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!