The other really awesome key factor of this trip was that we were actually able to sponsor the new well we were building. We donate 10% of our packages back to charity and give our clients a few options of which charity they would like to support. Enough of our clients chose Living Water that together, we were able to fund the entire construction of this well!! So I just wanted to give a special thank you to all our amazing clients! And to all who chose to support Living Water.. these pictures are for you!! Most importantly we want to thank God for allowing us to partake in such an awesome opportunity and to be able to impact so many peoples lives.  We know that the construction and all the success this well is all because of Him! We were so humbled and thankful to be a part of it.

collecting some water from the local stream.

This is mama.. she was the one that prepared our food for us everyday we were out on site. Below is a picture of inside her home to just give some perspective.

and her adorable little niece.

picking coconuts..

caballeros..

All the community members gather at a local river to do their laundry. The problem is that often times it is the same stream that people are getting their drinking water from. This is the case when you have no other option, hence a large necessity for clean drinking water from the water wells we drill.

I love how they use the rock as a wash board.. it was really cool to watch..

here is the well at ground breaking..

The new Mrs. Kidd hard at work…

Yours truly breaking pipe with the 17 year old monster of a man, Colton

Kristin’s initiation.. hahaha thanks to Kristin for letting me post these awesome photos!!

Here are some shots of us flushing out the well.. This is the super fun part!

One of the things that I love about the trips is that there is an opportunity to teach hygiene classes at the local school. We were able to help teach the kids how to keep the well clean as well as their own bodies. We taught them how to wash their hands and how it helps to prevent illnesses which can allow them to be in school more days out of the year.

Here are our wonderful lunches everyday..

and our dinner..

just kidding…not OUR dinner anyway. I love all the little ones below.. they are so precious.

Laying the foundation of the well piping.

The plaque reads: “this well is donated by: Brandon Kidd Photography, USA. Made by Living Water International. John 4:13-14 which reads “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. ”

Here are some of the kids using their new well!

These are always my favorite shots of the trip!

At our wedding Kristin and I had our guests write an encouraging note to all the well recipients. Here are some pictures of us distributing them to the best of our abilities Some of them where in Spanish, and I had the opportunity to translate the ones in English as well.

Here is a picture with about half of the kids that attended this little school you can see in the background.. Only two classrooms for about 80-90 students all ranging in various ages.

Its so hard to explain a whole trip like this with just a few photos but I hope you all got a feel for what its like down there (and many areas in the world for that matter). It so cool to witness first hand the impact we can make in the world. If we all just gave back a tiny bit, think about how much impact we could make in other peoples lives. With the help of our amazing clients we were able to provide all these kids with clean and fresh drinking water. And not only them, but their parents, cousins, brothers and sisters, and all the rest of the surrounding communities. Since this well successfully produces water during dry season that we visited in, this well will essentially never run dry. Keeping these kids healthy and improving the quality and extending the length of their lives. We count it all joy that we were able to be apart of it!

I thought that this was cool and was something that I had never seen before. To describe the weather the teacher held up a spray bottle and gave a little mist to symbolize rain and she also help up a fan to symbolize wind.. I know, so simple the things we often overlook. But if you think about it its kind of difficult to explain to someone who has never been able to see it..

I love this little guy! He was so fun!

This is how they tell whats up next on the schedule for the day.

Here is a student using a Light Box.. Visually impaired students can learn to use their residual vision more efficiently by training with a Light Box. Materials are used with it to promote basic visual skills, eye-hand coordination and simple matching tasks.

Here is Olivia, She was one of the sweetest little kids I have ever met.

She heard me taking pictures of her during these activities and wanted to investigate the noise. Her teacher said that this was really abnormal behavior that she had never seen because usually little Olivia is really weary and afraid of strangers or things shes not familiar with.  This totally melted my heart! And although she is also visually impaired she could pick up a little of the light from my screen on the back of my camera and seemed to really enjoy it. Just a little thanks to her teacher for snagging this photo for me from my iphone! This totally made my week!

This day made me realize a lot. What all I take for granted and how often I do so.. All those little things that God blesses us with. Sight, sound, smells, touch, feelings, tastes.. Its so crazy the complexity and the beauty of creation.

Today I thank God for the gift of sight. With out it not only would I not be able to do what I love for a career but I wouldnt even be able to enjoy the beauty of a photograph, a painting, a hand crafted sunset sky. It really makes me think and give praise to the Creator.  What would it be for you guys?  Leave it in the comments

I just wanted to give a little shout out to   Josh, Swalley, Tim, Vince, Emily and liz for doing such a great job showing off your moves! You guys rocked it! Enjoy!

