Going Home!!

Today we finished up 2nd Partial exams and at the end of the day I packed up my classroom, shut off the lights, locked the door, and left the school for the last time in 2010. I am glad Christmas break is here because trust me, teachers need it more than the students do! Tomorrow I will be on a plane headed to the great United States of America and tomorrow night I will be enjoying the company of my two wonderful sisters and my adorable niece and nephew. To say I am excited to go see my family is an understatement. I cannot put into words how ecstatic I am! When I decided to sign the contract to come teach in Honduras, I thought I would be sacrificing the quality of life I had grown accustomed to in the states - I didn't realize that the only real thing I was sacrificing was the time I got to spend with family and friends. It will be great to have 2 weeks to be back with them again, catching up on all I have missed out on and de-stressing and relaxing from half a school year of teaching some of the most rambunctious kids I have ever met.

For some of you, I can say, "See you in a few days!" For the rest of you that live too far away for me to visit while I am home, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and get a chance to be with friends and family this Christmas.

Can't wait to join you all in the U.S. tomorrow!!

"While you were out"....

I started out the week with a terrible cold, complete with fever and all, which I thought was pretty bad until I woke up in the middle of the night and realized I had food poisoning on top of that. Not fun. I was forced to skip school on Tuesday, go see the doctor, and then spent the rest of the day on the couch sleeping. Despite my lack of energy, I returned to school on Wednesday to teach a full day of classes.

As I walked into my classroom, the room was a complete disaster from my 101 students who come through my room in the course of a day and I quickly began tidying things up as I made my way to my desk. My desk was covered in Christmas decorations that were to be used for the annual Christmas door decorating competition and right in the center of all of this I saw an interesting decoration that I hadn't seen before so I assumed one of my students brought it in while I was out sick.

It wasn't until I was a foot away from my desk that I realized the giant "decoration" in the middle of the chaos was in fact not a Christmas ornament, but rather a 4 foot python, coiled up on my desk. I panicked. It took a brief second before I realized the snake was dead and there was a note next to the snake that said, "I win. Merry Christmas." in bright red letters. I immediately knew I had my friend Matt Goasdone to thank for this frightful friend I had awaiting me upon my return to school. It was an incredibly fantastic prank!

I cannot claim to be innocent in this because in all honesty, I was the one to start the prank war. I couldn't help it. On my way out of school one day, I found a dead frog that I picked up and put in Mr. Goasdone's coffee pot. This school year I have intermittently been placing dead geckos in his desk. The snake was the payback for all of this.

He was right when he wrote a note saying he wins, because honestly, how could I possibly top a python?

Under the Sea

As teachers working at a school structured around the North American school system, we still get Thanksgiving break despite the fact that our students are not positive they even know what Thanksgiving is. Oh well, they don't care because they enjoy the break from school just as much as we do.

This year Thanksgiving found me in Utila, one of the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras. I was just there in April, so you may remember seeing pictures of the trip on my blog. This trip was much different from last time though. Instead of spending all of our time lying on the beach in the sun and snorkeling, we unexpectedly found ourselves signing up to take some scuba diving lessons so we could go scuba diving down in the depths of the Caribbean.

If you know me well, you will know that I am not a good swimmer by any means and I have a slight fear of being in water. So why wouldn't I sign up to scuba dive? All part of the adventure! We had to sit through a 1/2 hour class to learn about the dive on which we were about to go and how it would effect our bodies being down where the water pressure is so much greater. Several of the people working at this particular dive shop were originally from Israel and two of the guys there let us eat some of their traditional Israeli food called, shakshuka (eggs and pasta sauce). It was delicious. Who knew I would get to experience so much of the world just by moving to Honduras?!

After all of this and trying on our gear, it was time to head out to the sea to practice a few skills before diving down. We were dropped off a ways away from the island, but the water was only about chest deep, so we practiced skills on our knees under the water where it would be safe in case anything went wrong. We had to prove that we could empty water out of our goggles while under the water, find and replace our regulator (breathing device) and clear it of water without getting wrapped up in the cord in case we accidentally lost it under the water, and show that we could be calm and collected while doing all of this. Since you cannot talk under the water, we were taught a whole system of signs in order to communicate with our instructors. After we all passed the quick tests given to us by our instructor it was time to dive down!

Our instructor told us to follow him and off we went! On our first dive, we linked arms with the instructor and he guided us over, under, and around the beautiful coral inhabited by the most colorful fish I have ever seen! The dive lasted 30 minutes before we headed back up to the surface and waited to catch the boat.

The boat took us to another location called "Airport caves" where we jumped off the boat in our extremely heavy gear once again and dove down. This time the instructors let us venture out on our own or linked in pairs (something that is never done when you are diving for your DSD and not your Open Water certificate), giving us more freedom to look around and observe everything. I saw trumpet fish, puffer fish, a HUGE barracuda, lobster, angel fish, and so much more! The deepest we went was 12 meters (about 40 feet).

I know I have experienced so much of the world so far in my short 21 years of life, but this might possibly top the list as the greatest experience I have ever had. I am pretty sure I am going to have to get my diving certificate so that I can experience and enjoy more of God's beautiful underwater creation!

Uh.....¿Como?

Spanish tutoring started today. The Spanish tutor does not speak a word of English. I do not speak Spanish. Put us together and we are dynamite.

I desperately want to improve my Spanish because it would make life in Honduras so much easier, but my problem is I do not want to have to put forth any effort to learn the language because I already have a ton on my plate with school, so add "learning a new language" into the mix and I am left with a massive headache. Apparently this isn't enough to stop me though because I am signed up for tutoring once again and hopefully will make use of it this time instead of skipping out on lessons halfway though the year when I become too frustrated.

Today was hilarious. After the tutor realized I was basically clueless when it came to Spanish, she decided she needed to start at the ground-floor and work up. She put a pen in my hand and told me to dictate the words to she was saying to test my ability to pick up the different sounds in Spanish. After getting all of the words she spoke correct, she decided I was ready to try a phrase. She spoke, I wrote.

When she had finished reciting her phrase she looked at my paper and in Spanish said, "We have a BIG problem. You don't know any grammar."

I realized I had not bothered to capitalize the first word or put a period at the end. The result of this oversight was that we spent the rest of our time together leaning how to capitalize a sentence and use appropriate punctuation. I tried, but failed, to communicate with her that these rules are the same in English, I just hadn't realized she would be upset if I didn't do it for this particular exercise. Her next question: "What do you teach at IST?" My answer: English. Her eyes got wide and her jaw dropped and I think she said a little prayer for the 9th grade students at IST who are leaning English from a teacher who obviously knows nothing about grammar.

Someday I will get this stuff down I hope, but until then I'm sure there will be plenty more awkwardly fantastic tutoring sessions to come!

New Happenings in the Life of Leslie Jones

1.) I joined a gym. It's small, dirty, and doesn't have a whole lot of equipment, but it gives me a way to get out of the house and get all of my energy out after being cooped up in a classroom/my house all of the time. It has been great working out again (although I greatly miss my workout buddies: Holly, Nat, Sam, and AK because when I am by myself it isn't quite as entertaining!) I doubt I will be beating my brothers in pull-up competitions anytime soon, but maybe now I won't get pushed down as easy on the soccer field :)

2.) Friday night soccer with the street kids was probably one of the best we have had in a while! The main reason: there were TONS of kids! I decided that the reason I love ministering to the kids so much is because even though we don't speak the same language, it doesn't matter. As long as you can make tons of funny faces, lots of crazy sounds, and are willing to play with them, love on them, and just show them you care, they will think you are the greatest person they have ever met! It hurts knowing that after soccer is over they will be forced to head back to the streets and I so badly want to give them all a home with me so I know they are safe, but I obviously can't, so instead I will praise God for letting me see them once a week and continue praying knowing that he is watching out for them.

