Thursday and Friday, December 17 & 18-Going Home

Thursday
Today was our travel day to SPS, which turned out to be not bad at all since we were able to catch a ride. We left Gracias around 9, stopped in Santa Rosa to get coffee (thanks Mrs. Espinal), and drove to SPS. We rested and played some games with the kids, got a little carsick so we had to make sure we sat forward, but otherwise the trip was great! They dropped us off at the hotel where we relaxed at the hotel by the pool. We met this guy who is a doctor for the US Army or something and it was interesting talking to him, hearing his perspective on Honduras, what he’s done, where he’s gone, etc. I just love meeting people, especially from America, randomly in Honduras because they always have interesting stories. We told him what we were doing and he thought it was just great haha. We were going to have sushi for dinner, but couldn’t find the place so we decided to go to good ol’ Applebees in the City Mall and have a little splurge before we came back to the States. We were all so excited about the options for dinner, bouncy seats, great ketchup on real big burgers…it was an experience. We wandered the mall a little bit then headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night and get ready to go home tomorrow!

Friday
I’m going home today!!! Laura Beth got up the earliest of us because she thought she had an earlier flight from SPS; it turned out after some freaking out and confusion, that she was on the same flight as us to Houston. We got ready and took the shuttle to the airport around 9 and began our checking in process. I totally forgot about the weight limit thing on my suitcase, so I had to give Jacki some of my weight, but then I was good to go. SPS is a small airport, so it made things relatively easy getting through security and such. We waited for a while, talking about how we’d be in America so soon, people watching, and then it came time to say bye to Kirsty because she was flying from Atlanta to Houston. The rest of us boarded our plane to Houston and off we went. The flight went great and we landed in Houston and started freaking out…we were back in America! We sped walked through the airport to get to customs and just marveled at how big the airport was, how clean, how sparkly. Customs and baggage recheck went fine, thank goodness and then we were in the Houston airport!

A few of our first reactions: 1) We could flush the toilet paper down the toilet. 2) We could drink water straight from tap or a drinking fountain. 3) There are so many different types of people in America! African American, Asian, Hispanic, white…it was a change to see such variety after seeing all short, tan and darker haired people for 4 months haha. We got lunch at (guess where) McDonald’s and then found out our flight to Chicago had been delayed 2 hours because of possible bad weather. I was a little upset and tried to see if there was some other way to get there sooner, but they were all too expensive. Now we would be getting into Chicago at like 10:30/11:30ET and then have to drive home to Michigan. Well eventually our plane came, we boarded and arrived in Chicago. Here was another surprise of seeing snow on the ground and the plane. Jacki and I were freaking out more; I think people thought we were crazy. We got off the plane and I met my parents by baggage claim; it was so good to see them! We completed our travel day by loading everyone in the Yukon with all of our stuff and driving another 2-3 hours home to Michigan, getting in at about 4 am. Wow…but I’m glad to be home.

Wednesday, December 16-Last Day before Vacation!

The administration had decided yesterday to only have a half day, so the kids would leave at 1pm. We had class half of the day with a spelling test, math and language and then the other half of the day we had a party. The kids brought food in, all junk like cake, ice cream, chips, popcorn and we sat around and ate for a bit. Then we played BINGO, but with SANTA instead and other kids played Monopoly or Uno. Then it was lunch, but not many kids wanted to eat because they were so full of candy. I had bought candy for them and put them in green cups as their present from me; what’s a little more sugar? When the bell finally rang, all the kids were like ‘Woohoo, vacation!’ I was feeling the exact same way. They were all really sweet though saying bye and Merry Christmas and they’ll miss me. I’ll miss them too, but it will be nice to take a break from teaching and classroom management for a few weeks! Now that today is finally here, I can’t believe I’ve been here for 4 months already…almost halfway which is crazy because I can remember so clearly the day I left in August for Honduras. I’ve accomplished so much already, seen some of the country, and learned how to be a teacher! Hopefully I can rejuvenate over vacation with family and friends and come back refreshed with new ideas, new motivation and determination to continue to do my best at my job. It’ll be very weird though to be without my fellow American teachers for 2 weeks! We’re each others co-workers, housemates and friends here, so to not be with them or do things with them for 2 weeks will be odd.

We had dinner at the comedor for our last evening and when we asked how much it was, Dona was like ‘Nada, para Navidad’ and we were so humbled! I mean again, these people have little and yet they are so generous with what they have. One of my kids parents called me as well and was such a huge blessing to us. They own a transporation business with passenger vans and had to go to San Pedro on Friday as well. So they offered us a ride, as long as we didn’t mind sitting on the floor! Until you ride the buses here you have no idea how great this was for us! Riding the buses was one of the last unpleasant things to deal with going home and now it’s taken care of as well! We only had to pay her gas money if we wanted, too! Needless to say we are even more stoked about going home now.

Tuesday, December 15

When my alarm went off this morning, it was extremely difficult to get out of bed. I knew that if I was tired, my kids would definitely be tired as well. When I arrived at school, I got confirmation of that haha. My kids kept saying, “Miss we can have an hour to sleep?” “Miss, I have sueno (tiredness, sleepiness).” Many of them didn’t feel well with headaches, stomachaches, sore throats, runny noses, etc. So I was like, “Kids I know we’re all tired, but let’s just try to make it through the day together as best as we can and tomorrow won’t be as bad. So overall the day went alright; Mr. Lara couldn’t teach his math class again because he had to have a meeting with Mrs. Lagos or Gonzalez, so I took it for him and had the kids do some review. I tried to do mostly review stuff with them or tie up loose ends in classes. I planned on having a penmanship test the last hour…didn’t happen; we planned our Christmas party for tomorrow instead. One good thing is the administration said we’re only having a half day tomorrow; we get to leave at 1pm. I think all of us are ready to take a break from the school, adminstration’s lack of communication, abnormal schedule, our kids and even each other a little bit! We didn’t have tutorias after school (what would be the point today?), but I stayed after a little bit to make my kids presents: cups full of candy! Mr. Bran, Laura Beth and I walked home together and stopped at the comedor for a bit to hang out with Paola, drink coffee and eat sweetbread. We decided it would be easier to eat at the comedor our last two nights to save us the time, energy, and dishes of making our own food, so we had baleadas at the comedor for dinner tonight. I don’t think I’ll ever really get sick of them! I finished my last episode of ALIAS Season 1, and then we all talked and freaked out that tomorrow was our last day of school and then we head home!

Monday, December 14- Christmas Program

Well today was a long day to say the least. We left the house in a mototaxi at 6:30ish and were one of the first ones to arrive at the church, ready to begin the day. The morning was basically a run-through of the entire program with the actors from Teguz and our kids and their dances. It was a lot more organized because the director was there from Teguz to tell us where to sit, when to come on, how much time we had, etc. It was fun to see my kids in their normal everyday clothes instead of their uniforms; they looked so cute! Overall the morning went pretty smoothly. We broke for lunch around noon; I went to Guancascos to check my flight info and get lunch and the other girls went to other places. We got back to the church around 1 pm and began decorating. This was the most frustrating part of the day if you can believe it. In America, there is usually one person in charge, tasks are delegated to each person to work on, and then everyone works together to get a project done. Here there was not really one person in charge, everyone was working on the same thing or too many people were working on the same thing, and people were giving contradictory instructions. If we tried to tell somebody to do a task this way because it would be better, they often didn’t listen and just kept doing it their way; this would lead to having to do it over, wasting time. This was how things went for about 4 hours. Not only am I American, I am also a task-oriented, time-efficient person, so it was frustrating for me. Sometimes I just shut up and followed what they told me to do even if I knew it may not be the best way to do it. I would also try to help out wherever I could, but sometimes we just stood around with nothing to do because tasks weren’t really delegated.

Finally at 5ish, we were able to leave and get dinner; some of us went to get cheap baleadas and then rushed back to the church to get ready. The kids were supposed to come at 6pm, but some of them came earlier and here we are still getting ready because we teachers had to look nice as well. I just hate being rushed, hot and sweaty. My kids started arriving; the girls all looked so pretty with their makeup on and hair done and the boys all had their hair done. The girls outfits were blocked black and white satin 50s style dresses, while the boys had white pants and either a bright blue, green, yellow, or orange shirt. They all looked great! Finally the program started a little after 7 and my girls were one of the first acts to go on. I was very proud of them as I watched them dance without my help; I almost felt like a parent like ‘Yay they did well and looked well; all of our hard practice paid off!’ We sat down after that and continued watching the program, including the 5th grade boys, who rocked it on the stage as well. All the groups did really well and the actors from Teguz performed well. The little kids were adorable and all the parents immediately stood up and were scrambling to take pictures. We ended around 8:30pm and began the clearing out process.

Everyone was supposed to stay and clean up, but Mr. Lara and Mr. Calderon decided to let us go home at about 9pm and finish clean up tomorrow, which was great. The only downside was that we had to have a full day of class tomorrow; only K4, K5, and 1st grade got the day off. We still got to bed a little late like 10:45pm, but overall I survived the day with all craziness and frustrations. Thank you to all who prayed for me; I could definitely sense God with me the whole day!

Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13

This was our last weekend here in Gracias before we leave for Christmas and we had all these plans to have a Christmas dinner/meal together, go caroling around to our neighbors, and other stuff. Well none of them actually happened; I think we lost track of time or didn’t want to put forth the effort and just rest up for our LONG day on Monday. So Saturday we were originally going to walk to town like normal, but the teachers from Teguz who are here for the program said the line was really long, so we called a mototaxi. The taxi took longer than we thought and we got to the bank about the same time as if we had walked; just need to remember to plan ahead a little bit and be patient and flexible! After the bank was Guancascos and then Julia, LB, Sarah and I went shopping for candy for our kids for their Christmas presents. I’m planning on having some sort of party for my kids this week on Wednesday because it will be hard to get much done the last day before break anyways. We also went to Lorendiana’s who sells great salsas, popsicles and other jarred items, where we bought some Christmas gifts for people. Julia, LB, and I headed up the mountain afterwards and it was a really chill night: watched movies, made a great pasta dish for dinner, made and ate chocolate cake. Sunday was very relaxing as well. We need the rest today to get us ready for Monday, our 15 hour day. I sat out in the sun for a bit, which felt great and got some color. I want to look like I’ve been in Honduras for the last few months! We really don’t get that much sun except on our arms and face because we’re inside our classrooms teaching all day and wear pants to work, so weekends are the only times we could ‘get tan.’ LB and I went to church at night and even though I don’t understand half of the service, I usually enjoy it because these are still my brothers and sister in Christ and I can tell the presence of God is there in their joy and passion and kindness. And tomorrow…should be interesting.

