Dirt floors are common in the homes of those who live in rural Honduras. Part of our mission is helping the residents of our assigned
aldea put cement floors in their homes. The main reason is to improve health, since having a
dirt floor can lead to various infections in their feet. The first step is clearing the floor and leveling it. The residents do this before we even arrive. The also bring sand and water to the home in order to make the cement when we get there. To make cement mix a bag of cement with 70-85 shovels of sand. After it is mixed, we make a "crater" where we can pour water. The water is poured in until the crater is filled to the top, and then we take the cement/sand mix from the outer edges of the crater and
carefully place it in the water. We
continue doing this, until the top is covered and we can no longer
See the water. We call this the "crater dance" because we walk in a circle around the "crater" as we are adding the mix to the water. Afterwards we reach the right consistency, we bring the cement into the house in buckets where a pro smooths and levels the floor. The finishing touches are an extra layer of pure cement (without sand) and a design made with a red powder. We aren't involved in this part since it takes a very skilled hand to do it!
Dirt floors are common in the homes of those who live in rural Honduras. Part of our mission is helping the residents of our assigned aldea put cement floors in their homes. The main reason is to improve health, since having a dirt floor can lead to various infections in their feet. The first step is clearing the floor and leveling it. The residents do this before we even arrive. The also bring sand and water to the home in order to make the cement when we get there. To make cement mix a bag of cement with 70-85 shovels of sand. After it is mixed, we make a "crater" where we can pour water. The water is poured in until the crater is filled to the top, and then we take the cement/sand mix from the outer edges of the crater and 
carefully place it in the water. We continue doing this, until the top is covered and we can no longer See the water. We call this the "crater dance" because we walk in a circle around the "crater" as we are adding the mix to the water. Afterwards we reach the right consistency, we bring the cement into the house in buckets where a pro smooths and levels the floor. The finishing touches are an extra layer of pure cement (without sand) and a design made with a red powder. We aren't involved in this part since it takes a very skilled hand to do it!
This was fun to see. We had dirt floors for several years in Venezuela. It is hard work to put in the cement ,but so worth i!
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