3.) Last night was our Halloween party with all of the other IST teachers. It included games, food, and lots of silly costumes! It definitely made me miss Halloweens of the past that included going to Grandma's house (which was one cornfield away from ours) and sitting on the kitchen counter while she made us homemade donuts, spiced cider, caramel apples, and lots of other delicious treats.

4.) Soccer season starts tomorrow at IST!! Burns will be coaching the Pre-juvenil team (basically Junior Varsity) and I will be helping her assistant coach until my team - the 5th/6th graders - begins in January. I'm sure you all remember my blog posts about soccer season last year and all of the frustration that comes with attempting to coach Honduran girls who care more about fashion than soccer (something that is quite foreign to me), but either way, I couldn't be more excited!!

5.) I'm sure there is plenty more I could update you all on, but I desperately need to get back to my lesson planning, so I will have to write again soon. Thanks again for all the prayers/words of encouragement - they are greatly appreciated!!

'Tis the Season

Christmas is popping up all over Honduras. Santa related items are beginning to fill grocery store shelves, students have started singing Christmas carols, and I have to admit, I even hung a "Let it Snow" flag outside of our house complete with a happy little snowman (don't get me wrong though, it is definitely NOT because I am in the Christmas spirit this early in the year, but because I had way too much energy last night and ended up scaling our house, flag in hand and planted it in a flower pot hanging off our second-story).

Ok, so once again it has been a while since the last update, so time to catch up once again.

It is now exam week for 1st partial, meaning teachers are extremely busy. The year is already flying by and it is exciting getting to know my students better. We had fun this past partial studying The Giver and I love that my students this year are able to dig deeper into the books and bring things to the table that I don't even catch sometimes.

My cast was finally removed as well and the doctor said my arm looks good, so it is nice not having that giant green hindrance keeping me from finishing my schoolwork and doing simple tasks.

Honduras has been surprisingly cold recently (ok I guess I should clarify this one too because "cold" means it has been dropping to the low 70's during the day). Either way, it means jeans, long sleeve shirts, and sometimes even a sweatshirt if the breeze picks up. It almost feels like being in the states experiencing fall......but not quite.

For some reason I have been thinking a lot lately about what I am going to be doing next year after my contract with IST is up. I know June is a long ways away, but not knowing what is next is both scary and exciting. I know none of you will believe this, but the idea of coming back for a third year seems like an extremely viable option right now. This year has been so much better than last year that I actually really enjoy being down here in Honduras! Today as I was packing up my classroom I got kind of upset realizing that I might not be back to teach my 1st Partial materials one more time to a new set of kids. However, at the same time the idea of going to grad school and beginning my career in public relations/communications sounds equally enticing. I guess I will just have to wait and continue praying to see where I am supposed to be next year.

For now, I am satisfied with where I am at and I am taking things one day at a time, enjoying all Honduras has to offer!

A Night at the Opera

I can finally cross off on my list of things I have never done: "Go to the opera."

..........If you know me at all, you will know that "Go to the opera" would never appear on my list of things I want to do; however, when someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, we are willing to pay for your ticket to the opera if you are willing to go," that just isn't something you turn down.

I signed up to go knowing full well how much I was going to detest sitting through it, but finally resigned myself to the fact that the opera is one of those cultural experiences that everyone must experience at least once in their life. Besides, based on how much I was dreading this particular evening at the opera house, I accepted the reality that if I did not go now when it was free, there is no way I was ever going to go when I had to pay for it myself.

So I went, I saw, and now I never have to return to an opera ever again and will be just fine with that.

Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy the performances by the talented singers, and I might even be willing to admit that it was somewhat fun getting dressed up for the prestigious event (despite the hideous cast still stuck on my arm that hindered me from looking like a true opera-attending-person should), but it is not the type of event I would purposely go see again.

By the end of the evening I knew how many ceiling tiles were hanging above our heads (622 if anyone was wondering), had made up a ridiculous story in my head about what the opera singers were trying to convey to us through their foreign Italian choruses, and halfway through the second act realized that the reason my chair was so painfully uncomfortable was because it was missing the nice fluffy back-cushion that was included on every other chair in our box causing me to fall through the back of my chair if I tried to get too comfortable.

Overall, I would say that it is an experience I will never forget and would like to think I am a little more culturally rounded because of it........although I pray it is never repeated!

Injury Prone

Wednesday afternoon I organized a soccer game at school amongst the teachers at International School (the school I work for). The Honduran teachers said that the North American teachers would never be able to beat them at their own game so we met on the field after school to prove them wrong. We had so much fun playing and the North Americans were actually winning the whole game until the last 5 minutes when we started falling apart. None of this is the point of the blog post though.

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I get injured all the time so it won't come as a surprise when I say that during our game on Wednesday I injured my wrist and now it is in a lovely, bright green cast.

Halfway through the game, one of the players from the Honduran team went to take a shot and when he rocketed off a solid shot on goal, he nailed my wrist with his foot in the process. It hurt really bad and started swelling right away, but I continued playing the rest of the game in true Leslie Jones fashion, despite the throbbing pain in my arm.

That night I did not sleep at all and by the time I got to school the next day I could not concentrate on work so I decided to go see the school doctor to get some pain pills to help out. He looked it over, gave me some pain pills, then said I needed to go to the hospital right away; I however had a class starting in less than an hour, so I thanked him for his help and told him I would go after school. As I stood up to walk out the door he told me in Spanish in a loud, stern voice, "Sit down! You are going now!" There was no arguing with him, so I took a seat and waited for him to call the North American Coordinator to take me to the hospital.

We went to 4 different hospitals before I was helped. All of the doctors we needed were not in at the time we visited so we kept moving from hospital to hospital, even trying our luck at the emergency room on the military base - no doctor ready to see us there either.

6 hours later, I walked away with my right arm in a green fiberglass cast. It didn't slow me down too much though because that afternoon I was back with my students in school and that night was out on the soccer field playing the best game I have had in a long time (I had 7 goals)!

I will admit that I am extremely frustrated though. I have decided that my left arm is in no way attached to my brain because it is useless. I cannot grade, I have trouble typing, I can't even sign my students' hall passes when they need to leave the classroom or write down the attendance for class and I am relying heavily on help from others.

Please pray that I can overcome the frustration and survive these next couple of weeks.

Pretty sure this was the longest week of my life.

It is finally the weekend! I know we are only 3 weeks into the school year, but already I am living for the weekends. This year I have a lot more students then I did last year, meaning I am teaching a lot more hours as well. By Tuesday afternoon, I am ready for the week to be over and yet I still have 3 more days to go. It really isn't all bad though because I have been enjoying getting to know my new class of freshmen and it has been such a great encouragement seeing students who usually hate reading asking me if we can spend more time reading. I realized a long time ago that in my life, I have to stay focused on the positive or else I don't know how I would be able to keep going, so despite how tired I am by the middle of the week or how frustrated I get over school issues, I couldn't see myself working anywhere else at this point in my life!

Highlights from the week:

- On Monday in chapel, we played "Minute to Win It" with the students, during which I walked away with the grand prize of L.58 and half a watermelon.....great day!