Friday, December 11

Another half day because of practice and an overall good day in class. I’m just starting to get tired and worn down and ready to go home so I feel like my fuse is shorter; I just need to watch that and be patient with my kids and not “take it out” on them. I try to be sympathetic to their complaints and what is bothering them. For example, one of my girls did not want to sit in her desk because a boy in our class who they say smells sat in her seat yesterday in tutorias. Again, I remember in this age having the ‘yucky’ kids and stuff, but I was like ‘You can’t stand up all day, so please sit in your seat. He didn’t do anything to your seat, it’s not a big deal.’ They make it a big deal and I just want to tell them ‘You need to start acting like a grown up and put that aside.’ So sometimes I have low tolerance for things like that. I don’t know if that’s wrong or not, but… We arrived at the church an hour later today, which helped things in keeping the kids a little more focused. The practice went really well, more organized this time where grades were sitting, how they came on and off the stage, and all the of the groups did better than Wednesday.

The thing about this program is they want it to look close to perfection. There are reasons, some legitimate and other not so much. Examples: ‘We want to practice to be perfect and excellent because then we honor God with our hard work, excellence and we are celebrating Jesus’ birth so we should be smiling and making it the best program we can’; another example (which I feel is the more underlying one)is ‘we want our image to the parents, any visitors and the people to Tegucigalpa to be one of perfection and that’s the reason we keep practicing for insane amounts of time so we can impress people.’ Image and reputation are important here and understandably so for Vida Abundante because it is a ministry. But sometimes the importance placed on image goes too far and then its just about pleasing people, making sure everything LOOKS good, but there still may be problems swept under the rug to make it SEEM good. It’s just frustrating for me. I don’t know if the image thing is a Latin American thing, a Christian thing, a Vida Abundante thing, or all three. My girls had to wait longer, too, because their dresses need to be altered as well as all the parents waiting to pick up their child’s costume and kids after practice….chaos!

We went to eat dinner at Bella Celaque again and then Guancascos. I headed up later with Julia and Ana and it was so busy by this church because there’s a carnival in town for a few weeks. When we passed they were having a Queen of the Fair crowning ceremony and it was packed! So I might check the carnival out tomorrow when I’m in town, see what kind of food and souvenirs they have; probably won’t ride any rides though. I don’t always trust the ones in the states, much less those in Honduras.

Thursday, December 10

Normal classes today with PE, but Mr. Lara wasn’t at school; therefore I had to take his math class. I’m thankful that he’s taken my math class and I’m willing to cover for him when his administrative duties call, but I had NO idea he was going to be gone today and found this out when math class came along. The lack of communication here once again frustrated me. My kids worked pretty well though on their work without him there, so I was free to go around and help those who needed it. Some of the kids who understood the concepts also helped their classmate who didn’t, which was great. I had practice with girls the last hour of school; I only had one hour with them today for it because on practice on Wednesday I felt they did a really good job and didn’t need to fix many things, just run through it to remind them. Well, that hour didn’t go well; they were very active and wanting to go see other kids dances. I reminded them we needed to practice only one hour because they were doing so well on Wednesday, but that today they weren’t showing me that. So I was frustrated at the end of the day. I also think there has been some drama among the girls in my class; that they’re becoming a little more cliquey. Some of them have been telling me so and so said this about me or one of my family members. I also caught them making something for what looks like a club of sorts, which I don’t know what that entails. I don’t exactly know how to approach that if I should just let it go and keep an eye on it and how they treat each other, or say something to them now. I remember in 5th grade there are still the ‘popular kids’ and the ‘not as popular,’ all that stuff. I remember and I understand; I just don’t want that to lead to division in my class and hurt feelings.

Anyway after school I had tutorials, which was slightly frustrating because the kids kept goofing off. The practicality and effectiveness of tutorias once again crossed my mind; if each teacher had another person to help in tutorias I feel like it would be more effective because there would be a smaller ratio. I headed home after that and we had tamales for dinner made by our neighbors for really cheap. We haven’t had any gas for our stove the last few days so it worked out great. We resumed Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais tonight and there was more dialogue this time instead of just hearing what she thought. Some of things she was sharing with us we didn’t agree with and I think that bothered her because she felt like our opinions weren’t based on the Word; she kept saying, “It’s just so clear here,” when it wasn’t clear to us. Therefore we asked questions as to why she interpreted the Scripture that way and gave our opinions; I think it flustered her a little bit and while she kept saying she understood, I think she is very set in what she believes, which is a good thing until one doesn’t want to even entertain the idea of asking questions or hearing others people’s questions or ideas. So….we’ll see if Bible study continues!

Wednesday, December 9

Today was one of the days this week we spent half of the day at Gracia Abundante to practice for our Christmas program. So we didn’t have chapel today as usual and had an early lunch so we could be to the church at 1pm and practice til 4:30 pm. After lunch everyone piled on buses, headed down the mountain and arrived at the church. The church auditorium/sanctuary is spacious, but there was NO air moving in there; it was dead, hot air. So you put a whole school worth of kids from K4-9th grade in that space for 3 ½ hours….you can do the math. After about 2 hours, everyone was hot, sweaty, tired, bored and ready to be done, including me and the other teachers. The kids are also expected to behave well in this situation, too, which can be done, but it’s difficult. There were rows of chairs to sit in and the kids had to stay seated when they weren’t practicing on stage. We ran through the whole show 3 times before the end of practice and then were allowed to leave. I couldn’t believe how tired and drained I was trying to keep my energy, patience, and sanity. I was ready to go to bed at 6pm, no joke. We were starving too because we had had an earlier lunch and been working all afternoon, dancing, up and down, etc. We all tromped out into Gracias to eat dinner at Bella Celaque, one of our fav restaurants with tipica food. We just all sat there, tired, and when our food came, ate in silence because we were so hungry. It felt so much later than 6 pm after dinner, but we stayed in town a little longer to get some groceries and internet. Finally we headed back up the mountain to collapse into bed and get ready for a full day of school tomorrow. I am not looking forward to Friday’s practice.

Monday and Tuesday, December 7 & 8

These last few days have been relatively easy in the fact that part of the days is taken up with dancing. I also feel prepared for everything I need this next week, and because of how my lessons are I haven’t had as much consistency with homework, test and quizzes so I’ve had more time at night at home. My girls have been practicing pretty well; it’s just 2 hours to practice is a long time. I give them breaks for water and to see some other dances, but after a while they lose focus and don’t try as hard. So it’s hard to find the balance between making sure we’re using our time for what we’re supposed to and being understanding of 5th grade girls. One of the Spanish teachers is teaching my boys their dance and it looks good; the dance really fits my class of boys and their energy! Class has been pretty well too; the kids seem to be paying attention better than they were last week. I’ve been trying to wrap things up in some classes with either a test or lots of review so we can end at a good spot before Christmas. Tutorias today was a little frustrating again; mainly for the reason that the kids who really need help in subjects need one on one attention, not even small group attention. So even in tutorias they may not get the help they need to better their grades. I just pray they remember something from what we talked about during those times and it will help them on the test. Since I’ve had more time after school, I’ve been indulging in my guilty pleasure of ALIAS; almost finished with Season 1! As time gets closer and closer to go home, I get more and more excited to be at home with my friends and family and eat and drink American (and holiday) food. I won’t lie, I’m not too excited about coming home to snow and cold, but for the 2 weeks I think I’ll be able to handle it, maybe even enjoy it. It’s hard for me here to really think it’s Christmas and sing carols with winter references when it’s sunny, blue skies and 70 degrees out. There are some good things about cold for a while, like cuddling under a blanket, not to mention hot drinks like coffee taste so much better. I also have to keep reminding myself that even though the time is getting closer and closer to come home, I need to enjoy the last week or so I have here: with my kids, with my job, with my housemates and my neighbors. I feel like if I look forward so much to coming home, I’ll miss things here and regret it later; gotta carpe diem!

Sunday, December 6

I love Sundays; they’re so relaxed. I had a craving for coffee when I woke up and we had this great chocolate flavored kind so I made some; Kirsty came a little while and had had the same thought and brought a whole thing of coffee haha. I had downloaded some sermons from RezLife online so I listened to Jesse Duplantis in the morning and then we all just talked for a while around the table. I went outside for a bit to read and get some sun.The cleaning lady, Mati, who couldn’t come yesterday, came today and did she CLEAN the house. She cleaned the bathroom, our bedrooms, and living area very well, did the dishes and some of our laundry and only asked for 150 Lempiras ($7 USD) and she was there for about 2 hours or so. We gave her more of course, but it’s crazy how much people can live off of here, how much they make for their jobs, etc. We decided to take a try at making pizza today so Jacki made the dough and sauce and Kirsty and I cut up the veggies. I also had some extra time today so I studied some Spanish, learned and wrote down some more verbs; hopefully they stay in my head! Sometimes Spanish just overwhelms me and I think ‘I’m never going to get this language.’ But I guess I just need to practice and mess up a lot AND study. It comes so easy for Jacki and for some people, it’s like that. For me I think it comes pretty well, but I also think I have to study and practice more than she did. We ran out of gas in our stove halfway through the first pizza baking, so we ran down to Kirsty’s to finish the pizzas. They were so good and we were so proud of ourselves; but we will perfect it so it’s even better! Yesterday there had been a guy hiking up into Celaque we had said hi to and he was coming down the mountain this evening. He was from France and had spend the night in Celaque, so we offered him some pizza and chatted with him. It’s so cool to hear of people who just travel for a long time and that’s all they do. I love hearing people’s stories, where they’re from, what they do, where they’re going, and why. It’s just cool to randomly meet people like that. LB and I went to church after dinner and saw a shooting star or something burn across the sky for seconds…it was amazing! I am constantly in awe of the beauty of the place where I live; on clear days like today you could see the whole valley and mountains and mostly sunny sky and at night the sky is clear with tons of twinkling beautiful stars. I’m reminded of how big, powerful, creative, beautiful and amazing God is when I see these things and I’m so in awe and thankful to be where I am right now.

