Back to warm weather, but missing the states.

I have been back in Honduras for almost a week now and still can't get over the fact that it is winter and yet so hot! Already in my first days back I was slathering on the sunscreen to try to save myself from getting a sunburn out on the soccer fields. It is fantastic!

It was hard getting back into the swing of things and the first day of school seemed to drag on forever, but I think I have finally adjusted my sleeping schedule so I will be ready to go this next week. I am kicking off Romeo and Juliet in my class this partial and have decided being a history teacher might have been a better profession for me because I absolutely love giving all of the background information on Shakespeare and the era in which he lived, even more so than actually teaching the material. I have a lot of great activities planned though and can't wait to have sword fights, a masquerade, and teach the kids Shakespearean insults (all in the name of good Shakespearean fun of course!).

On Wednesday I begin coaching a 5th-6th grade girls' soccer team (I have never done this before, but I am already looking forward to it) and will also continue working as assistant coach for the high school girls' soccer team.

Not much else new and exciting is going on, but I will post again with updates in the near future.

(P.S. I would like to say Happy Birthday to my mama, Becky Jones, and wish her a very happy day despite the fact that I can't be there to help celebrate. Love ya Mom!)

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!)