- Tuesday included a flag ceremony for Honduran Independence Day, which ended up being 15 minutes of saluting the flag, singing the national anthem, saying the pledge of allegiance, and then digressing into 50 minutes of us watching people play tug-o'-war, jump-rope, and write on pieces of paper (still not sure what that last one was about).

- Wednesday my wonderful roommate Josie started up a Bible Study that will be taking place at our house each week. We decided to go through the book of John to begin with and I am excited to grow closer to the girls in my neighborhood through this.

- Thursday was an all around rough day (mostly stemming from my Honduran "sister" having health problems at school that left me scared to say the least). I can't give details, but please be praying for her and her family. Her mom called me this morning and said they are extremely tired and just need prayer. This was also the day that the power decided to go out at school so teaching was difficult without any lights/projectors/fans/etc.

- Friday ended with going to street kid soccer with the Micah Project. Afterwards we decided to walk up to the market for dinner and were caught in a terrible downpour that left us completely drenched. The delicious baleadas we ate for dinner made up for it though! We were then back home and asleep on our couches by 9:30! We were all very tired!

- Saturday (today) I finally talked to Emily on Skype - which I have never ever done - and I got to see my nephew Landon!! He is getting big and is still very cute :) The rest of the day will probably include grocery shopping and hanging out with friends.

So that about sums it up. I am headed to El Salvador next week to hopefully climb a volcano and learn to surf, so we are hoping everything works out to go! It will be nice to have a break from the students and have 5 days of not thinking about school at all.

I know this isn't a great blog post, but I am tired and don't feel like writing a lot, so I hope it suffices until I update again. I miss all of you back in the states and think about you often!

Lost in Translation

My students will often get extremely frustrated with me when I do not understand what they are saying. However, other times we both just end up laughing over how ridiculous some of our conversations can be. For example, the other day I had my students working on creating their own utopia that they will present to the class next week when a student came up to me with a rather interesting question - here is how the conversation played out:

Student: Can our community be an Aslan?

Me: An Aslan? Don't you mean Narnia?

Student: Um no, Aslan.

Me: You want your country to be a magical lion?

Student: What?! NO! Aslan!! Like a piece of land surrounded by water!

Me: OH Island!! Got it.

Off and Running Once Again

School is back in session! Yesterday was the first day and everything went extremely smooth after a week of planning and organizing the classroom. It is great to be back in the classroom getting to know my new group of students, but tiring at the same time. Life has been extremely busy the past few days, but I am sure things will calm down once I get back into the swing of things and the students have gotten used to being in the 9th grade.

One of our most interesting adventures from this past week included coming home to a flooded house. While we were still at school, a bad storm hit, flooding parts of our elementary building and other areas around the campus. When we got home and opened our front door, we found a nice layer of water coating our entire house, measuring anywhere from a couple centimeters in the highest places in the house, to a couple inches in one of the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen. We found out that the drains outside of our house don't work, forcing the water into the house. The next 2 hours or so were spent with mops, brooms, and dustpans in hand, trying to push all of the water out of the house. It was quite the task to push all of the water from the farthest bedroom clear up to the front of the house and out the garage, but with a little teamwork and a lot of optimism, we made it happen.

A man came to our house today to fix the problem, so we are hoping we will no longer be found scooping gallons of water out of our precious home (especially since we are in the midst of rainy season), but I can't say I expected anything less from my first week in Honduras and despite the flooding it is still good to be back!

Please pray that I find a way to stay energized as I am teaching a lot more classes than I was last year and that my health remains good these next few weeks!

I have returned!!

I am back.

I flew into Tegucigalpa on Thursday, August 12th and although I wasn't entirely ready for the summer to end, I am so glad that I had the chance to be back in the states for 2 months to see my family and friends and relax after a busy first year of teaching. Summer included working as a counselor at church camp, hanging out with my brothers a lot building soccer goals and skate ramps, getting to re-meet my 1 1/2 year old niece and welcome my nephew into the world in June, and travel to Alaska to see family and friends......and so much more!

Like I said, I wasn't completely ready to leave again, but now that I am here I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. The first few days here have been a whirlwind of activity as every start to a new year is, but I am living with 3 new teachers in a beautiful house (5 bedrooms/5 bathrooms) so it has been quite the adventure exploring our house and trying to remember what each door leads to and where all the storage closets are. We are so spoiled we almost feel guilty about being allowed to live in such an elegant house (pictures will be coming soon). I guess I am just telling all of you this because after all the troubles I had with my house last year, I know most of you were worried I wasn't going to survive another year in Honduras, so to ease your fears let me assure you that I am living like a queen!

I cannot tell you how great it was to arrive in Honduras knowing what to expect, where we were going, and feeling like I was home instead of like a scared little tourist lost in a foreign country. My house-mates are fantastic and I can already tell this is going to be a good year.

We are about to head out into the city to take the 1st year teachers on a tour, but I will update again soon - just wanted to let all my faithful readers know that I am back and the blog is up and running again :)

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers as I moved down to Honduras again - keep me in mind these next couple of weeks as we settle back in and adjust to life in a 3rd world country once again!

Back in the United States of America!!

My mom walked in the house the other day and said, "Leslie, your city is still flooding...."

I didn't know what she was talking about at first, then it hit me: "Oh yeah, the blog!"

Sorry for those of you who may have been checking the blog periodically, sitting in suspense wondering whatever happened after I posted last time. Let me clear up some fears: no I did not drowned in the flooding, no my house did not wash away, and yes I am still alive and well! Now to catch you up to speed on what has happened since then....

With 2 weeks left to go before leaving Honduras to visit the states for the summer, my computer crashed for the second time in one year, cutting off my communication with everyone in the states. I took it to our computer guys at school, but between my lack of Spanish and their English, which is good but not superb, the only thing they could get across was "It's the motherboard!"......wasn't quite sure what that meant but didn't sound good.

The school year finished up pretty smoothly besides that and I am now back in the U.S. having a great time visiting friends and family around Washington and will be headed up to Alaska to see more friends and relatives in 2 weeks. I luckily was able to get all of my school documents off of the old computer, which was a relief because I will be teaching a lot more hours next year and did not have time to redo everything I had done for this year.

I will be headed back to Honduras on August 12, which is coming up quicker than I would like, but in the meantime, I have loved being around to welcome my new nephew (Landon Leroy White) into the world, spend time with all of my brothers and sisters, and do some of the things I would never be able to do in Honduras (like flush toilet paper and take a shower every day!).

Thanks to all who were praying for me as I was down in Honduras - I would say my first year there was a success and now I can't wait to see what the next year has in store!

There Will Be No School: Your City is Flooding

All of us teachers are feeling the crunch - we are now in the last week of school meaning that pile of research papers and projects the students just turned in needs to be graded as quickly as possible. Stress is high and the amount of coffee being consumed in phenomenal as we are all casting sleep aside in an attempt to earn ourselves a few more hours to work.

Yesterday, my group of church friends and I were all invited to go hang out with a family from our church who lives up in the nicer area of town. We were promised a home-cooked, American meal and couldn't refuse, so we went despite the feeling of drowning in school work. We had a fantastic time playing games and eating cornbread and homemade stew. As we were in the middle of playing a game, one of the teachers received a text message saying, "Teachers, there will be no school tomorrow." We were ecstatic! High-fives were flying around the table as we were all cheering and giving a sigh of relief!

The reason for the sudden unexpected day off is that Hurricane Agatha just hit Guatemala, sending torrential rain down into Honduras. The streets are filling with water making it hard for students to get to school. Some of the teachers who live right next to the river had to be taken to a hotel on higher ground just as a precautionary measure.