Saturday, December 5

Kirsty and I walked down to town for our weekly exercise; it turned out to be a great day for it. We got to town in time to go to the post office and the bank and then headed to Guancascos for internet and lunch. The other girls came later because they thought one of the cleaning ladies from the school was going to clean our house today, but she called and couldn’t come. We remained at Guancascos til late afternoon; Jacki and Kirsty went to World Vision to help translate and do paperwork, Laura Beth and Mr. B. ran errands, Sarah went to hang out with Gustavo and Julia and I did a few things in town as well. My parents are coming February and wanted to make a reservation at a hotel in town, but hadn’t gotten a confirmation yet. So I had to go to the hotel and make sure the reservation was made, using Spanish, of course. I think it went pretty well and everything was understood, so (hopefully) everything is taken care of for my parents when they come to Gracias. We all headed up the mountain at different times, so I was up at the house by myself for a bit, which was nice for a few hours. We had an exciting night of conversation, popcorn with chocolate frosting, and watching movies.

Friday, December 4

Today we practiced our dance for 2 hours instead of our normal one because we needed to finish learning the dance. So after recess the girls and I practiced for over an hour and finally got through the whole song and all the moves! Now we just have to work on remembering them all and perfecting the dance. I was so proud! The boys had learned their whole dance by last week already so they were bragging about it, and kept asking, “Did the girls finish their dance yet?” Another funny thing: my girls were looking at the picture of my family during practice and I said, “Did I tell you my parents are coming…and my sister after Christmas?” And they were like , “No! When? When?” So I told them my parents were coming in February and Hilary was coming after Christmas. And they were like, “Don’t tell the boys, it can be a secret just for the girls!” So I agreed; it was so cute! Our schedule was kinda messed up with classes on Friday so during seatwork I had my kids make snowflakes, snowmen or Christmas trees for the classroom since they haven’t had art in a few weeks because of practice. Then the last hour of the day I let the kids use the back wall of the class to put up their artwork. I’m not trying to pawn decorating off onto my kids; I feel like it’s their classroom and I want them to have some ownership of it and look and see their work and be like ‘Yeah that’s mine.’ And they do a really great job with stuff like that and enjoy doing it. It was a pretty chill night at home; we made a great version of tipcio for dinner, hung out, watched ALIAS…2 weeks from today I’ll be home in the US!

Thursday, December 3

I had a lot of free time today because my kids had PE in addition to my other free hours, so I took advantage of the time and decorated my door for Christmas. I kept it simple and put up a Christmas tree with presents and stars and such and said ‘Merry Christmas!’ and ‘5th grade, Miss Sneden.’ Marquito wanted to help me put some of the things on the door so I let him help. He’s one of my boys who drives me crazy getting out of his seat a lot or not paying attention, but I love him. My kids are also doing book reports here in the next week as well. It’s great to see them reading their books when they have free time and asking if they can read at recess or when they’re done with a test. I’m glad they enjoy it. I had tutorias today after school and we practiced reading out loud together because I’m testing their oral reading skills next week. I had to correct them on a few words. Words that start with ‘s’ they often add an ‘e’ before so ‘strike’ would be ‘estrike.’ Overall the kids did well, but they get the giggles, especially the girls, which makes it harder to stay focused….oh fifth grade girls. J We had a meeting after tutorias about next week and the practices for the program. We are having half days on Wednesday and Friday next week to practice in town for the program, which is fine, but it would’ve been nice to know before we planned for next week already. So in reality we don’t have many full days of school left. The day of the Christmas program, the 14th, will be no normal school because we’ll need to practice and then get ready for the program. And then the 15th and 16th are supposed to be ‘normal’ days of class….we’ll see how that goes haha!

Wednesday, December 2

Today was my day to do chapel for the elementary. I chose to do Joseph since some of my kids have had problems lately of others saying mean things about them or doing mean things to them; I figured Joseph being sold as a slave and then later forgiving his brothers was a good choice. So I went through the story, used some colorful shoes as visuals instead of a coat and applied with saying we need to forgive others if they say or do something mean to us and if we did something mean, we should say we’re sorry. We practiced our dance some more today and the girls have learned almost all of it. They just have so much energy that every time we stop, it takes a few minutes to get back in our formation before we can start again. But they’ll look really cute! Overall the day went pretty well as far as teaching and stuff goes; a few frustrations here and there. We went to town after school for internet and food. We stocked up on food and we’re going to try to make most of that last until we go home, except for fresh stuff. We keep having these great ideas of foods to make, like we’re going to try to make pizza before we go home for Christmas and have a Christmas dinner with all of us girls as well. Should be fun!

Tuesday, December 1

Tough day at school…I think everyone was tired and not ready to come back to school, kids and teachers. It was one of those days I said, “I don’t really want to do this teacher job today.” I love my kids I really do, but there’s a difference between classroom management, teaching and learning and just hanging out with your kids and being able to build relationships with them. I had a crazy time trying to keep my kids attention between recess and lunch and it was extremely frustrating. What amazes me though about kids is that even if I’m frustrated with them, most of them are still like coming up to me and giving me hugs, talking to me, asking me questions; I really see God in that, in their childlikeness. After lunch was mostly planning periods and practicing for the Christmas program with 7th and 5th grade. On that subject they may change the day yet again to either the 11th or the 14th, instead of the 9th, which was the date it changed to from the 16th. So we’re all over the board now. We had tutorias after school for science which went pretty good I think. After that we came home, watched some of Ten Commandments (LB’s favorite movie!), made chili dogs and platanos for dinner and relaxed.

Sunday and Monday, November 29 and 30-Election Day in Honduras

Sunday
Today we got to sleep in and then Ana had invited us to have a barbecue at her house for the day. Today was also Election Day in Honduras, so everyone was going to vote so Vida Abundante didn’t really want us out and about on Election Day. We spent most of the day at Ana’s and had really good food, all normal barbecue stuff and dessert. They made so much food for us; it was so sweet and kind of them to open their house up for us. We relaxed, watched TV, watched some of the election, met some of her family and saw her house, played the couch game and got manicures and pedicures. It was a relaxing way to end the weekend. All of us girls reviewed our pictures before bed and had a fun time laughing at all the fun things we did.

Monday
Headed back to Gracias this morning early again on buses to La Esperanza and then to Gracias; Laura Beth and I said bye to Vicente and the girls and Jake before we left. It was a great time hanging out with them all weekend and getting to do all the fun things we did. I was so thankful nothing really happened after the elections as far as violence, which is what we had been concerned about. It turned out great though and was a great break to get me through until Christmas when I get to see my family and be home. LB and I were really excited to see girls and tell them about our weekend. When we got back to Gracias, we headed up with Mauricio in the mototaxi and met the girls walking down to town. We all gave and received huge hugs. Later that night we shared our stories about how Teguz was and how the weekend was in Gracias. The girls’ weekend was good, too. It was more relaxing/slower paced than ours, but they made lots of great food, spent time with the neighbors, went into Gracias and relaxed. I liked being in Teguz for the weekend, but it was nice to back in calm, quiet Gracias, too.

Saturday, November 28

Saturday
We were really tired again from our late night last night; it seems like this weekend hasn’t been very restful, which is fine because we’re doing tons of things, but sleep is good, too! Haha. Everyone went back to the mall to do some more shopping, mainly because Renske and Laura needed some more clothes, but I was just so pooped I decided to stay back and try to sleep. I was so frustrated because every time I tried to take a nap this weekend, my body wouldn’t let me sleep. It was one of those things that you’re trying so hard to not think about falling asleep so you’ll fall asleep, but it just didn’t come. Ugh. They returned and we left for lunch: pizza! It was so good and rich and huge pieces. Then we were trying to decide if we wanted to do a movie or paintball, but everyone was indifferent and tired so we decided to have nap/rest time at the hotel until later. For our evening activity we went bowling; we all gave each other new names; the boys were girls names and the girls were boys names….it was funny what we came up with. We also had this thing of nicknames for everyone over the weekend; mine was Ratch, haha, given to me by Laura. After bowling we headed to the mall for crepes for dinner, which again were delicious. We’ve been eating so well this weekend. We still had some time left in the evening so we went to play games at Vicente’s for a while before turning into bed.