One of the most amazing things that we feel so blessed to be apart of was the overwhelming support of our new philanthropic campaign. Earlier this last year we launched a new campaign where we donate a portion of each wedding package on behalf of our clients back to a charity of their choice that they felt particularly close to.

Our vision was to give 10% of every package we book back to people in need and the turn out was so amazing that we actually superseded that !! Here is a list of the charities we worked with and supported throughout the year..

Living Water International -World Vision-Toms Shoes – Compassion International -Operation Smile – Hill of Hope

We thank God so much for providing all our clients who made this dream and vision become a reality. By the grace of God we accomplished some pretty awesome things and made the world just a little bit better for a few more people.. Here is a little recap of the gifts and blessings given to other people throughout the year:

We sponsored 7 kids in 3rd world countries to receive surgery for fixing cleft palates and cleft lip and gave them new smiles and happy faces (Operation Smile)

Education for 15 children for 1 year (World Vision)

$1350 for the Horn of Africa food crisis, providing the basic necessities of life (WV and Compassion)

8 chickens – Chickens are easy to raise, and will naturally multiply to impact generations of children. Each family that receives chickens is asked to give back hatched chicks to help another family in need. Chicks require little money, space, or food to thrive and grow — making them an ideal business venture for a single mom or vulnerable family. (WV)

4 goats -Goats nourish hungry children and families with healthy milk, cheese, and yogurt. Goats also give a much-needed income boost by providing offspring and extra dairy products for sale at the market. (WV)

$1900 worth of clothing for kids who are without proper clothing, providing warm jackets for kids in high altitudes and cold climates.. (WV)

$500 to help reach young at risk teens in orange county, ca and provide them with a loving, safe environment to grow up in. (Hill of Hope)

1 dairy cow-  provides some 120,000 glasses of milk in its lifetime to one village,  and extra dairy products for sale at the local market. (WV)

safety/protection and hope for  sexually exploited girls in 3rd world nations. (WV)

2 sheep for wool and money provided by local markets by selling of products. (WV)

providing shoes to kids who are without to prevent soil borne parasites from entering the body (TOMS)

Sponsored 4 kids through world vision for one year providing them with shelter, food, clothing, security and education:

Collins Limua, Nairobi, Kenya age 4,   Elisee Kainda Manyonga: Dem Republic of Congo  Age 4,   Mesay Mamo : Ethiopia, Age 6,   Etania Richard: Haiti, Age 5

And to top off all this wonderful stuff..We had enough of our clients to donate their portion to Living Water Int that we raised enough money to sponsor the construction of a brand new water well in Honduras providing clean drinking water to hundreds if not thousands of people who were previously without before!!!!  We are so excited because Kristin and I are actually getting to participate in this trip next March to see the well be brought to life. We are thrilled because we will be able to document the actual people benefited by  all the contributions and bring back all the photos for you to enjoy! I went to Honduras twice earlier in the year so if your curious to see the photos and what the process is like please feel free to check out those blog posts.. Honduras trip 1 Honduras trip 2

We are just so over whelmed by all the love  and the events fof this year and are so excited to see what God has in store for us next year! So again a HUGE special thanks to all of our clients for helping make this dream come to life and we cant wait to see how to impact the world with all your help in 2010!!  Heres to a great 2009 and an even greater 2010!! We love you all and God Bless!!

Last year I think we served almost 700 meals.. this year we wanted to go even bigger.. It was going to take a lot of coordinating and planning but Letty and Savana from Lot 318 were up for the challenge.  Here is Letty laying down the rules for the day..

The girls of Lot 318..

There is always a bunch of fun activities for the kids, face painting, crafts, bounce house, foosball, pop corn machine.. all kinds of fun things to keep them entertained..

Part of the festivities include a free clothing drive where all the attendees are able to take home clothes for themselves and their family..

This is my favorite part of the day.. seeing the joy and excitement in all these little faces.. its such a blessing to witness..

The food prep..

Even the little guys got dressed for the occasion

We had a great turnout! In fact we beat last years mark!! we served over 1100 meals that day!! Praise God! Soo awesome! A HUGE speacial thanks to Greg Welburn with Summit Event Catering who donated all the meals that day! What a gift!

Another truly incredible thing to witness was seeing all the little ones serve.. understanding to help out others in need at such a young age truly warms my heart.

check out the turnout!! WOW!

Another cool thing was that we got 1000 boxes of love.. which have just some basic necessities as well as some staple food such as rice, beans and some other home products..