With that being said, I think it is kind of funny because today the skies are blue, the sun is shining, and it couldn't be a more beautiful day!

........we couldn't be more grateful for the extra work time we just earned ourselves though and I have a feeling, this week might just turn out all right after all.

Volcano Explosion

My new hobby is climbing volcanoes in every country I visit in Central America. Better yet, I like climbing active volcanoes with lava pouring out of them. Maybe I should rethink this after waking up this morning and seeing this on the news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10189054.stm

According to BBC, the volcano I just climbed last month in Guatemala erupted, killing 2 people and injuring 50 more. This is the same volcano on which we climbed and roasted marshmallows over a river of lava. If you go to the above link, you can watch a video of the eruption (now granted, some of these eruptions were going on while we were on the volcano, spewing some lava out the top and shooting some rock and lava up in the air, but it wasn't quite on this level).

Does this mean I am going to stop climbing volcanoes? Probably not. Will I be more careful in the future - hopefully. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it was kind of cool that it erupted right after I was there!

Green Day

Today was "Green Day" at school. For those of you who do not know, this is a day dedicated to saving the planet and going green. I had no idea what to expect when I was told we would be celebrating Green Day in Honduras, but as I have learned, it is always best to come into these things with no expectations.

When we woke up this morning, it was once again pouring rain (a hard, steady rain that lasted over an hour). The first activity on the program for today was to go on a hike up to the top peak of the hill our school is located on. I wasn't entirely thrilled at the prospect of hiking up the muddy trails with kids from 4th-10th grade early in the morning. However, once we began our climb, I ended up having quite a bit of fun! Kids were slipping and sliding everywhere, getting covered in mud. I convinced all of the kids hiking up with me to wipe mud on their faces as war paint as proof they dominated the hill (the students at our school HATE getting dirty, so the fact that they were willing to do any of this was shocking!). Every student I passed as I marched up the hill with my mud-streaked face thought I was so silly, but soon they were reaching down to get some mud for their own face!

Upon returning to school, the next activity was the dog show and plant show. This is when students got the chance to compete in 3 different dog competitions and/or put their plant on display for judging. I was asked to be a judge for the dog show and had a great time seeing all of the little puppies and big, massive dogs trying to fetch newspapers, jump hurdles, or beat another dog in a 1v1 race - it was so much fun! (Especially watching the basset hound try to clear the hurdles......it didn't make it and completely demolished one of the jumps!).

I never knew that signing up to be a teacher would include being a mountain climber or dog judge, but it keeps my life interesting and provides plenty of good stories!

Birthday Weekend

I'm not one to make a big deal about my birthday - in fact, I usually try to get by without anyone noticing at all, but this year was definitely different. My friends down here in Honduras (fellow teachers) decided I was going to celebrate whether I wanted to or not! It ended up being a fantastic weekend! Saturday included dinner at a very nice pizza place called Albahaca followed by everyone driving back to my friends' house for a night full of card games such as Nertz and Mafia. On Sunday (my real birthday) I celebrated with lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and had a great time hanging out with my church group of friends and laughing a good majority of the afternoon with them. On Monday I showed up at school and found a sign taped over my classroom door that said "Happy Birthday Ms. Jones!" I spent the rest of the day interrogating my students to try to figure out who made the sign, but no one would confess.....then I found out the reason was because it was my friend Matt, the 7th grade English teacher who made the sign for me. I was given MANY birthday hugs from my students and they all even behaved pretty well, so all around it was a fantastic day! I didn't expect much from my first "out-of-country" birthday, but I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Baptism and Bonding

I usually go to church with a group of 4 other teachers to a church called Impacto (I like it because not only do many North American missionaries/teachers attend the church, but they also provide a translation service through personal earpieces). Today I was the only one out of our usual group able to go because the others are in the states or at math team competition in La Ceiba. I did not want to miss this Sunday for anything in the world though because I knew that today one of my students was going to be baptized. I don't know that I have ever been more proud of any of my students than I was in that moment, watching her tell her testimony in front of our rather large church congregation and then, alongside her older sister, be baptized. The best part about the whole thing was that their mother swore that she would never step foot inside of a church no matter what; however, today she was there. It meant so much to the girls to see their mom inside of that building! As I was giving my student a hug after she came out of the baptismal room, she whispered in my ear, "She's here. My mom is here." Tears streamed down her face and a smile lit her eyes as she stood watching her mom. It was truly a beautiful thing to watch.

The rest of the day was spent with my family (a family within the church that "adopted" me at the beginning of the year) and included lunch at La Fontana, playing Wii with the kids while laughing and sharing secrets over a cup of coffee, a birthday party (during which I got whacked in the face by a pinata, had a light bulb smashed over me by a pinata stick, and got a welt from flying candy from the same pinata aforementioned = moral of the story: I need to stay away from pinatas!), and overall a great time spent with friends!

Nose Bugs and Wingless Termites

Let me explain......

Nose bugs: no this is not technically the real name for the bug, but it is a name that I have given these bugs because their favorite thing to do is fly up people's noses. It is weird. But wait, it gets better. Their favorite time to perform this devious little act is when you are in the middle of a conversation with someone. It never fails that when I am kneeling by a student's desk, talking to them face to face, one of these bugs will shoot up my nose or up the student's nose - it is somewhat comical when it happens to the other person, but quite unfortunate when I am doling out a punishment and suddenly --schwoop-- up the nose it goes and then we are both laughing so much I don't even remember why I was punishing them in the first place!

Wingless Termites: in case you didn't know, it is currently termite season in Honduras, meaning these little creatures are everywhere! They are flying around our lights, stuck to the static on our tv, eating their way through the kitchen cupboards.......but wait: if regular termites are not enough entertainment, it gets even better! During termite season they shed their wings and as a result, end up crawling around on your skin like little worms. The worst is waking up to them in the middle of the night squirming in my bed! Fortunately, we do not have wood ceilings like the other houses in the neighborhoods, so our infestation is not as bad as the other houses (Hang in there Julie, it will get better soon!!) - probably the first time I have been truly grateful that our ceilings are made out of styrofoam panels! (yes, you read that right, the ceiling of my house is styrofoam - that is a fun one when either wind or rain hits the house!)

Utila: Caribbean Island

(Above: crab.....one of many)

(Above: our ride we took around the island)

(Above: we were told these are only slightly poisonous......that did not make me any more comfortable being around these massive spiders!!)

I promise I really do teach.

I know it doesn't seem like that statement is true because I am always updating my blog with my latest travels, but amidst all of the traveling, there is plenty of work, work, and more work that goes along with being a first year teacher.

That is why I cherish the moments I can spend on the road, away from school and the 90 students who need me all the time.

This past weekend we had a 4 day weekend and due to the fact that I had just returned from the states 3 days previous to this, I decided I probably would not be going anywhere and just use this extra time to get caught up on sleep and housework.

At least that was the plan until I got a better offer.

My friends Kristi, Nichole, and I ended up traveling to Utila, an island located off the north coast of Honduras in the Caribbean. It was beautiful and so great to spend a few days in the sun and the sand! Utila is a very relaxed island, filled with visitors from around the world coming to go diving with the whale sharks and backpackers looking for a place to get away.

The first day we were there we rented a golf cart and drove around the island just taking in the sights and visiting all of the different spots other teachers told us we had to see. The next day we hit the water for some snorkeling, swimming, and taking in the sun. We had a great time eating amazing food and spending lots of time swimming in the pool at our hotel at night.