Friday November 27

Friday
We woke up tired from the night before this morning, but we got ready, had a really good breakfast at the hotel and then we went to the see the clinic that Vida Abudante runs in Teguz. The clinic offers services in eye care, including new lenses and checkups all the way to surgery for cataracts. It also offers ears, nose and throat specialists as well. It’s a great facility, non-profit and they try not to turn away anyone if they can’t afford to pay for their services. They have them pay some so people don’t take advantage of it, but they really do all they can to serve the people of Teguz and Honduras. There are also traveling medical teams who go around Honduras to other cities to do eye checkups and other checkups, too and then refer them to Teguz if they need surgery for very low cost or free. After our visit to the clinic we went to the mall! It was kinda weird actually to be there with so many people and all these Christmas decorations up. It was fun to look around in the stores at the clothes and shoes, and I would have bought some, but realistically how much would I use most of those clothes and shoes in the next year in Gracias? I could buy it for later after I got home or for Christmas break, but most of those things I could find similar in the US. So I can only shop for so long, when I’m just looking and got bored pretty quickly. I just felt odd being at the mall, too, which isn’t abnormal for me in the States either, but even more so here because I haven’t been at one for an extended period of time like that. Vicente had planned for us to go to a town just outside Teguz called Ojojona after lunch. We bought subs and ate them on the way there and arrived in the cute little town of Ojojona. This town sells a lot of homemade pottery things, where you walk into the shops and they’re painting the pieces right in front of you. We wandered all over town, looking at all the little things, buying some of them and jewelry, too. LB even bought some slingshots for her brothers! There was a cute little center square by a church so we took some pics there and then headed back to Teguz and the hotel to chill before dinner. For dinner, we ate at this fun place that had a restaurant and karaoke and mini-golf. I had some good ol’ American chicken fingers for dinner; it was great. We played mini-golf and the course was really fun, but kinda hard so it took a while to finish. To end the night we all hung out together at Vicente’s and stayed up late again.

Wednesday and Thursday, November 25 and 26

Wednesday
Last day of this short week! Pretty normal day; I think everyone was ready for the long weekend to come. I stayed for a bit after school to help with dancing for 7th grade dance. And let me tell you, I got a workout with that dance for an hour and a half of dancing. After dancing I went to town for a bit, then headed back up to pack to get up early tomorrow morning. We were supposed to have a private van/bus originally the school had arranged, but it didn’t work because not everyone came so we had ot take public buses instead. The school still paid for it though, which was nice. We also had to figure out mototaxi rides for the morning because it was going to be really early and I chose to go with Juan Carlos at 4 am. Off to Teguz bright and early tomorrow morning!

Thursday
I got up at like 3 am to get ready to head down the mountain because our bus left at 5 from Gracias. Laura Beth, Mr. Bran, Ana and I all headed to Teguz together. We took a small sort of van/bus to La Esperanza at 5 and then took another nicer coach bus to Teguz from La Esperanza. It took a while to get to Teguz, overall like 6 hours, but we finally arrived, met Ana’s dad who picked us up and brought us to the mall to meet up with Vicente and the people from La Union. We met up at the mall and then the van we had bringing us around the whole weekend brought us to the hotel. We relaxed for a while, used the fast wireless internet, and got ready for the Thanksgiving dinner that evening. We drove a little outside Teguz to one of the administrators’ country houses, which was gorgeous! It was kinda in a woodsy area and we ate on the outdoor porch. The dinner was fancy, very nicely decorated and everyone was dressed nicely. It was all of the administrators from the Teguz school (principals, the Gonzalez’ and Lagos, etc) and Pastor Avelio was there, too. The American teachers, the European girls from La Union (Laura and Renske) and Vicente were the others who were there. It was a such a nice meal with appetizers and great Thanksgiving food! We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and green beans. It was comforting to be celebrating Thanksgiving in some way in Honduras since I didn’t get to celebrate it with my family. We had pumpkinish flan for dessert so I got my pumpkin pie! We chatted with the people at our table and really enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, Vicente invited us to come hang out with him and his friends and play Guitar Hero, so we had fun with that for a while, but we were so tired from getting up so early; so we headed bad to the hotel and to bed.

Tuesday, November 24

Frustrating afternoon again for me and my kids; I just feel like no matter how many times I ask for attention and respect, it seems to in one ear and out the other, for some kids more than others. Mr. Lara is teaching my math class now and I explained to them I should be given as much respect as he is given in math class. The afternoon wasn’t so bad because I helped with 7th grade dancing, then Bible, and then dancing with 5th grade for the last hour. Jacki had told me some more things during the day about being cautious about going to Teguc since this weekend is the elections and things have been going on there. So after school we had a meeting with Mr. Lara about whether or not we were still going to go to Teguc for the weekend. Our embassy advised us not to go and other people weren’t too sure because of other things they’ve heard, but we could each come to a personal decision whether we wanted to go or not. So we had a powwow about the pros and cons of going and not and in the end, LB and I are still going and the other girls (Kirsty, Jacki, Sarah and Julia) decided they felt better staying here.
I just didn’t want to because I had been planning on this weekend for so long, I didn’t want to change my mindset on it; I feel like it’s going to be the thing to carry me through til Christmas. I mean if it had been a group decision and we couldn’t go, I just wouldn’t go and deal with it, but I have a choice. I think the benefits for me outweigh the risks: free lodging and food, a nice thanksgiving dinner, hanging out with friends, being in the city, etc. I understand there are some risks and I will be more cautious about where I go and when I go and who I go with, but either I’m stubborn and I’ve made up my mind I’m going and don’t want to change that or I just trust that Vida Abundante is taking every precaution as they can and we can take every precaution we can and then we just have to trust in God’s protection…maybe that’s naïve or stupid, I don’t know. I wish everyone was going because even though it’s not true, it feels like there’s division in the house and group because the other girls are talking about things they’re going to do instead since they’re staying here. I wish we could all do it together: either all Teguc or all in Gracias, but it’s not working out like that. I hate missing out on stuff, so even though I’m really excited for Teguc and it’ll be great, I’m sad I can’t be here at the same time as well to hang out with the other girls and do what they’ll be doing, too.

Monday, November 23

Frustrating morning…it was just a Monday for me and my kids; the afternoon was better because I had some free time and we got to practice for our Christmas program, which went pretty well. The girls are catching on really quickly, so I think we’ll be able to learn it in time. They seem really excited and they’ll be so cute when it’s done! It’s been hard to help Ana with the 7th grade because their practice time isn’t the same as my time with the 5th grade, so I hope I can still help her a little bit somehow. One of my kids, Byron, came up to me today and was like, ‘’Miss you know what I like most about Christmas?’ I was like “What?” He answered, “The presents (and I was thinking, ‘Kid you better not say snow, because I know you were in the States for a few years, but you won’t get snow here’)…and the food!” And then he turned and walked back to his desk. Those comments like that just lighten my day a little bit and make me laugh because it’s so random, but he felt like it was important to tell me or just wanted to tell someone I guess. Another random thing from today, one of my girls, Nohemi, came up to me in class and just gave me a big hug. It was during a time in class where I was frustrated because I felt like no one was listening, and it just made my heart soften. That she either noticed I was frustrated and gave me a hug for that or just wanted to…either way it was really sweet.

Science was just crazy today; I had one page left of a lesson to get through and I didn’t finish it. Two reasons: the kids were asking questions (good because it means they’re curious) and making comments (sometimes good and related, other times not); and I had get their attention every time I turned back from writing something on the board or their classmate started with their question/comment. It was ridiculous how much time that took away from class. Then there’s the ‘pencil sharpening, can I go to the bathroom, playing with things they shouldn’t be playing with during class, getting out of their seat to say something to someone when they shouldn’t and borrowing pencils, erasers and markers’ normal stuff that happens during every class. I don’t know how to have the class run smoother or to keep their attention better…these are times I wonder if being an Ed. Major would have helped! It was Mr. Bran’s birthday today so all the staff had birthday cake afterwards and then we had a pretty normal evening at home afterwards.

Sunday, November 22

I slept in, cleaned the bathrooms, made pancakes with everyone, graded,and learned my 5th grade girls dance. Mrs. Laurelais brought some homemade mocha cake over and said she was going to make us dinner because she had promised to make Alex and Alyssa a Philippino dish and they leave tomorrow! So we don’t even have to make dinner! We enjoyed our lazy afternoon, watched a movie, and then Mrs. Laurelais brought over dinner just as our neighbor Paola came to tell us that church was at the moment. Well it was 5:30, not normal church time, so we weren’t ready to go and we had just gotten our dinner. So no church for us today I guess. After dinner we chatted, finished our movie, said to bye to Alyssa and Alex because they were leaving really early tomorrow morning and went to bed.

Saturday, November 21

Kirsty and I walked to town again today, but we left a little later than normal so we had to book it to town. On the way we had good conversation as usual and were talking about politics in the US, how its looking right now, how we think it will be in the coming years. We came up with a grand idea to solve all the problems of bipartisanship when it comes to choosing a president. Kirsty and I will be the President and VP on the first bipartisan all female ticket. That way we can cover all the bases: get the women, get the moderates, get the Democrats and Republicans except for the far left and right who don’t want to come more to the middle. And if we marry people of another race, that will just add to our appeal. She’s going to get a law degree, I can be a world traveler/missionary…what experience we’d have. And then our other great idea was she could be president for 2 years, then I’d be president for 2 years so we could share the spotlight and responsibilities. I don’t think this will really come true, but we had a great time coming up with all these ideas and dreaming that it might be possible for something like that in government someday. We got to the bank just in time and were sweating so much because we walked so fast. I love a good workout, but I hate being sweaty and then having to wait in line in public. We had to wait for 45 minutes, too. I swear I don’t know what takes the Hondurans so long at the tellers. I say I need this much money, they get it, I sign and I’m done.
Eventually we got done and headed to Guancascos for lunch and internet. We stayed there for quite a while, went to recharge our phones, and headed up the mountain just as it was becoming dark. We had planned a bonfire for tonight because we had all these cereal boxes and package boxes that we needed to get rid of, so why not try a fire? Well we weren’t very prepared because we didn’t have much wood, kindling or other. We went looking for some wood and Kirsty and Laura Beth come tromping back in the house with a tree branch and they were like ‘Our Christmas tree!’ So we all got excited and LB had lights and ornaments she had bought. So we decorated our ‘Christmas tree’ and propped it up against the wall. We all put on green and red clothes and mittens and scarves and took the picture in front of our tree. After that little sidetrack, we tried making the fire first with the cardboard and paper, but it didn’t work.
So we went searching for wood, but a lot of it was damp; I mean we live in a cloud forest. Mr. Bran found some good kindling wood so Alyssa and I remade the fire and we finally got it burning well after some time. We were prepared with the food for a bonfire though; we had bought marshmallows, chocolate and graham cracker-like crackers for s’mores! It was also one of Alex and Alyssa’s last nights in Honduras because they head back to the States on Monday so it was kinda like our little going away party. We got some good embers going, roasted tons of marshmallows, had some great s’mores, and stayed up really late. It was a great Saturday night in Villa Verde.

