El Portillo de la Oki is a small community located in the mountains above Comayagua, Honduras. The community is made up of about 550 people in 90 homes and has never had running water. The women of the village hiked three kilometers down the mountain with buckets to fill for drinking and washing. The dream of the village for many generations was to somehow get running water.

The people of the village of Oki are very happy, energetic and friendly. Their children met in a hut for school (10 to 15 children) and the government sent up a teacher. Our dream became the same as their's; to provide water to the village and then build a school.

Carolina Petit is a Honduran from Comayagua. She teaches English at the University of Honduras in Comayagua and is a humanitarian with contacts in many of the remote villages surrounding Comayagua. She introduced us to the village people and they agreed to do all the labor under the direction of a Honduran engineer named Francisco. This was an incredible undertaking because the water source was 5.7 kilometers up the mountain. The men of the village would rise at 4am each morning and begin treanching until noon. In the afternoon the men then tended their crops on tiny patches of land where they grow beans and coffee.

Amigos of Honduras raised the money to buy all the materials through donations and fund raisers. The men, under the direction of Carolina and Francisco, completed all the work and in May 2005 the project began. The project was completed in April. We were not only able to bring water to the main gathering point of the village (the soccer field) but were also able to provide wash basins to the individual homes of the men that participated. The men, women and children now have a strong supply of pure water for dishes, laundry, bathing, drinking and a wash basin to use for all those essential needs. The water is purified as it goes through a 10,500 gallon tank.

The village was thrilled, as were we, with the completion. At the big inauguration it was proposed that we build a school. The school was completed in June, 2007. It was built in the same manner as the water line, with Francisco doing the engineering and the villagers doing the labor. Now there are between 55-60 kids attending school each day where the receive a meal prepared in the kitchen of the school. We have a kindergarten and an elementary school. It has been a pleasure to work with these great people!