It was the first day of our Honduran experience. Our van of 12 volunteers arrived at the village of El Pital, greeted by the wonderful smiles of many of the children and adults. The task sounded simple — build a swing set. I have been in many foreign countries and done some building. My goal was to help this community in some way and of course have an intercultural experience, which would hopefully help me and the Hondurans grow in a positive manner.

To begin, my partner Brad and I surveyed the five trees that had been cut down by machete in the nearby jungle to form the frame for the set. Right away I saw that our sensitivity to working together with the local helpers, particularly with my minimal Spanish, might prove to be as challenging as the actual construction. I had my ideas of how to complete the task, and they had theirs. We each had some experience, but did not know what the other people knew about construction, and most importantly, our ability to communicate verbally was almost nil.

Our first sensitivity challenge was to tell them that one of the trees was too skinny, and they would have to go back into the jungle to cut down another one. Once this was delicately explained we began the task of setting the posts. The shovels we were given were so unsturdy that I thought they were about to break, but we proceeded carefully.

Putting in the posts was the first collective effort, and despite the language barriers, we were successful, and had many good chuckles along the way. Just as we were looking proudly at our first step, the skies opened up with torrential rain, the holes filled in, and the structure had to be abandoned temporarily. The rain never let up that afternoon, so the first day's progress was discouragingly minimal, but in that short time we had begun to form a challenging but wonderful relationship with our Honduran co-workers.

Over the next few days there were a number of unexpected challenges, many laughs and contorted sentences in two languages, but as the job progressed, we all began to gain a greater appreciation of what we all brought to the project, some moments the Hondurans taking charge and sometimes the "gringos" taking a leadership role. There were many surprises for me, such as despite the fact that the locals were good builders, they hammered in screws and didn't seem to know about screwdrivers. From them I learned how to complete tasks without the luxury of a power drill.

In the end the swing set was complete, and the children were enjoying it. It hadn't turned out exactly as I or the locals had anticipated , but together we made the project work. The experience was powerful for me and I hope a positive one for the Hondurans. The gift I received of connecting with these villagers in such a profound, positive fashion far exceeded the little bit I gave to these projects, and for this experience I will be forever grateful to the wonderful citizens of El Pital.