Friday, November 20

Today was a little bit different from my normal Friday. First, today was the first day Mr. Lara started teaching my math class so I had the first period off. So instead I helped Ana with the 7th grade Christmas dance, which is crazy long and hard. I’ll be helping them the whole time as well as teaching my 5th graders…should be fun! They’re doing a dance to the Pink song “I’m coming up, so you better get this party started”, but the lyrics have been changed to say “Time’s running out so we better get this season started.” The whole song is like that, changed so it talks about Christmas; kinda corny, but the whole program is like that haha. Then one of my classes was to teach my girls the dance or at least show them. I got through 2 moves with them. I have to look at the moves more closely this weekend. Then in the afternoon I took my kids outside for science for the first time to look at and learn about rocks. It was kinda hard to keep all their attention when I needed to explain something, but I think they had fun being outside and applying their learning to tangible things. Then the afternoon I had my 9th grade Bible class, and for my 7th grade Bible class, I helped the girls learn a few more moves of their song. My last hour is usually penmanship which we skipped in favor of a game to learn our reading vocab. So it was a great Friday actually. After school we just chilled at home and made a delicious dinner of chicken parmesan. We just keep spicing up our food more and more! We all watched Revolutionary Road (a movie we bought of the street haha), but it was good quality and I liked the movie. Afterwards we listened to some Dane Cook for some laughs and went to sleep.

Thursday, November 19

I had meeting with the administration today about how I’m doing in my classroom and how I was teaching. Good news! They said that I’m doing a good job, that I just needed to make sure to keep up the work in books for all the kids, to get to this lesson by end of parcial. Mr. Lara also told me he was going to take my math class to give me more time to correct things for 5th grade, which is great and surprising. I asked him why math and he was like ‘Miss I’m much better at math and than language or anything like that.’ I kinda laughed and was like ‘Well thanks.’ He and his wife are great and they just told us they’re staying til June instead of leaving in January. I’m so thankful for that because I would not have felt as comfortable at this school without them here. He’s the only bilingual administrator; Ana and Mrs. Lopez are the only other two Honduran teachers who are bilingual. I just think if you have a bilingual school and teachers from the states who may or may not speak Spanish, it just makes sense to have at least one bilingual administrator. I can understand Mr. Calderon usually, but to talk to him about some things, it’s just easier to do it in English. We had tutorias after school; I had my kids make flashcards with their reading vocabulary so they can learn it. I think they really liked that, so maybe I’ll try it more often. They seem to be learning better with them. We had Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais again tonight, which is always an experience. I do admire and enjoy her wisdom and her passion for God, like I said its just very intense that’s all. She talked about Jesus being our mediator and why he had to die and the tabernacle and all that stuff. It was kinda all over the place so to retell it to others would be impossible. It’s kinda hard to keep a straight face all the time because she does this thing with her eyebrows putting them up and down really quickly, so sometimes I have to stifle a laugh haha.

Wednesday, November 18

I had a rough day at school with kids; nothing new just frustrated because I had to stop constantly to ask for their attention. I guess some days are just better than others for some reason. Today we were also told by the administration more about our Christmas program we’re putting on in December. First, the date changed from the 16th to the 9th, which means we have less time to practice. Something about the people who need to come to help from Teguc, it works better for them to do it the 9th. We all watched the DVD they sent of the Christmas program and each of us has to teach our kids the dances. So I can not only add teacher to my resume, but also dance teacher/choreographer haha. My boys and girls have separate dances, but I think the Spanish teachers are taking my boys, so that’s good. The ‘funny’ thing was there was only one DVD, so we have to burn some more so we can have copies to practice with our kids. So we’ll see how it goes! We went to town today; got to sit with 2 of my boys on the bus and ask them what they want to add to our prize box that I can get in the States. Other than that, just a normal Wednesday evening in town.

Tuesday, November 17

My kids were a little more rambunctious today, so I had my patience tried a few times. Sometimes I don’t know whether yelling louder and louder to have my voice heard is better, or whether I speak normal and see who’s listening haha. My reward system of getting stars for good behavior bore fruit today, so my kids got choose their pencils or erasers for 10 stars or wait til 20 stars for a bigger prize. I had tutorias after school today for math and science. Tutorias is a great idea, but it would be a better idea if there were more people to help us out after school. I have about 5-10 kids every Tuesday and Thursday; so today it was hard for me to help the ones who need math and study with the ones who need help in science. Thankfully Laura Beth didn’t have kids so she helped me with the science kids. Also the kids who are in tutorias are the ones who are the ones who have a hard time paying attention in class so all of those kids together is almost as frustrating as my whole class! Hopefully I can figure out how to do it better as the year goes on because I really do want these kids to understand and have their grades be better as well. Normal night after tutorias of dinner, grading, relaxing…oh and I killed a scorpion.

Monday, November 16

Good day at school; I stayed a while afterwards because LB had a lot of grading to do and I wanted to get some grading done, too. I took care of some odds and ends of decorating in my classroom, putting up some of the kids’ art projects and stuff. We headed home about 5 and I finally talked with Amy on the phone, which was great because I haven’t talked to her in a few weeks. There’s just so much that happens in 2 weeks sometimes to try to remember it all and get it into a limited amount of time is frustrating. I don’t like how it’s hard for people in the states to call abroad without huge phonebills or international plans on their phones. I don’t mind being the one to call people because it really is cheaper for me, but it’s just hard when I don’t get a hold of people and don’t know their schedules. Darn international calling charges.

Jacki, Sarah and Jacki’s friend Alyssa were in town so it was me, LB, Kirsty and Jacki’s other friend Alex had just gotten back from traveling around Honduras for a week by himself. We asked him how it went and what he had been learning about God and stuff and it opened up a really good dinner religion conversation. We’re all at different points in our faith journey with different questions and doubts and it was enlightening to gain wisdom from what others have been learning as well as be challenged by their questions. We talked about why Jesus had to die, why God couldn’t just forgive our sins without having Jesus die; whether heaven and hell really exist and about eternity; what happens to people who aren’t sure about their faith, who are searching or even those who haven’t heard the Gospel what happens to them when they die. Big questions without easy or simple answers, but it was very satisfying for me to talk about that stuff. It felt like I was back at college, being academic, thinking, pondering, wrestling with ideas and questions and where to find the answers, if they exist. And after that Alex had told us how many times he had Dunkin Donuts in SPS and we were like ‘Let’s make donuts!’ So we did; we used pancake mix with egg, milk and sugar and then fried it in oil. It worked pretty good actually; I was kinda surprised. We put some sugar, honey or jam on them and if we had had frosting, we would have for sure put some on. It was amazing.

Sunday, November 15

Love Sundays…we had pancakes for breakfast, which were amazing as always. Sunday afternoon was lazy and then the Laurelais’ (our Philippino neighbors) had invited us over for a late lunch. We weren’t sure what we were going to have because we had heard fish and some of us weren’t excited about that. But when we got there Mr. Laurelais (who isn’t usually very friendly at school) had put the movie The Proposal in and was like ‘Do you like this movie?’ and we were like yeah! It was so nice to be in a home, not just a house. They had a living room with furniture, TV and lamps and a real kitchen with a countertop and kitchen sink. It was a really cute house and home; it made me excited to go back for Christmas to be around family and be in a home. I like our house, but it’s hard to make it homey when your living area is so open and you might only be staying for a year. Anyways, they made us homemade pizza, which seriously is the BEST pizza I’ve had in Honduras yet. I had like 6 pieces; I couldn’t help it. So we got to have dinner and a movie on a Sunday night. Afterwards we just chatted about school and our kids; the problems we’ve been having, the cultural differences in teaching here and lots of other good things. We have Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais again on Thursday so we’ll see how our second time goes! After dinner we came back home and Laura Beth and I had a really good talk about life and God and guys and relationships. Again it seems like God is just really calling us to have him be our source and everything and its being shown to us in different ways. It was good to share that with someone else and see what God is teaching them and just reflect together.

Saturday, November 14

Kirsty and I walked down the mountain today, which I haven’t done in a few weeks so it felt good to get that exercise and spend that time chatting with Kirsty as well. We arrived in town and desperately needed to go to the bank because we didn’t have money. We were close to the bank when Gustavo, a mototaxi driver we know, pulls up and asked where we were going and was like Vamos. So we got a free ride the rest of the way to the bank. Apparently everyone needed money or got paid on Friday because the bank was SO busy. We got to the bank at 11 and it closes at 11:30. We waited and waited and finally got out of the bank after 45 minutes. They only had two tellers instead of three, which didn’t help things. We kept seeing people we knew at the bank, too so every 10 minutes we’d turn around and there’d be our neighbor, or another teacher from school, or someone else we knew.
After the bank I headed to Guancascos and stayed there for quite a while for internet and lunch. Late in the afternoon, Kirsty and I went to get things for our kids for our prize boxes for good behavior. Some of my kids will be getting 10 stars soon so I needed to get some prizes for them. I bought things like pencils and erasers, stickers, markers, mainly school things; I also bought some things for when kids get twenty stars. It was also Doble Saldo for Digicel, which never happens. This means if you put 100 Lemps on your phone, you’ll get 200 Lemps. They match what you put on your phone, which is great; Tigo (another phone company)does this often, but I don’t think Digicel does often. So Kirsty and I put some money on our phones to take advantage of that deal. We went to get popsicles while we waited for our mototaxi ride back home. I was the only one home for a while, so I just did some things around the house, had dinner and then the rest of the girls came back from town. We had a great night just chatting and listening to comedy on our computers.

