Honduran Bible Study

The owner of our apartment (nicknamed "Apartamento Del Sol") has a granddaughter who invited Leslie and me to their Bible study tonight, and it was fantastic. We sang "Desde Mi Interior" ("From the Inside Out") which is one of my FAVORITE worship songs, and then we discussed Philippians in both Spanish and English. Leslie doesn't speak any Spanish but very much wants to learn. She and I got to know Rene (the Bible study leader), Johanna (our landlord's granddaughter), and Alberto pretty well and it was just a great time all around. Rene's going to invite us to his barbecues and Leslie and I might have Christmas with Johanna. I also had lunch with Johanna's mom today, and she's going to teach us how to make baleadas and enchiladas.

I love it here.

Overwhelmed

OK, so I'll be honest: I'm getting nervous. As new teachers, we've been thoroughly inundated with information and it's intimidating. Everything I do, ever, has to be weighted and posted on BlackBoard. Lesson plans, assignments, grades, calendar events...all that good stuff, which is super helpful for students but confusing and painful for those us who've never been on this side of it before. We had a meeting today about how to use the new Promethean Boards (essentially Education-minded SmartBoards), and though it's an awesome and CRAZY interactive tool, it's totally foreign and all of our lessons have to be taught (and saved and posted on BlackBoard) on them. By the way, I teach 8 subjects, so that's about 5 lessons each day. We're talking intensely pre-planned weeks of lessons.

Plus, I've spent the last day cleaning out my room (ok yeah, I did get excited as I was rearranging the desks) and trying to get organized, though I'm still waiting for my classroom supplies to arrive. The first grade classes have Open House tomorrow, so they're rooms are clean and decorated and look AMAZING, and I'm not even close to being half-way done. Our Open House is this Saturday, and I've got a lot left to do before then. (Outside welcome bulletin board, inside interactive bulletin board, behavior modification chart cards, name tags, word wall, welcome letter to parents, fixing fallen posters and putting up new ones...) I know it will all get done, but right now I just want to fast forward through this first month to the day when I have some idea of what is going on.

La Llegada (The Arrival)

Hey so I made it!!! I slept the whole three hours to Houston and Michelle met me when I got there. We sat together on the flight to Tegus with a college-aged Honduran guy and talked the whole flight. It was good. We arrived on time, all our bags made it (except for my two boxes of classroom supplies I had to leave with my parents because of the embargo), and we met up with the IST leaders waiting for us on the other side of Ag inspection. I met my roomie, Leslie, and we were all dropped off at our new homes. Our home, Apartamento del Sol, is amazing. It's green on the outside and a pretty cheerful yellow on the inside, and HUGE!!! We each have our own room, our kitchen has pots and pans already, and we have a washing machine, too. We showered and changed and went to the school for a Honduran culture presentation and dinner with the administration, which turned out to be a lot like our fiesta at Mr. Bimrose's in Costa Rica. Best of all, now we have a lightning storm going on, and with our great view from our mini-balcony, we couldn't ask for anything more. 

Our vista
Family room
La cocina
My cheerful (and undecorated) room 

with free bed sheets

Last night at home

Sorry, guys, this one is going to be sans pictures.

It's 1:15 AM and my family and I are leaving for the airport in just over two hours. Yikes.

I really thought it wouldn't all start to hit me until I had to say goodbye to my parents at the airport, but nope, here it is. I'm leaving again, and this is the real deal. I'm MOVING this time. Let my two suitcases and two boxes stand as evidence. That really surprised me, by the way. I honestly thought I could fit all my own stuff into one suitcase (the boxes are for school supplies), but I totally forgot about my stuff in the bathroom and shoes. Shoes take up space, man. Half of one of my suitcases is full of sneakers and boots. In my defense, I did fit all the clothes I own (minus a few shoes, a couple jackets . . . and snow pants) into my two suitcases. That's kind of impressive, right?

I'm SO excited for tomorrow and what the Lord has planned for me this year, but I still really hate goodbyes. Asi es la vida, I guess.

El último día :o(

The last day of school has never been so sad in the history of education. 

Actually, most of the day was pretty great because I think I was in denial. The kids had a huge graduation party because they are moving on to the middle school, which means a new building, new shirts (switching from green collars for elementary school to blue collars for secondary school), and new teachers. You probably remember your transition from having one teacher all day to six or seven and leaving behind everything that's familiar to start something new and exciting. Best of times worst of times kinda thing. 













I ALMOST made it the whole day without crying. I was doing pretty well because some of the kids had been crying off and on all day, so I was becoming desensitized to it. But then, in the last couple of minutes as kids are starting to leave, my buddy Ignacio comes up to me without saying a word, wraps his arms around my waist, and buries his wet, teary face in my stomach. I lost it. So then Lulu and Montse come and cry with us and the four of us are this big sad crying hug mass and my heart just about broke into 22 pieces.

The Little Mermaid

The fifth grade puts on a musical every year, and this year we did "The Little Mermaid." The kids put a LOT of work into their songs, dances, and lines, the parents made the costumes and stage decorations, and Mitzi and I served as sort of "backstage directors," if you will.

I want to show you just how huge this thing was, and the best way is through PICTURES! (If any parents find this site, please don't be upset, I just want to brag about your children to my friends and family back home.)

Montezuma

We made it to Montezuma this time.

(Taxi, bus, BOAT, bus, bus.)(You have no idea how many crabs are on these rocks.)Everything on this sign is translated into English except for the part that says "Varias personas han muerto aqui. No escalar o saltar." ("Various people have died here. No climbing or jumping.") If you think they accidentally forgot to translate that, I have to disagree.
Cliff jumping. 

I'm jumping from the rock at Deb's shoulders. 

(If you click on the picture it'll get bigger.)