranguila up in the mountains at the Mercy International headquarters. It was an incredible life changing experience.

For our first task, we laid a concrete foundation for the future home of a family in a small village referred to as “The Invasion.” It took two days, and we did the whole thing manually, from flattening the ground with shovels and picks, to mixing the cement and smoothing it out. I have never appreciated a slab of concrete so much!

Later that week we participated in school assemblies, where different U of A athletes shared stories with the students. We also had a little bit of crowd participation when we asked a few students to challenge us to a couple of contests, ranging from push-ups, handstand holds, and tug-o-war. We also taught them how to call the hogs!

The neatest part of the trip was when we held a medical clinic. We had a doctor and a dentist and a little pharmacy in a little hut in the middle of The Invasion, and Hondurans from all over the village lined up to tell us their ailments and receive medicine. For the kids, we had a delousing station, as well as a station where they could get their haircut and styled.

After five long days full of manual labor, ministering, and playing with kids, we made the four hour drive out from the middle of the worst poverty imaginable, to the beautiful beach in Telamar. We spent the afternoon relaxing and collecting souvenirs. It was the perfect ending to an incredible trip.

Woo Pig Sooie!

Alex LaChance