Friday November 13- PT Conferences and 9 week grades

Parent Teacher conferences today! I almost sent one kid to the office today. He was constantly getting up out of his seat, talking to other kids and playing his air guitar and riding his air motorcycle in class, so it was distracting to the other kids. The only difference with this kid is he has ADD, so it’s hard for him to stay focused, which I understand. I try to help him, reminding him to take things out for class, reminding him to focus, asking if he’s understanding. I don’t know what else to do for a kid with ADD in my class. How much of his ‘misbehavior’ can be attributed to his ADD and when does it cross the line into his responsibility? I constantly have to tell him to listen, stop talking, stay focused, sit down. When is he just not listening and obeying and when is it because of the ADD? I try to be patient, but doing that everyday along with telling other kids besides him wears me down sometimes. So any suggestions are welcome!
The kids got to go home early at noon so we would have time to prepare for parents to come and pick up grades and talk with us if they have problems. We had lunch, got ready (we had to look nice and wear our full uniform of pants and suit jacket with white button up shirt) and then the parents could come to pick up their grades between 2 and 6. It was a long day. It was weird to be on the other side of PT conferences, being the teacher and not the student. It made me appreciate my teachers more, as this whole year so far has been teaching me. I had an overall good experience with the parents; it just helps when they can speak English! I had a few parents who spoke English, some I did by myself in Spanish and got my point across, others Mr. Bran and Mr. Lara translated for me because the parents had more complex questions and issues and I wanted to make sure I was communicating what I wanted with them.

Most of the questions and problems I had with parents were over their grades in Language and Reading. Let me give some history as to why this may be difficult for many of my students. Last year, while the teachers were great, they didn’t follow the curriculum as closely as the administration wanted them to. So now I come in this year and the administration really wants us and expects us to follow the curriculum more closely, which I have been. Also, it’s a new grade so the curriculum is not only being followed more closely, but it will be harder; that’s the basic logic of education. My reading scores may be low because we have a reading quiz over vocab every week, which counts as a test grade. So if the kids don’t study or don’t do well on those, their grade will drop. Otherwise reading is participation in class and doing worksheets which test their comprehension and speed. Some of the kids have trouble with this (understandably so since it’s in their second language), but I try to give them extra time than the sheet states to give them a better chance. Language…English and English grammar is just hard. The verbs we use are just consistent in the way they change from present to past to future; the singular to plural nouns don’t always follow the same rules for all words. I feel for these kids and the difficulty with trying to understand it. Some things they just need to memorize, others they just need to practice. So in class they do well, but they all seem to have trouble on the tests. So I have kids who are failing or having trouble with subjects stay for tutorias on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
It’s interesting to me as well that the students who have very good grades, but have a 90 instead of a 95 in one class are concerned about that one class and why the grade is low. Its like, just be satisfied in your children’s performance this time, encourage them to keep at it and try a little harder if you want their grade to be higher, but have a little grace they’re in 5th grade. Another parent was very concerned that her student’s grade in 2 subjects were below 80, which is also understandable. It’s just the way she expressed her concern almost made me feel like she thought it was partly my fault her daughter had low grades. She said her daughter had never had this low of grades before, why they were that low and what she could do to help her at home. I gave her suggestions to help her student and told her to try that and then be patient and see how things go this 9 weeks.
At the end of the night I was so tired from the long day (like 10-11 hours), talking to parents, explaining the same thing more than once and trying to concentrate in listening and speaking Spanish. We walked home in the dark (I had a flashlight this time!) and had easy leftovers for dinner. I relaxed by watching a movie and fell asleep.

Thursday November 12

I finished the rest of my planning today; this is why I really like Thursdays. One of my students has been absent for over a week now and she’s not sick, so the administration was trying to figure out why she didn’t want to come. Mr. Calderon said she doesn’t want to come to school, so we should make her cards saying we miss her and want her to come back. In my mind, if a kid doesn’t want to come to school because something’s happened I understand, but I don’t think that’s the case here; it’s the parent’s job to be like too bad you’re going to school. She’s so far behind on everything already missing tests and such…its frustrating because I don’t even know where to start to get her back on track. It continued to get colder and rainier as the day went on and I only had on a long sleeve and cardigan, I was so cold. Compared to at home right now it probably wasn’t that different, but remember…I haven’t had very cold weather here, everything is open and breezy and there’s no indoor heating; my living area is essentially a big walled in porch!
Dennis and Vicente came today because the scholarship kids at all the kids get doctor checkups. Dennis came a few weeks ago for fiesta tipicia, but we haven’t seen Vicente in a month so it was nice to see both of them for a little bit. I had tutorias after school and they went pretty well for Language and reading. The mix of kids in tutorias is difficult sometimes because they are usually the ones who pay the least attention in class so even in smaller groups they are still kinda distracted or not listening as well. I’ve been trying to be more patient and understanding with my kids making sure I don’t sound too angry or mad when I’m frustrated while still being firm and being able to take or make a joke. It seems like when I have days like that, they go better so maybe I’m kinda getting the hang of how Rachel Sneden can be a teacher haha.

I went home after tutorias, had dinner, and we had decided to start a Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais, our Filipino neighbor. I think it will be a good thing to do as a way to grow spiritually besides attending church in Spanish. Laura Beth, Kirsty and I were there and we got to share our faith stories with each other, so that was nice. She’s very nice and so petite and cute and really on fire for God; almost to the point where it’s intimidating! She’s just very passionate about letting God be our EVERYTHING and only walking with him and following him, which I totally agree with. It’s just when she’s sitting across the table sharing these things with you so passionately and then just staring at you to see how you react to it, I didn’t know what to do except nod my head in agreement. I guess I just haven’t been around someone that passionate in a while and I was taken aback. I want to love God with that same passion and be in love with him, but I think the way I’ll express that with others isn’t going to be the same way she does. I am looking forward to what we’ll learn from her and from each other though.

Wednesday, Nov 11

Wednesdays my kids have art. Miss Holly, one of the teachers from Britain, is the art teacher and she had my kids make saltdough creatures. I really enjoyed watching them use their creativity in making animals; they got so into it. They tried the dough even though we told them not too and were like ew this is gross! And we said we told you! We also had a meeting after school which consisted of instructions for parent/teacher conferences and giving grades on Friday. They also reminded us to keep locking our doors, which is even more important because money has gotten stolen recently from our rooms. These meetings always seem to take longer because they need to be interpreted and everyone wants to give their two cents about everything; I usually plan on at least an hour. We went to town afterwards, got internet and then dinner; Kirsty, Sarah and I were starving and ate our tipico food so fast. The only unfortunate things is that because of meeting , we weren’t able to go to the bank so I have less than 100 L ($5) until Saturday…not fun. Kirsty and I rode up with Juan Carlos, whose son Candido is in Jackie’s K4 class; he’s so cute joking around with him. He asked if I wanted to come see a movie in his house, but I was like you need to sleep… J so cute.

Tuesday, Nov 10

My day today went well overall until my last hour. We had penmanship and towards the end of the hour it just got crazy. My kids were all finishing, and they were asking to put their stars on their card for good behavior and asking if there was tutorias all within the same 10 minutes. I hadn’t given any names for tutorias so I didn’t know if kids should stay or go, so I didn’t know what to tell them. Meanwhile the bell is ringing, buses are leaving and I was getting stressed out. I didn’t want kids to miss their bus or their parents to be confused whether they were supposed to be here or at home…ugh. So once they all left I just sat down on the floor of my classroom and had to breathe deeply for a little bit and compose myself. I had one kid who missed his bus because of the confusion so I worked with him on math, then packed up and headed home. We got our laundry, hung it up to dry some more (it’s been so damp here it takes forever to dry outside), then I did dishes. Then dinner, more dishes, grading, planning and finally a little relaxing at the end of the night.

Monday, November 9

God really blessed this Monday it seemed like. Most of the time by the end of the day, I’m kinda tired and a little frustrated, but today everything went smoothly. It felt really good to end a day and still have energy. . I had to stay after school for 2 of my students to finish their last recup tests and then I could finally turn in my 9 week grades. t’s been kinda cooler and rainy so far this week so we’ll see if that continues this week. I may not have fall weather like at home, but this is a small taste of it with the cool and rain. I got to talk to one of my best friends from home and my fam today. I’m not homesick or anxious to get home for Christmas, but I’m definitely looking forward to it and it’ll be refreshing to be home for a few weeks. My parents told me this past weekend that they booked their tickets to come see me here in Honduras in February! I’m really excited for them to come see what my life is like here. So everyone but Mae is going to be coming to Honduras; she gets to go to France and Spain this summer though. Life here settles into a routine for normal 5 day weeks; Mondays and Fridays I walk home right after school, Tuesdays and Thursdays are tutorias, Wednesdays are nights in town, and at home I grade, relax, make dinner, clean, and head to bed. Such is my life in Honduras.

Saturday and Sunday, November 7 & 8

Saturday
Sarah and I went to town in the morning, went to Guancascos, did some shopping, and then went for lunch at a tipico restaurant where we got bolibaleadas (tortillas with bean, cheese, mantequilla and eggs). They were so filling and so not good for you, but taste amazing! Haha. Afterwards, she went to hang out with Gustavo so I met up with the girls again. I got to talk to some friends back home who I haven’t spoken to in a while, so that was great to be able to catch up with them. We headed back up soon after that and had a relaxing evening.

Sunday
I love the weekends for the fact you can sleep until you don’t want to anymore and it doesn’t matter what time you get up. I spent some good time with God, taking a verse and kinda making my own Amplified version of it since I don’t have any other resources for Bible study. It was sufficient and good for my soul. Soon after our neighbor, Mrs.Laurelais came over to help us make a Filipino meal. It was a little early (we had just finished a late breakfast), but the prep time took a while so by the time it was ready, we were ready to eat it. The dish was very similar to Chop Suey and had lots of veggies along with noodles, shrimp and chicken. We spent Sunday afternoon relaxing then most of us decided to go to the hot springs. It seems like a prerequisite for it to be raining when we go to the hot springs, because it definitely didn’t stop raining the whole time. We arrived and enjoyed the hottest pool, which is like a nice hot tub. It’s still kinda weird going there because people still stare and especially guys try to hit on us and stuff; it gets really annoying, like haven’t you seen a gringa before? But we still had a good time; we ate some grilled corn with lime and salt (yum) for a snack there and then began the process of heading home. We got home too late to go to church, but we all had things we had to do to get ready for Monday, too.