It was just such an awesome event and was so thankful to be apart of it again this year.. I already cant wait for it next year.. but atleast I get to see all of these little guys every Tuesday! I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving weekend as well!

Why goats..?

Well I am glad you asked..

A healthy dairy goat can give up to 16 cups of milk a day. Goat milk is easier to digest than cow’s milk and is an excellent source of calcium, protein, and other essential nutrients that growing children need.  Goats can produce not only healthy milk but cheese, yogurt and other much needed dairy products.Since 16 cups a day is typically more than enough for the average family. A family would be able to sell/trade the additional milk for other food and needed materials and supplies. Goats are also a very practical animal and actually flourish in harsh climates while other animals might not survive of the scarce vegetation and produce valuable manure to fertilize crops and vegetable gardens.

Also the reason I bought 2 goats (1 male and 1 female) would allow for the opportunity to potentially sell the offspring and make additional money to help support the family financially. Equipping them with a stable source of nutrients and vitamins but also a source of income.. A great thing to do I think for a family in need.. Who knew that goats could be so valuable to a family. Another really awesome thing you can do is pick the region in which you want the contribution to go to. I just thought it was so cool that you could buy goats.. seriously though.. how cool is that!!

Water wells usually need  maintenance about every 10-15 years but this area had proven to be problematic with its continuous flooding. When water rises above the well reservoir it gets inside the well and brings in all the water from the outside and mixes with the clean water from the aquifer.  Thus bringing other elements into the equation like iron that corrode the steel pipes and make them virtually functionless. Living Water wanted to go out and fix this problem immediately by changing out all the pipes to stainless steel as well as increasing the hight of the well reservoirs. There was 15 wells to fix in 4 days time with some of the wells reaching 140 feet deep so needless to say it was going to be quite a mission! Oh and no cars.. or electricity for that matter just a couple hours a day after the sun had set. We are talking pretty remote here… As you will see very shortly. 

Well Saks Fifth wanted somebody to document the area and the benefit these wells have given to the community so Living Water asked me if I wanted to be that somebody! Boy was I thrilled.. Especially since literally it was the only week I had no weddings booked til December I knew that it was God ordained fo sho!

As you will see with the first few pictures you get a feel for how remote of a place I am talking about.. prop plane that only flies in and out once on Monday and Friday.. so you can guess how much time we had to finish the wells

Check out the landing strip… 

Oh and the airport.. Haha yup literally no airport.. just a dirt strip and some barbed wire fence with an open gate.. 

Immediately I knew that this was going to be the mission of a life time.. I love to be hands on and get dirty as well as document all the different people and walks of life.. This was totally different even from the last trip here just 2 months ago. 

What I first noticed was how all the people were working with just their hands… there are almost virtually no machines at all.. It was almost like traveling back in time to a more primitive era. Even the dialect was far removed from Spanish the Native Language of Honduras. It was called Moskitia which was a very interesting mix of spanish, english, and same native american indigenous tongue.  Very cool to hear.. difficult to converse.. but very cool to hear. 

All the houses are lifted up on stilts for when the wet season comes and flooding starts.

As I said before that Brus is located on the coast so its easy to believe that the entire community’s life source is mainly derived from the ocean. 

A couple of fishermen.

Another thing I noticed was that every person.. no matter the age or gender was responsible for different tasks no matter big or small.. As you can see this little guys responsibility ;)

G-ma’s choppin’ wood

Cookin’ something.. mystery meat..?

A few of my fav portraits.. 

Daily life.. 

I had an awesome opportunity and was invited into one of the homes as you see on the top right of the picture bellow.. I wanted to share this woman’s home with all of you.. Notice the Plasma’s, Satellite and entertainment system.. oh wait…. or maybe the couches… beds…?

Just a couple of blankets on the wood floor is suffice for her, her 2 daughters and 2 sons.. and thats it.. Something to think about thats for sure..

more portraits

How sweet is this guys hat.. 

And now for the main reason we were down there.. this is how these people get their water without the use of  water wells…. dig a hole in the ground and save it from whenever it rains.   

You can see the color of the water.. thus clearly illustrating the desperate need for clean drinking water.. 

Fixing the old wells.. You can see how quickly they got corroded and just destroyed.. some of the wells are only a couple years old.. The brown water coming out is actually supposed to be the clean water coming from the aquifer. 

So after 4 days of hard lifting and about 15 miles a day of carrying supplies, piping and generators I’d say we worked up quite an appetite. Beans and rice for every meal every day was wonderful dont get me wrong, but not quite cutting it for the energy. We took a canoe type boat through the lagoon trying to find cocodrillo (crocodile) and were unsuccessful.. However thanks to John (one of the guys on our trip) and his 2 small fishing rods we caught us our dinner that night..  whaahhlahh! I caught 4 of these bad boys… SOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!