I decided that once I do move back to the states in a year or so, I am going to miss this lifestyle terribly where I can just quickly throw some stuff in a backpack and be in the Caribbean (or some other country) by nightfall just because we were given a few extra days off of school. This is the life!

Traveling Once Again

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. to visit my friends at Grace College in Winona Lake, IN. It was so strange to be back in the U.S. again! I flushed toilet paper, drank out of the sink faucet, took a real shower, washed AND dried my clothes, and overall had a fantastic time. I was able to play in the Grace College alumni soccer game while I was there and saw lots of friends that I didn't think I would see again.

When I was packing for my trip, I realized I did not have very many warm clothes to take with me, but figured it would be fine because how cold could it really be, right? I am pretty sure I did not stop shivering the entire trip!! It was only about 50-60 degrees there, but it has not gotten that cold in Honduras even once since I moved here so I was not prepared for it. Thankfully my friends kept me well clothed, however I did get a rather bad cold from the weather. Don't feel too bad though - as soon as I got back to Honduras I was informed we were going to have the hottest day of the year today and everyone was warned to dress accordingly for school.......talk about a shock to the system after being cold all weekend!!

Surviving the airports was an adventure in itself! I have been to many jungles down here and survived them all fine, but place me in a U.S. airport and then things really start to get interesting! I was held up at customs for a while when a man a few people in front of me attempted to sneak into the U.S. with fake documents. After this everyone was stopped and finger printed, had their picture taken, and interrogated......I however somehow made it through without any of the above steps being taken.

I then proceeded to walk through the airport taking everything in. I stopped in one store to see if they had any headphones to replace my broken ones. I walked up to the counter and asked {in Spanish} "How much?" The lady looked at me weird so I quickly recovered {in English} with, "Sorry. How much do these cost?" She told me they would be $10. "Ten dollars!?!?!," I said, "No, no, no. I will give you $7." She looked at me weird again and pointed at the sticker that said $10 on it. This is when I realized I was trying to haggle in a country that does not believe in that and shamefully said, "I am so sorry. I'm just gonna go now." Great way to welcome yourself back into the country!

The rest of the trip included Taco Bell, Starbucks, real chocolate, watching Rocketman with my soccer team, driving my old car I owned in college, a road trip with my girls AK, Sam, Holly, and Natalie, lots of soccer, and many other things I love.

I am now back in Honduras and preparing to finish the school year out strong. Only 8 more weeks until I get to see my family!!! {And only 44 days until the World Cup begins!!}

A great way to end a fantastic week

Friday was one of the most entertaining/interesting days of my week! I had been looking forward to Friday mainly because I could not wait to head downtown to see the guys from the street again, but never imagined how many events would lead up to it!

To begin with, the sky had been somewhat overcast when we headed to school giving a little bit of relief (albeit not much) from the blazing sun. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to sit outside during my plan periods to enjoy the fresh air, seeing as I am not outside a whole lot in this country - mainly for safety reasons. That morning I had gone and gotten a HUGE cup of coffee from my friend Matt and had just began drinking it out on a bench when I heard a "plop." I turn and look, only to find a big floating ball of bird poop bobbing in my hardly touched coffee! A bird flying over had aimed it just right to try to dampen my day a little - joke is on the bird though because I laughed so hard over this (and so did the rest of the teachers when they heard) that I guess it was worth the sacrifice in coffee for the story.

We then had Dia de las Americas (Day of the Americas) where the 10th and 11th graders set up booths for each of the countries in North, Central, and South America. Teachers were allowed to go around and sample food from each of the countries......amazing!!! We also got little souvenirs from each country including Jamaican coffee, Belizian key chain, Dominican Republic cigar, etc.

Soccer that afternoon was fantastic as always, although now that I have shown the boys I come to play, they have decided they are no longer treating me like a lady: after an hour of soccer I had been smashed into the cement walls several times, thrown to the ground by my shirt tail, took an elbow to the jaw, and almost cracked my shin bone. It took them long enough, but they finally treat me as an equal and I love it!!

{Afterwards when we were feeding the guys, 3 little Honduran boys were talking to my friend Megan, asking her all kinds of questions. One of their questions: "Is it true that gringas cannot have babies and so they have to adopt?" hahahaha! So cute!}

Finally, as I was getting ready for bed last night a terrible storm began! If you know me, you will know that I am TERRIFIED of thunder. This thunder was worse than anything I had ever experienced and was shaking the loose window panes quite harshly as deafening rain poured down on the metal roof of our house. I went to bed earlier than usual to try to sleep through the worst of it, but it continued long into the night. I turned my music on as loud as possible to drown it out, but little seemed to be working. After hours of this, it finally began to subside and I drifted off to sleep. I woke up an hour later completely soaked! I had left my windows open, but had no idea how the rain was reaching my bed that is placed clear across the room. After waking up a little more, I realized the rain was not coming from the window, but from the ceiling directly over my bed!! It was literally raining in my room. I guess patchwork metal roofs mixed with styrofoam ceiling tiles do not do a whole lot to keep rain out!

I have come to expect unusual events to dominate my daily life now and they hardly seem to phase me most the time, but always seem to brighten my day! Honduras is quite the adventure and one I wouldn't trade for anything!

Students Brighten My Day!!

Dealing with teenagers every day makes for one very interesting job. They are always saying hilarious things! One of the best quotes from today (yes, there are multiple per day), came from one of my boys who is usually extremely astute and on top of things.

Context: As the students walked into class I had an announcement up on the board saying, "I know the journal on your desk is not yours!!! I also know that no one will read this before saying, 'Miss, this is not mine!' Sit patiently and I will explain the activity to you."

Quote:
- Student: "Miss, you must be psychic!!! How did you know that I was not going to read the board?!?!"

Hahahaha!! I know them so well :)

Guatemala

I have returned! Guatemala was amazing and impossible to capture in writing, so I will give a brief rundown of the events of the trip and allow you all to ask for stories later!

Highlights of the trip:

• Traveling throughout Guatemala (Guatemala City, Panajachel on Lake Atitlan, Antigua, Omoa on the North coast of Honduras).
• Seeing the Guatemalan people in their traditional clothing and hearing Mayan people speak in their native language
• Sailing around Lake Atitlan visiting all of the villages around the island
• Seeing the giant processions and street carpets made out of colored sawdust in Antigua
• Climbing a giant, active volcano that had a river of lava running down it that we roasted marshmallows over (everyone else on the climb thought we were so cool for bringing marshmallows to the top of the volcano); we all got slight burns from the heat of the lava, but it was still definitely worth it!!
• Being mistaken for an expert climber by a guy from Germany
• Staying in a hostel where Che Guevara once stayed and getting to lay in the bed in the room he was in.
• Getting to pet the bunnies that lived at our hostel in Omoa (a small beach town on the Caribbean)
• Getting to do lots of relaxing and card playing with a great group of friends/travel buddies!

School is now back in full swing and as we are finishing up 4th Partial, I can't help but look back and realize how fast my first year of teaching has flown by. I have grown a lot through my experiences in the classroom and love seeing how far my students have come :) I'm sure there are still plenty of adventures in store for me this year though and cannot wait to see what they will be!!

Semana Santa!

I am headed to Guatemala right now!! It is 4:00 a.m. and I am extremely tired and not excited to be on a bus all day, but cannot wait to enjoy the celebration and festivities that will be taking place in Guatemala to celebrate Semana Santa (Holy Week). I will be back April 5th and can't wait to fill you all in on the adventure!! (Lakes, volcanoes, food, parades.....going to be awesome!) Talk to you all soon!

and......HAPPY EASTER!!

Stop. Breathe. Go.