Friday, Nov 6

Yeah for Fridays! Today went pretty fast. I gave my science recup test, which was a little crazy because the kids who had to take it stayed in my class with the kids who didn’t; it was challenge to keep things quiet. Hopefully that went well for my students; we’ll see once I grade them! I have a few more tests to give to kids who were absent or need more time to study on Monday and then I’m done and grades for the 9 weeks are done. My kids worked really well the last hour of class (penmanship) so I gave them 10 minutes of free time to play games or whatever, which they really enjoyed; I mean come on it’s Friday. J I stayed after school to grade some things, headed home, and relaxed for bit. We had stir fry for dinner and cut up so many veggies, which was great to have the variety. After our great dinner, we seriously had food comas because Kirsty, Sarah and I all went to lay down and fell asleep! I woke up later and watched some ALIAS with Laura Beth and hit the hay.

Thursday, Nov 5

Thursdays aren’t too bad usually because I have more prep hours, but I had to finish making my recup test for Friday during that time, which took a while. The math one was hard to make with all the diagrams and symbols. I had to give a reading recup test at the end of the day during my seatwork hour which was hectic. Half of the class needed to take this test and other half didn’t. So I sent half of my class to be with Jacki since she usually does my seatwork, and the other half who had to take it were with me. We also had less time than usual because our bell for our classes is rung by hand, not electronically. So if they guy (Don Humberto) doesn’t keep track of time, the bell is late. This happened for this hour so my kids had 10 less minutes to work on their test. Some of them didn’t study much plus not having enough time…it was frustrating to me and to them. Then I had some of the students who needed to take the language recup test stay after school to take it during tutorias. They were most of the same kids. Many of them (whether from not understanding the written English or just not really thinking it through) didn’t understand that directions. So I to constantly explain the same directions over and over. I wondered if they had even read the directions at all. After they had finished and left I was spent from the frustration of how recup tests were done, hoping my kids would do well, but knowing for some of them it wouldn’t matter. To be honest, today was a day that I said, “I don’t want to be here. I didn’t go to school for this; I don’t know if I’m doing it right or making sense to these kids…” I’m really not trying to be a downer, but it was an end of my rope moment and I just wanted to be home, even for a few minutes. The rest of the night I just thought a lot and relaxed and got ready for tomorrow.

Wednesday, Nov 4

We had chapel today and Mr. Laurelais taught about Samson. The kids really liked it actually and were pretty attentive. I decided to sit with my kids instead of stand. I think I’m going to do it more often. I sat by some of my favorite kids (I know we aren’t supposed to have favorites, but come on, it’s going to happen) and they were just so cute sitting closer to me. One of my girls was playing with my hair, which felt great and one of my boys was asking me all these great questions. I wish that being a teacher required more of the relational part and not as much of the disciplinarian part. I enjoy being with my kids so much more when I don’t have to tell them to sit down, please be quiet, I need your attention. It’s refreshing to be able to hang out with them. I think that may be something I may be realizing is different with this job than the other experiences I’ve had with kids. With Young Life for example, my “job” was to form relationships/friendships with kids; I was more of a mentor/adult friend/leader and less of a disciplinarian. I feel the scales have tipped more the other way for teaching. It’s not bad, just something to get used to and figure out how I can best do my job being me and having the experiences I’ve had.
Today was kinda crazy too because I had to scramble to finish my recuperation tests for the kids who had failed reading and language so they could be copied before tomorrow. One thing that has been frustrating with these recup tests is that the kids are told they are taking these tests the day before. The tests are made by their teachers, but it covers all the material from the 9 weeks. Then the administration was like ‘There’s not enough room on the sheet we give their parents to tell them they are taking a test to put all the themes they need to study for the test.’ So we just had to give our kids the page numbers of what they should study. That’s hard even for a high schooler or someone in college. If they had planned ahead, these kids could know specifically what to study and have a better chance of doing well on this test. But now these kids don’t really have much of chance; I don’t know how many of my kids will really do better on this test than the other tests during the 9 weeks. Then it’s almost a waste of their time and our time. Other than that, today was a normal Wednesday of going to town after school for internet and groceries. We stayed pretty late and had some trouble getting mototaxis back up, but it ended up working out alright.

Tuesday, Nov 3

Today started out well, but I had a new seating chart. Some of my kids need to stay near front because they either get easily distracted, can’t see well, or they need to be up front so I can keep an eye on them. I think I have realized that some kids will keep talking and doing what they do no matter where you put them! I also started a new reward system, where they get to earn stars for how well they behave through the day. We’ll see how it works! Later in the day, I got fed up with the kids trying to talk over them when I was teaching so they wrote lines. I explained to them why I need them to listen: respect for me and respect for their classmates when they speak, trying to help them learn so they can do well, learning patience and self control. I explain it’s because I care and I’m not trying to take away their fun. I had tutorias after school today for reading so we played some games to study for their vocab quiz tomorrow. Afterwards I walked home, but realized I had forgotten things at school to help me make my recuperation tests so I had to walk back. Recuperation tests are allowed (might be required) by the Education Department of Honduras. If a child fails their subject for the parcial (9 weeks) they can take a recuperation test and that will be substituted in their test grade for the 9 weeks. I spent the evening making my recup tests and relaxing.

Deep thoughts: We ultimately are alone on this faith walk; it’s just me and God ultimately, no person, not even your spouse will ever fill you like God does, lead you the way God does, will be your source like God is. Just a hard realization I guess sometimes to be reminded of that. God provides us with so many friends and family to walk with us through life and help us on our faith journey and he loves community and relationship and created us for that. But truly, ultimately when it really comes down to it, its you and God, he should be (and IS) enough to fill us.

Sunday and Monday, November 1 and 2

Sunday
Wow, November already! Today was a typical, but needed Sunday. It was really relaxing, no schedule kind of day. I started figuring out my 9 week grades, which took longer than I anticipated. I had some good convos over coffee time, had some great fresh fruit salad, and went to church later in the evening.

Monday
Another week! Some administrators were still here from Tegucigalpa and earlier in the day our principals were coming around to take some of our kids’ books to show them they were working in them. It was frustrating though because they would take some of my kids’ math books during math and language during language. Therefore some of my kids couldn’t do the lesson or work because they didn’t have their books for that hours. I also finishing final grades for the 9 week, which is a lotta work, but needs to get done. Done with my first nine weeks…crazy!

Random Thoughts

I was looking through my pictures tonight and I have realized I have been blessed to have met so many truly amazing people in the last 4 years and even the last year of my life. I know its all cliché and I’m not trying to sound mushy, but really God has been so faithful in allowing me to meet such quality people. I wish with all my heart I could keep in constant meaningful contact with all of you. I hate that living out of the country makes that even harder than it already is to keep in touch. I hate that even if I tried my hardest and I was in the United States, life happens and I will lose contact with friends who are amazing people. So to all of you who have been a part of my life in the last 4 years and this past year, THANK YOU for the blessing you have been to me: in who you are, in the memories we have shared together, and for bringing joy and wisdom to my life.

Saturday Oct 31- Fiesta Tipica

Today was Fiesta Tipica; no Halloween for me! After all of the practicing and craziness, it was here! I donned my tipical dress (borrowed from Teguc) and all my natural looking jewelry. The day didn’t start out the best though because we had miscommunication about mototaxis in the morning. One of our neighbors said he’d take us all down, but he told us on separate occasions. So we were trying to figure out another taxi and not be late to the fiesta. When finally arrived, I was already slightly frustrated from the mototaxi confusion and then we had to start selling right away. My champa was called La Fritanga, which included all things fried: tacos, enchiladas, tajaditas, pastelitos. Apparently it’s everyone’s favorite food, too because we were ridiculously busy! I felt like I was back in the strawberry fields at the stand except now everyone was yelling at me in Spanish what they wanted and I was trying to make change, give them their ticket and remember what they had so I could tell the other teachers in my booth (Sarah and one of the Spanish teachers) what they had ordered. Meanwhile the program was starting, but we had no chance to leave our champa at all until the program was done. Sarah and I were disappointed that we didn’t get to see our kids do their dances because we were so busy in our champa. We were stressed out and done by the end of the selling time. I finally got to get out of the champa and tried some of the other food. I had some tipico food like beans, tortillas and salsa as well as this sweet stuff that tasted like sweet bread pudding.
The fiesta was starting to wind down, so we helped clean up, changed out of our dresses, and went to Guancascos. Then Jacki and I went shopping for food and at the market and returned to Guancascos. The other girls headed up, but me and Sarah stayed longer, waiting for Gustavo, our mototaxi ride up the mountain. My stomach had been hurting all day and I didn’t know what other medicine to get, so I got some anti parasite medicine just in case and it seemed to do the trick. Well something was wrong with Gustavo’s taxi so we waited forever for him and finally decided to call Samuel to take us up. I just chilled the rest of the night to make my stomach feel better.

Friday, Oct 30

Another crazy day; I didn’t teach anything! The day was mostly taken up with practicing for Fiesta Tipica: the dances and songs and flow of the program. My kids decorated things for our champas for most of the morning, using paper, beans, rice and corn. They also made this diorama of Lake Yajoa, the lake in Honduras. They were so proud of it and it was really good! They watched the dances and went to recess, then decorated more and began to play the games I had: Uno and cards. They LOVED Uno and were occupied with that for awhile. Then it was lunch with extra long recess and they couldn’t wait to get back to play Uno haha. I also borrowed some other games from Sarah so note to self: I need more games for my kids to play for times like these. I told them some things toward the end of the day of what to expect on next week’s science quiz, handed back their reading quiz, and then they left early to help set up and practice in the park. The day actually seemed longer though because there was no set schedule. We helped to set up some more of the park, had dinner in town, then headed home. Kirsty, LB and I watched some ALIAS and I had gotten a package from my friends back home and a card from my grandma to open, too. Thanks for sending things!

