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)