I just realized that I have not updated my blog in almost a month - for that I am sorry. Again, that in no way applies that life in Honduras has been less than exciting because that is far from the truth. This week our high school students are taking their final exams for the partial and I have finally gotten all caught up on grading, so I decided to take a night off and fill you all in on life (especially since this is the calm before the storm and tomorrow I will once again find myself sinking under the weight of grading as I will be tackling 83 exams that are 16 pages each......that is a LOT of pages!)

Some of the highlights of the past few weeks would definitely be:

1.) Finishing reading Romeo and Juliet with my students and then watching them perform their version of the classic love story (Honduran students + Shakespeare's language = the most entertaining week of my teaching career!)

2.) Attending the Moscow Circus in Honduras with about 20 of the boys and leaders from the Micah Project. Giraffe, tightropes, tigers, human-like bear, and amazing motorcyclists....what more could you ask for?? 5 minutes into it, my little buddy Nelson fell asleep on my lap and missed the majority of the show - so good to spend time with all the boys though!

3.) Micah Project Street Soccer - continuing to build relationships with the guys from the street has been such a blessing! It is still extremely hard and each week I walk away questioning how God could allow little boys to live like that (or any human for that matter), but He is teaching me a lot through it and I constantly find myself counting the days until Friday when I get to go see them all again!

4.) Watching our girls soccer team win the local Tegucigalpa tournament and bring the 1st place trophy to our school. It is my dream to see girls earn their place as true athletes in the eyes of Hondurans.

5.) MARCH MADNESS!!!! I love competition and I love sports. Put them together and you get basketball in all of it's glory :)

6.) My local church's 9 year anniversary (which at first I thought was extremely lame because who celebrates 9 years? Why not hold out for 10?), but it was amazing to be a part of it because during the service they placed a giant cake up front in the church and had every person who came to Christ through the church over the last 9 years walk up and put a candle in the cake......the fire coming off of that cake at the end was outstanding and such a great encouragement to see visual proof of the work God is doing in this country.


Now I am just trying to survive exam week and then a week of classes before we get a break for Semana Santa (Holy Week), which I will be spending in Guatemala, traveling around with a great group of friends! I can't wait!

I want to again thank you for your continued prayers and support - it is definitely needed and very much appreciated!

February Break

The past few days have been pure bliss = we have been on February break (officially called "Spring Break," but in my opinion that is just a cruel joke by the administration at school because we only get an extra 2 days off, giving us a 4 day weekend). Most people decided to travel over the long weekend to different countries, but a few of us ended up staying behind to have some adventures of our own. Here's how the weekend played out:

Friday: Slept in, watched Lord of the Rings 3 with a group of friends, and then headed downtown for a little street soccer action with my boys from under the bridge.

Saturday: Jumped in a busito and headed downtown once again for lunch and to hit up the open market for fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers (the market is only open on Friday/Saturday but it is such and amazing atmosphere). The busito we took on the way there was interesting to say the least, but we made it and that is all that matters! Lunch was delicious and even made up for the bird pooping on my head as we walked through Parque Central, which left me dying of laughter as we continued to stroll through the city. To wrap up the day, I was able to catch up with a good friend on the phone right before the power went out and left us in the pitch dark. The roommate and I scurried around looking for our emergency candles to give us some light, struggling to use the matches (in my defense, I couldn't see a thing so I had no idea I was trying to strike the wrong end of the match!) and as soon as we got them lit, the power came back on, leaving us giggling on the floor.

Sunday: By this point, the weather here is HOT (by hot, I mean at least 90 degrees everyday and without air conditioning - or even fans for that matter - it can be somewhat unbearable). To remedy this problem, a group of us decided to head to the Clarion Hotel in Tegucigalpa for a day of swimming and relaxing by the pool. It was so refreshing and enjoyable! The hotel was beautiful and for a second, made us forget that we were in the city as we laid out under the palm trees and soaked up the sun.

(Below: The Clarion Hotel swimming pool)

(Below: A few friends and me hanging out by the pool)

(Below: My friends Nichole and Kaitlyn)

(Below: My friend Kaitlyn and I enjoying the hot weather......who knew I would find myself sunbathing in February!?)

(Below: These couches were fantastic! I thought this picture turned out kind of cool so I decided to share it. I love that we have palm trees everywhere around Tegus!)

Monday: We only had one more thing left on our list of things to do this weekend = visit the Basilica de Suyapa (a massive church located in Tegucigalpa that is very ornate and can be seen from very far away). We journeyed to the church and began to look around, taking in the amazing architecture, stained-glass windows, and atmosphere of the whole place. After checking out the main part of the building, we noticed that there was a balcony above the main level and began searching for a way to get up there. We found a set of stairs in what appeared to be an ordinary closet and decided to make our way up. What we didn't realize is that the stairs just kept going! We came to the door leading to the balcony, but found it was locked, so we decided the only thing left to do was continue our way up the stairs. After a while, we came across a hole in the wall that was about the size of a door (but slightly smaller). We did not see any signs or gates telling us not to go out the "door" so of course we did, finding ourselves many stories off of the ground on part of the roof of the Basilica. Curious, I wandered our a bit further and walked out on a ledge that wrapped around the building. The view was extraordinary!! {We later found out going out on the roof of the Basilica is frowned upon, but luckily the man who worked there kindly asked us to stay off the roof and let us go on our way up the rest of the winding stairs}. At the very top we found ourselves in the bell tower, with another breathtaking view of our {lovely} city. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend!!

(Below: My roommate and I in front of the Basilica de Suyapa)

(Below: Inside of the cathedral-like building. Pictures did not do it justice!)

(Below: One of the many stained-glass window scenes)

(Below: My roommate and I on this hot February day, enjoying the sun outside of the Basilica)

Science Fair

Today I was given the opportunity to judge the science fair.

This is one of those experiences that should be written down on every one's "list of things I need to do before I die." When I signed up to judge the science fair, I was mainly doing it to avoid being stuck on crowd control and being forced to supervise students running around school - little did I know how awesome it was going to be. Right before heading out to set up projects, my friend Ben Manting (who I also share my classroom with at school) just had to bring up Brian Regan "Stupid in School".......needless to say, the rest of the afternoon I spent laughing to myself as Brian's voice ran through my head saying, "The big yellow one's the SUN!" and "It's a cup of dirt. Just put an 'F' on it and let me go home!" (I'm not sure if anyone outside of my family will get this, but that's ok).

As part of being a science fair judge I was given the chance to see some pretty cool projects. Unfortunately, none will stand out as clearly in my mind as the ice cream project. The ice cream project rocked my world. I have to be honest, I don't even really remember what the whole point of the project was, all I can remember is 2 girls standing before my co-judge/friend Matt and I saying, "We are going to make ice cream out of liquid nitrogen and you are going to eat it." .........um, what did they just say?!


To get the gist of it, in a metal bowl the girls put milk, 2 eggs, whipped cream, sugar, chocolate syrup, and then mixed it all together. They then pulled out a thermos emitting white plumes of smoke, telling us they were about to add the liquid nitrogen. As they poured the nitrogen into the mixture, the clouds of fog grew larger and the concoction began to bubble and fizzle. Bits of nitrogen flew out of the bowl amidst the wisking and created a burning/freezing sensation on our feet. After it was all mixed together, the ice cream was frozen.

We were then handed cups of ice cream and told to try it. At first I couldn't get over the fact that it was FULL of this extremely intense liquid and I was about to put it in my stomach, but curiousity won the battle and between Matt and I, we just about finished the entire bowl of ice cream - it tasted so good!