Thoughts from Copan Weekend

On the Bus: I saw this old lady and thought what does her life mean? Does she have fullness of life, feel satisfied, found her purpose? Is her purpose just to be content in the life she has of living, cooking, cleaning, traveling to nearby villages and may be never leaving far outside her area? Is finding your purpose or higher calling only for the privileged, wealthy, those who don’t have to worry about taking up so much time of their day just to live and exist? How does God improve the life of this woman in her simplicity of life? What is God’s purpose for her? Does every purpose have to be “great?” Does she even think about that kind of stuff? And who am I, what have I done that I was born in the US and as I am?

At Copan Ruins: How did the Mayans think sacrifice would appease the gods? Will God judge them based on that, on never hearing the Gospel before the conquistadors came with their Catholicism? Is it based on their hearts and motives? What if they didn’t know about God because of pure ignorance?

What to Do for Next Year
1. Stay here and teach again: depends how many others stay
2. Go home and find another job: how while I’m down here would I do that? Go home first and then find one?
3. Go and teach somewhere else in the world: Another Latin American country? Asia: South Korea, China, Japan?
4. World Race, International Teams, something else in another part of the world
5. Masters: not next year because of GRE, but possibility soon?

If you want to offer any comments, answers, prayers to the above questions, I welcome them. Thanks for pondering with me.

Thursday, Oct 29

Crazy day today! We’re preparing for our Fiesta Tipica this week and people from Teguc have come to teach the students the dances and songs they need to practice. If I haven’t mentioned what Fiesta Tipica is, it’s a tipical festival our school puts on with the kids dressing in tipcial dress, doing dances and songs. We also sell tipica food like baleadas from these tipica huts called champas. It’s open to the public so anyone can come to see and the money raised from selling the food helps to support our school. Anyways, kids were being pulled out of class all day from all the classes so I basically taught math and reading today and that was about it. Its hard to teach a lesson when so many of your kids are going in and out. So the other hours they went early to recess, we went and played soccer in the cancha (field), and played games. We did do Mad Libs, part educational, part fun for language class! The day seemed kinda long because of the abnormal schedule. The communication on the part of the administration could be better though as far as what we are allowed to do with the kids, who has class and who doesn’t. I’m not very good at coming up with games on the fly or remembering ones that I know; I need resources! Haha. But I tried my best and let the kids give me suggestions as well. The day turned out pretty well and I think the kids enjoyed having more time to play and not have to take tests and be in the classroom all day.

Wednesday, Oct 28

I was very frustrated today for numerous reasons. I think with the long weekend, being sick and missing a day, and lack of communication from the administration are the culprits. My kids go to the first recess with the little kids on Wednesdays because of chapel, so I let them out as normal for that recess. Well right after, I was informed we didn’t have chapel today because we were starting to practice things for Fiesta Tipica. So my kids had 4 classes between lunch and recess instead of the normal 3 classes. I think with it being warm that day and being out of the normal schedule contributed to us both being kinda crabby once lunch hour came around. I was also informed today that I had to suspend my tests and quizzes until next week because of Fiesta Tipica practices. It will be for the better instead of trying to keep track of the kids who have done them and the kids who haven’t. But it would have been nice to have more notice then 2 days. Plus next week is the week for recuperation tests and final grades for the nine weeks.

I often wonder if I just don’t have enough patience, or if this is a normal part of teaching; some days are better than others. I just felt really drained at the end of the day, partly due to not feeling well and the craziness of the day. I also like things to be under control and for me its hard to find the balance of when it is necessary to be in control and be strict and when its time to be a little more lax and just the kids be kids. Do I want control of my classroom because I can’t handle it when things don’t go the way I planned, or do I want control because it will be best for the kids and create the best learning environment for them? This is the balance I keep trying to find and keep questioning. Sometimes I wonder if I can stay another year here when I have days like these, but most of the time the benefits of my job (the kids, the beauty and simplicity of this place) outweigh the frustrations.

Tuesday, Oct 27

I woke up in the middle of the night and did not feel good. I had bad indigestion and heartburn. Well I ended up throwing up soon after and then couldn’t sleep well the rest of the night. I did not feel well in the morning either, so I decided to stay home from school. It’s the first time I’ve done that and been sick in Honduras. I got some sleep, drank some tea, read and just tried to relax and figure out what was going on in my body. I felt better after lunch so I decided I would go back to school for the last few hours of my day. Well Jacki had been the last one to leave the house and didn’t know I was sick so she had locked the door, so I was locked in the house, haha. So I called her and she sent someone up with the keys so I could get out. I still wasn’t 100%, but couldn’t sit at home all day. I came back home and had a chill evening. My stomach felt better, but I was kinda achy and tired and just felt out of it and not motivated. I was more than ready for bed when night came and glad to put the day behind me.

Monday, Oct 26

We got some good sleep again, checked out of our hostel and then had huge, amazing tipico breakfast at ViaVia’s. Jacki’s friends who are here for a month had come to Copan with us, but were going to Guatemala for a week, so we said bye to them before heading out ourselves. The ride back wasn’t too bad; the bus rides get shorter the closer you get to home. Our first bus ride had a slow start and we sat all the way in the back. Jacki was sitting towards the wall and the people in front of her kept shutting the window so no air was getting back there. So she kept trying to be sneaky and open it little by little when the person wasn’t looking. Well one girl actually latched the window and we were like, ‘That’s enough, we can’t handle it.’ So Kirsty told her it was hot back here and could she please open the window. It was amusing. We got back to Gracias in the evening, got some groceries, headed back up to the house, had dinner, unpacked, and got ready for our new week.

Sunday, Oct 25

We slept in today and went for a great tipico breakfast outside on the patio. Tipico breakfasts usually include coffee, plantains, eggs, beans, tortillas, avocado and sometimes rice or fruit. It’s very filling and very good. Afterwards we wanted to do some shopping around town for souvenirs. Gracias has some things you can buy, but it’s not really a tourist town. There were more artsy can crafty things here, so we spent time on the streets looking at jewelry, pottery, clothes, and other artisan crafts. Those of us who like coffee got some good iced coffee before we walked to the ruins.
The Copan ruins are Mayan ruins on the border of Guatemala and Honduras and are beautiful. We can walk all around the main plaza part of it and they have these large pyramids right as you walk in. They also have tall statues and altars where they made sacrifices, often human I believe. Its kinda weird and sad to realize that actually happened in that place. The ruins have such a stillness to them; it was very quiet when we went in the later afternoon. There was the main plaza and stairways and then behind it was a place where they played some form of football so they had a stadium of sorts and then behind that was the residential quarters. We took lots of pics, which I will put up slowly and surely, internet permitting. We just enjoyed our time there and then walked back, chilled, and got ready for dinner.
We went for dinner at pizza place, which turned out to be the best pizza I’ve had in Honduras yet. It was owned by a gringo and had TV with baseball and football (Yankees and Giants vs Cardinals)so we got to watch that too. We were craving dessert again (any chance we get to indulge we do) and looked around town, but it was getting late, so we just headed to ViaVias. ViaVias is a great place to find other info about Copan and has great food as well. We got brownies and had some great girl talk and then headed back to hostel.

Saturday, Oct 24

Saturday, October 24
We started our trip this morning early as usual; we got on the bus toward Santa Rosa, then caught a bus towards San Pedro Sula which stops in the La Entrada, which is where we needed to get off and catch our last bus to Copan. We waited in La Entrada for a while before the bus actually left so we bought some of the food the people always try to sell to bus passengers. We bought these snacks from this boy, which were amazing and then asked who made them and he was like, ‘Mi mama.’ It was so cute! The bus rides went pretty well, they just tended to get longer and more crowded the closer we got to Copan. Our last bus from La Entrada to Copan was so small and they expected seats made for 1 to fit 2 people. So Sarah and I shared a seat for 2-3 hours, my butt hanging halfway off. And also a note to self, just because the bus is smaller does not mean they will have less people or stop picking up people once all the seats were full. They crowd the aisles, too. So it was another bus experience as always, haha.
We finally got to Copan around noon and then had to find our hostel. It was on the other side of town so we walked over to the Iguana Azul. It was a really nice hostel; there were bunk beds for 6 in each room and the showers and toilets were outside (think state park style). It was only $5 a night too, so for a place to sleep and stuff, it was perfect. They gave a lot of good info about Copan as well: what activities were available, the best places to go and eat and shop; it was very helpful. We relaxed for a little bit after traveling and then got ready to go to Macaw Mountain, a place where they have all these parrots and birds from Honduras. We took a guided tour there and the place is beautiful. The birds are in large cages like at the zoo, but its surrounded by nature, a river and it’s just beautiful. We saw many colorful birds and even got to hold some macaws at the end on our arms! It was amazing and crazy to know they have hundreds of pounds of force in their beaks, too! They also grow coffee there so our last stop was the coffee shop, where we all enjoyed a great cup of some sort of coffee. Funny thing to report, as we were waiting to leave I realized I was standing in an ant hill, so I got bit up pretty bad on my toes. Love ants...ugh.
We went back to the hostel via mototaxi and went out to get dinner. We went to a comedor and got great cheap food; I got pupusas, which I haven’t had since my first week in Gracias…so good. Afterwards we wandered around town a little til we found this more Americanized place that served the best desserts. We got carrot cake and some mocha chocolate something; they were almost too rich for us! Afterwards we went to another restaurant and had fun playing pool and doing karaoke to end our night.