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!
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