Apparently in Honduras, anyone at any time can walk in and buy liquid nitrogen. Crazy! And yet, this is part of the reason I love Honduras so much! I'm pretty sure they had a very good reason for taking it off public shelves in the States, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it while I am here.......just didn't know enjoying it included eating it!

Something in the Air

Yesterday was crazy. It was the last day of school before Valentine's Day, so naturally all of the fun Valentine's action, by default, fell back onto Friday. This included noisy carnivals complete with Hannah Montana karaoke right outside my classroom, seniors coming into my room selling cotton candy, students walking into class to pass out roses purchased from the rose sale fundraiser, and shockingly, very little teaching/learning going on in such an environment. Being one step removed from the holiday celebration was interesting and made me realize that Valentine's Day in school is nothing more than a dignified popularity contest disguised in holiday form. Students carried around an armful of roses sent to them by friends, constantly comparing who had the most, showing off candy and gifts received, and constantly judging each other. Others hung their head when they realized no one thought to send them a single rose. Quite frankly, it was disgusting.


By the end of the day, I was extremely frustrated and a day behind on lessons.


Yet, I was so excited for the day to come, but for different reasons - it had been 2 weeks since seeing my street boys and I missed them SO much! I could not wait for the day to end so I could go play some soccer with them and get my weekly hugs. It was a relief when the school day ended and I packed up to head downtown....but then things got interesting. A couple of us decided to ride with our friend Kristi to the field, but after a miscommunication, we were left without car keys and got delayed quite a bit, meaning we were not able to follow our friend Eduardo to the field. Consequently, we had a little trouble finding the field through the confusing downtown, one-way streets. We missed our turn, which took us clear past Parque Central, through the busy streets and eventually found us in the middle of a fight breaking out in the street. Our car came to a stop in traffic and a man ran out in front of us wrapping his belt around his hand ready to fight while a mob of angry people on the other side of the car picked up rocks and bricks. Fortunately, the line of cars started moving again right as the first rocks were thrown and the police came sprinting down the street.


We gained our bearings and made our way to the field......only to be stopped again. This time, there was a large truck and tow truck blocking off the street right in front of the field. They told us they were destroying a car (not sure what that means) and we couldn't pass. It took some convincing to get through, but we made it.


We were relieved to be there by this point, but didn't realize the fun was just beginning. The field was engulfed in smoke coming off of piles of burning garbage right next to the field. Every one's lungs and eyes were burning as we played, constantly inhaling the putrid fumes. Two of the boys there had been in knife fights earlier this week and Jose Daniel (one of my favorite boys) had cuts on top of his head while the other guy got his hand sliced open. After we were done playing, fights began breaking out everywhere. One guy reached to shake Kristi's hand, accidentally bumped another guy, and a full out fight began with Kristi in the middle. They broke them up, but another fight broke out soon after. Next, Rosa, the only girl, started a fight and had to be held back by 2 men as she frantically groped for jagged pieces of brick to throw. She was not allowed to eat because of this and cried and cried - it was heartbreaking. As we were wrapping up the night, everyone began hurriedly running over to the wall surrounding the field and peering over. Curious, we ran over as well. We discovered people were watching the aftermath of a fender-bender as 2 men jumped out of their car, ready to fight the people who hit them.


Like I said, something was in the air last night -- and it definitely wasn't love!!

To make up for all of the chaos and frustration of the day, we headed over to The Micah House to see the boys and celebrated 3 birthdays with them. Nelson (11 years old) would not sit down for dinner because he didn't want to leave me, so he told me he would eat if I ate with him. We took turns taking bites off of his plate, laughing the whole time.

Next, after many goodbye hugs and fake tears from Moises, the girls who went to The Micah street project headed to Chili's for dinner. We then headed over to the Marriott Hotel (very fancy) where our friends Al and Edwin joined us to sing a little karaoke of our own (don't worry, Hannah Montana was not included in the play list!) and then afterwards to McDonald's for ice cream cones. We got home at 1:00 a.m. and happily ended this oddly eventful Friday evening.

Not a very traditional Valentine's weekend, but definitely not boring!



Happy Valentine's Day to all of my family and friends back home --- especially you, Mom and Dad!! Miss you and hope you have a great day!

Hot Weather

It is absolutely blowing my mind that it can possibly be this hot in February, finding us teaching in 88-90 degree weather each afternoon in classrooms without air conditioning. What's worse is that this isn't even considered "hot season" yet. Unfortunately, the wet season did not yield a lot of rain, leaving the country of Honduras lacking water - an already precious commodity in this part of the world. The city now supplies us with water twice a week, which is stored in water tanks attached to the houses, but once that small supply runs out, people are left without water (meaning stinky, sweaty, short-tempered teachers standing up in front of hot and grouchy students - not a good combination). I cannot even imagine what March will bring when the temperatures rise and the water is cut back to only being supplied once a week.

But then I stop and realize........

I am so blessed. As soon as it gets hot, I lose my patience and begin to grumble. Suddenly it becomes very easy to complain; yet, even though I may have to go 2 or 3 days without water at times, there are people who don't have running water ever. It is times like these that I find myself sounding a little bit too much like the Israelites who grumbled against God even though He was constantly looking out for them. Funny how it is so easy to read the Bible stories and judge them for their words and actions, writing them off as ungrateful people when I have no room to talk.

Now, I'll admit, life would be easier and more enjoyable with the comforts of air conditioning (or even fans in our house) and reliable running water, but I guess it's okay to be uncomfortable at times.

I ask that whenever you think of me, you could just pray for patience as I continue to deal with my 9th graders in the ever rising heat and for trust as I realize that God is providing and caring for us, even in the most uncomfortable of situations.

.........besides, I guess I could be in Indiana getting frostbite instead of in Honduras getting a very nice tan :)

Retreats and Superbowl Fun

The past few days have been great, but extremely busy. Friday we had a half day of school and left right away after school to go to our teachers retreat at Palabra de Vida Campamento up in the hills. It was so refreshing being out in fresh air and away from the city for a night and to fellowship with other teachers while we praised God and were of course our normal crazy selves. We slept in rooms that bunked 12 people and ate lots of plato tipico, had great sessions to think about and bon fires full of prayer for our school (and burning our skin off trying to roast marshmallows over the most gigantic fire I have ever sat around), and also enjoyed staying up playing cards until one in the morning and drinking lots of coffee the next day to make up for waking up for 7 a.m. devotions. The best part of the trip was probably the soccer game that was organized for the women because here women never get the opportunity to play, only the guys. We played North Americans vs. Hondurans and laughed as all of us North Americans walked out onto the field sporting our Honduran jerseys and a teacher from the Honduran team wore her Landon Donovan U.S. jersey :) It was great and afterwards all of the women were saying how we need to play more often!

Sunday was of course Superbowl Sunday! We all got together once again to watch the Superbowl and hang out (plus there was tons of good food to share!) It was strange being probably one of the only houses watching the Superbowl because I am so used to everyone throwing a party and getting together in the states......North American football just isn't something the Hondurans are into I guess.

Now today is Monday....usually the worst work day of the week because students hate coming back to school after the weekend. However, today was different because the 9th grade class had a spiritual retreat today up at the same camp we were at for our teacher's retreat. We spent all day up there hanging out and having fun instead of stuck in the classroom all day; it was so amazing to be able to sit down and talk with my students on a spiritual level that wasn't related to classwork, novels, or grades. Today made me realize how blessed I am to have such a phenomenal group of students because they are extremely well behaved and just all around fun to be with. We decided that since our students don't really ever get the "camp" experience, we were going to give it to them today - which included the messiest games we could come up with (hot potato using dead fish, melon pass using melons covered in grease, chocolaty-marshmallow on a line eating contest, and ice cream eating contest). The kids were a MESS when we were done, but had so much fun! The best part was watching our principal walk around with 2 dead fish in the back pockets of her jeans throughout the whole game time!

