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!