Well believe it or not we actually finished all 15 wells that we were sent there to complete praise God! 

And now my absolute favorite part of the trip to show.. Honestly it makes me cry every time I look at these images… Part of the sanitation process for these water wells is to flush them out with a deisel generated pump that helps get all the bad stuff out. Once all the bad stuff gets flushed out its just pure clean drinking water.. well since we still had some gas left in the water pump, and since these water wells never go dry,  we left it on and hooked up a hose to let the kids play with the water..

Keep in mind that some of these kids have never seen clean drinking water let alone tasted it and now they had a huge “Super Soaker” just pounding them with amazingly clean and pure water..  Clean water is something to take very seriously, a scarce and very valuable commodity not to be taken for granted. 

What you are witnessing is completely and totally unheard of for them..

They were having so much fun Ryan and I just couldn’t resist!!

Thanks R.O for taking this last shot and not getting my camera soaked! Seriously one of the best trips I have ever been on!! SO INCREDIBLE!

We are going to Brus Laguna which a very very remote part of Honduras.. The only way to get there is with a 12 passenger plane that only flies in and out of there once a week! There will be no cars or trucks to drive out equipment around.. Just good old fashion man power!!! and maybe a couple of donkeys

I can not wait to document how the people are living and getting by with what they have.. there’s nothing better than just living off the land and thats what we will be doing for the next week as well as Im sure picking up a couple futbol games with the local ninos

Since it is so remote and wont have electricity for more than an hour a day. I think its pretty safe to say that I wont be able to answer any emails or calls during this time.. If you have to get a hold of me for any reason please email me which is less likely to fill up as opposed to my voice mail.

Or if you want to see photos from the last trip CHECK THEM OUT HERE!!!

Thank you and see you all when I get back!

For all of you who know me personally know that traveling, mission work and photography are a huge part of my heart and anytime you can combine all three, man my heart just explodes! This was the kick off to our new philanthropic campaign and I just wanted to say thank you to all of our couples who chose Living Water as the charity they wanted to support. These pictures are for you to enjoy as well as see what your contribution has done and how you have made an impact on the little village of La Hilaria, Honduras. I also bring back many thank you’s from both young and old and they give you all their blessings. Thank you  for your help to make this happen.

A little background information that I didnt know before I left was that Honduras is the second most impoverished country next to Haiti in all of South and Latin America. This poverty reached a new level after Hurricane Mitch struck in 1999 and caused severe destruction to infrastructure and agriculture. The country still hasn’t fully recovered from all the devastation. 

I was also really excited to go to Honduras because this was my first time down in Latin America. I always love an opportunity to tune up my spanish.

La Iglesia (Church)

The main source of revenue is agriculture including predominately bananas, oranges, and pineapple. The little village of La Hilaria is completely supported off of their 10 km orange grove.  Everybody in the town works in the orange grove. There is actually no specific ownership. Everyone in the village shares in it equally and works the land equally as well. School is split in two shifts, 8-1 and 1-6.  My buddy christian below works from 5:30 -12:30 pm, then goes to school from 1-6 pm, then works on homework until bedtime at 8:30 and does the same thing the next day. Id say a solid days work for a 11 year old. Typical with almost every kid in this village. 

El Caballero  (Gentleman)

The universal sport! Man these kids can play! We brought down several new balls.

There are 8 tribes in Honduras. Not saying that each of these kids represents one tribe but just a look at the diversity of people. 

 

The school was centrally located in the community so Living Water saw it best fit to drill right in the school so it would not only service these 200+ kids but could lend water the entire community. 

Now its go time! Drillings on! Living Water is based out of Houston so I got my fair share of cultural enlightenment from both the Hondurans as well as the Texans

 

Yup thats right! Yours truly getting my rough neck on!  

The bottle Emillio (the guy in the hat as well as drilling guru) is holding is the water that these kids were washing dishes, clothes and drinking with. You can see after we drilled and taped into a local aquifer you can see the progression of how much cleaner the water got. By the time we were done drilling, pumping and purifying, you could pretty much bottle up the water and sell it on the shelves. 

We dug 70 feet down and ended up with this….

A lifetime of clean and pure drinking water. Right now is dry season so anything that is producing water will definitely still produce water during wet season!

SOOO AWESOME!!

 

A shot from the plane ride back into LAX, a beautiful way to end such a beautiful trip!