After cleaning up we headed to the session with the kids and at first I was sure they weren't getting anything out of the message because they all seemed checked out. However, at the end we broke up into small groups and I was amazed at how well my girls had comprehended the message. It was great to sit down with them and talk about how we can change our school to be walking more in the light and to encourage them to be the small change needed (whether through prayer or encouraging words). We finished out the day with free time, which of course found me out on the soccer field with my boys, while others were playing paintball, basketball, or riding go-karts.

I am now completely exhausted from the long series of events strung together these past few days, but wouldn't trade it for anything!

I love weekends!!

It's not that I don't like being with my students or going to work 5 days a week because most of the time I really do, but no matter how great the week is, I am always looking forward to the weekend. I love having the free time to be with people and build relationships.

This weekend has been exceptionally great and it is only half over at this point. Right after school on Friday, we went to play soccer with the street boys. After a great time of play, feeding the boys, and washing their feet, we packed up and headed to Agafam (the Honduran version of a county fair). It was great! We ate great food, played some carnival games, threw a frisbee around, and rode the farris wheel. It was fantastic!

We got back kind of late so I was excited to sleep in today.....I guess I should learn that sleeping in here is just not ever going to happen. I woke up to a super loud pounding sound coming from our kitchen. I eerily crept out of my bed and into the living room, then peeked around the corner into the kitchen to see a man's hand reaching up under our door into our house. Needless to say I panicked a little bit and ran back into my room. I had no idea who this was but assumed they must be trying to break into our house. I ran into the bathroom and looked out our tiny little window to see the man hired by our landlord to make repairs to our house, standing on the platform attached to the back of our house with a sledgehammer and chisel, breaking away the cement underneath our kitchen door leading into the ally. I still have no idea what exactly his purpose was for breaking our wall, but now we have a nice hole under the door and more cement chunks keep falling off, so hopefully they have a brilliant plan to fix this little problem or the bugs are soon going to become even worse.

However, I didn't have long to worry about this issue because today is birthday-day and full of lots of birthday fun! :) This morning we went to celebrate our friend Jenna Miller's birthday (she works with Micah Project). She loves baseball so we went to a baseball field and had a kickball tournament with about 60 people. She even made team shirts for everyone to wear (my team was the Dodgers). It was so much fun seeing all of the Honduran boys trying to figure out this "baseball" form of soccer and hardly ever did I see them throw the ball when out in the field, they just kicked it all the time. I guess I just never came to the realization that not everyone knows how to play by baseball rules because we in North America just grow up knowing the game so I found it kind of funny that they even had to explain to these teenage boys how to run bases. (Sorry Travis, I know you will be a little disappointed by this).

Now it is time to go to the next birthday party for our friends Julie, Merideth, and Kaytie. We are going to go bowling and I have never been bowling in Honduras so it should be fun! Tomorrow will include church, frisbee with other teachers and some Micah boys at IST, and hopefully even a little afternoon nap if I'm lucky.

.....and this is why I love weekends :)

New President!!

Today Honduras' new president (Pepe Lobo) was put into office. Not only was this history in the making as Honduras is taking back their country and trying to get back on their feet again, but it also meant no school for us because many streets were shut down for the inauguration. I want to thank all of you for your prayers these past few months for Honduras and the lack of peace we had been experiencing. Things have definitely calmed down and returned to normal......let's hope now that the new president is in place that things continue down this path.

With a full day off of school, us teachers were free to do what we wanted = which resulted in a picture scavenger hunt all over Loarque (our community). It was a lot of fun and good to be outside for a long period of time since that doesn't happen often. Lots of laughs were shared as we traipsed all over our neighborhoods while the Hondurans looked at us like we were crazy. We even ended up in the middle of a pick up soccer game with a bunch of Honduran guys who had no idea why a bunch of white girls were jumping in their game. I seriously am blessed to have such a great community of North Americans to hang out with because we find plenty of ways to entertain ourselves!

The rest of the day included lunch with friends, a little down time to myself, and now Bible study in a little bit. Not a bad way to spend a day off of school, that's for sure!

Fish heads and fun times

It seems that I have become very comfortable living within the little bubble we refer to as the North American community here in Honduras so it is nice when I am given the opportunity to branch out and see what Hondurans accept as "normal."

Today after church I was invited to go to lunch with the Honduran family that adopted me. They asked me if I like seafood and to be honest, I have never been a huge fan, but I haven't tried it in a very long time and I have been surprised at what foods I do like now that I am older so I told them seafood sounded great! I didn't know what the menu said because it was all in Spanish so I just ordered what everyone else was getting (which I was told was fish stuffed with shrimp - sounded pretty good).

When the waitress brought out our food, I was shocked! It was an actual fish stuffed with shrimp! It tasted amazing, but took a second to get over the fact that I was opening up this fish and eating out his innards while his head was flopping off the side of my plate and his tail and fins were scraping my arm. I was told real Hondurans eat the eyeballs as well - let's just say, in this case, I am happy to claim that I am not Honduran as I did not eat them.

I love fishing and even playing with dead fish (as my family can attest too); however, this was a whole new experience! After the meal, the waitress brought us a bowl of water with a lime slice in it, which we were told to wash our hands in because apparently lime is the only thing able to get rid of fish smell. It was a great afternoon, full of lots of laughing and new experiences and I am so blessed to have a family down here that is willing to take me in and spend time together.

But from now on, I think I will make sure to order food that doesn't have a head :)

Back and in the Swing of Things

I returned to Honduras a week ago after a refreshing trip back to the states to visit my family over Christmas break. It was fun to be home and great to see family and friends again. However, several people accused me of slacking on the blog writing, and all I have to say to that is, I am guilty as charged. When things get busy, the blog is the first thing to be ignored. So, I will attempt to get better at updating the blog and in the meantime update you on my first week back in Honduras.

School started soon after we returned and as much as I was dreading returning to the daily work schedule, it really hasn't been too bad. It took a few days to get my students settled down and focused back on school, but now I am surprised at how smoothly class is rolling. I don't know why, but my students are particularly excited about our class this Partial (Quarter). Maybe it is because we are currently studying William Shakespeare in preparation to read Romeo and Juliet and for the first time I actually know what the book is about and how it will end before I start teaching it and I'm sure some of that excitement is rubbing off on my students. Whatever the reason, it is nice hearing students say, "I'm so glad we have your class first today! It's a good way to start the morning!" {Which reminds me, one of my students in class the other day told me (after I told them writing 3 paragraphs should be easy for them by now), "Ms. Jones you play soccer like Ronaldinho, write like you are Dr. Seuss or something.....everything in life must seem easy to you!" - it made me laugh}

As far as soccer goes, we have 3 days left of regular season play. Yep, that's right, with only 4 girls soccer teams in the conference that means we only play 3 games. Our first one was on Saturday, we have one tomorrow, and one Thursday. Saturday's game did not go so well, so I am hoping things go better tomorrow, but after a miscommunication that left us with no soccer balls and no equipment at practice today, I'm getting a little nervous. As long as they give it their all, I couldn't be more proud of them.

Well, back to the school work now, but I will update again soon!.....hopefully :)