I picked Mary Cruz and her kids up at 2:30 a.m. and we headed to the Central Park in Comayagua. There were already many people who had partially completed their alfombras who had been working all night.

We met some of our students there and got to work.

Mary Cruz had the design drawn out on paper, with the colors of the sawdust that we would use in various sections.

Here we are beginning with the dark green sawdust. Spreading out in that area.

Manuel is working on the yellow outline of the cross, using a paintbrush to move the sawdust into the lines and brush away the yellow getting into the green section.

The boys working on the outline of the cross.....

I am working with Daniella on the green section, carefully spreading it to the line marking where the purple sawdust will beginning. We used sort of like a colandar to shake the sawdust out, keeps it from coming out in clumps....I wasn't so good with the shaking method...

After you get it down then you use the board I have in my hand, to press it down and level it out.

Still working on that outline.

Manuel....he is too happy for 4 a.m.!

MaryCruz

Fernando starting on the purple section. He is using the colandar, shaking the sawdust out.

MaryCruz holds the board to keep the purple from going onto the yellow outline that they worked so hard on!

Still working on the outline...I am glad I didn't have that job!

And you can see where we have started to fill in the cross with pieces of tree bark.

Marisol and Daniela working on the purple section.

The bag you see behind them is full of colored saw dust.

MaryCruz holds up the long board along the edge as Andrea and Marisol lay the sawdust out to the edge of our creation.

Many people use stencils for a lot of their designs, whether they are just shapes, or flowers or even the face of Jesus. This is the stencil we were using for the top and bottom border.

First we put down the light green sawdust for the border

Then lay the stencil on top of that border

Then we used red sawdust to sprinkle on top of the stencil and the red sawdust goes through the openings to make the design.

You can see the stencil laying to the side that we used, still with the red sawdust that was caught and didn't make part of the design.

Another important step is to spray it down with water. This keeps it all in place, it is something that is done throughout the morning, and one of the favorite jobs of the kids.

Fernando's turn to spray.

Here is the border we made with the stencil.

Our final completed work of art!

The Ruach symbol in the bottom corner....

MaryCruz had designed that on a separate cardboard piece. She drew the design with black cord, and the white part she had glued rice. Then Manuel and I filled in the sections with green sawdust and yellow sawdust to make the Ruach sign.

It took us about 4 1/2 hours to make this alfombra.