Some funny things: I was telling Carlos how to do his language assignment and I was like “You’re smart you can do it!” And Leonela laughs and was like, “Miss Sneden you told Carlos to do it!” I was like, “Leonela what is going on in your mind!” Crazy kids.
Most people who know me know I like Michigan State. Well I have not just one, but two Michigan alum teaching down here with me (Kirsty and Tad). They are both very proud of their university, but Tad is let’s say a little more outspoken about it. He has taught his Nivelacion class (kids learning English this year) the “Hail to the Victors” song. I hear this song about once a day coming out of his classroom from these kids. I stopped by his classroom to tell him something about our passports and the kids (knowing I’m not a Michigan fan) break out in the song; I was like, “No way…” and walked away. Ah young impressionable minds; they probably don’t even know what they’re singing.
Kirsty had gone to the US this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to interview at a law school she’s been wait-listed at, so all of us teachers took some of her classes throughout the week. I taught second grade math Wednesday (they had a test) and science on Thursday (about being cheerful, respectful, and honoring/obeying authority as a part of their health curriculum. I felt so different in the way I spoke with them: my tone, being even more deliberate and slow in my pronunciation with them and using simpler words. They were so well behaved though, almost always asking to get up to get anything. Loved it.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday, April 22
It’s been raining almost every afternoon here now; I think the rainy season has arrived! And yet I still forget to bring my raincoat. Wednesday we went to town like usual, but in the rain so I was all wet. I stayed at Guancascos to use the internet since it wasn’t working well at the house. Thursday I instituted a new checkmark system for classroom management. My kids are good kids and few give me actual attitude, but they do tend to interrupt each other and me or get out of their seat quite often without permission, which is frustrating when I’m trying to teach. So I was stricter with them that if they did those things, increasing checkmarks with increasing consequences. I try to be lenient, but I also need to follow through because if I don’t, my class might get too out of hand by the end of the year.
After school and the afternoon downpour, Tad and I decided to check out the river behind my house because we hadn’t been down there since we’ve received all this rain. We hiked on down, wearing shorts because it was still humid. We climbed over our normal spot we sit on and went up the river a little ways, finding a nice rock to sit on. We were sitting there, enjoying the view and the rush of the water since we hadn’t heard that in a month or two, when my foot near the water started getting wetter. It kept getting wetter until we turned around and literally saw a rush of water coming down the river. I was like, “Go, go!” and we scrambled over the rocks to get to the opposite closest shore. In 10 seconds or less the spot we had been sitting on was under water! We were just ‘in the right place at the right time’ with the time delay from the storm to the water rushing down the mountain. Stuck on the opposite side of the river, we had to figure out a way to get back to the correct side. We found a fallen tree, shimmied across that, stomped over some tall grass, and followed the water pipes to the field behind our house. Our legs were all scratched up from wearing shorts, but it was quite the adventure; we won’t be going down to the river after a rainstorm any time soon.
After school and the afternoon downpour, Tad and I decided to check out the river behind my house because we hadn’t been down there since we’ve received all this rain. We hiked on down, wearing shorts because it was still humid. We climbed over our normal spot we sit on and went up the river a little ways, finding a nice rock to sit on. We were sitting there, enjoying the view and the rush of the water since we hadn’t heard that in a month or two, when my foot near the water started getting wetter. It kept getting wetter until we turned around and literally saw a rush of water coming down the river. I was like, “Go, go!” and we scrambled over the rocks to get to the opposite closest shore. In 10 seconds or less the spot we had been sitting on was under water! We were just ‘in the right place at the right time’ with the time delay from the storm to the water rushing down the mountain. Stuck on the opposite side of the river, we had to figure out a way to get back to the correct side. We found a fallen tree, shimmied across that, stomped over some tall grass, and followed the water pipes to the field behind our house. Our legs were all scratched up from wearing shorts, but it was quite the adventure; we won’t be going down to the river after a rainstorm any time soon.
Tuesday, April 20
Tuesday was a very tough day with everything that had happened on Monday. I woke up and literally did not want to go to school and almost didn’t. I got ready although dirty and decided against makeup because I didn’t feel like it. I literally did not want to be in Honduras at this point in time. I wanted to teletransport to American for a while. It wasn’t just one thing that had brought this frustration, but last night with no water was the last straw for me. I gathered myself together as best as I could and went to school. I tried to put my frustration behind me and not let it affect the way I interacted with my kids because after all everything that happened was not their fault and they shouldn’t get the affect of it. But they were also not listening very well that day which added to my shorter fuse, so during reading I was waiting for their attention and put my head in my hand and the tears started coming. I tried holding them back, but they started coming so I kept my head down and tried to not let my kids see (they did and started murmuring, “Miss Sneden’s crying”) and walked outside the classroom to try to compose myself. I let a few tears go, wiped them off and came back inside to start science.
I eventually made it through the day and the rest of the week went a little better, especially since we got our water back later that day! A shower has only felt that good to me a few other times in my life! Jacki and Sarah had stayed home on Tuesday, so we had one of the best dinners we’ve had in Honduras so far to eat: chicken with this good sauce, homemade bread, green beans, and pasta salad and for dessert carrot cake with frosting. WOW. I felt so fat after that!
I eventually made it through the day and the rest of the week went a little better, especially since we got our water back later that day! A shower has only felt that good to me a few other times in my life! Jacki and Sarah had stayed home on Tuesday, so we had one of the best dinners we’ve had in Honduras so far to eat: chicken with this good sauce, homemade bread, green beans, and pasta salad and for dessert carrot cake with frosting. WOW. I felt so fat after that!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday and Monday, April 18 & 19
After our cliff diving adventure we thanked our guide for the amazing adventure and relaxed at the restaurant. Just as we were about to leave, we saw this couple we had met at the brewery the night before, Stacy and Harrison. They had been at the park as well and we all needed to get back to Pena Blanca. They spoke better Spanish than we did, so they helped us figure out we couldn’t get a taxi as cheap as we wanted to, so we’d have to wait for a bus. We walked to the edge of town and were told the bus might be awhile. Stacy thankfully hailed a truck for us on her third try, so we rode in the bed of a truck to the town and walked to the brewery from there. When we arrived there was some confusion about our lodging for that night since we were switching rooms; I wasn’t even sure we’d have a room the way it was sounding. Bob, the owner, took care of it though and things were all squared away. I was frustrated at my lack of understanding of Spanish again, tired from the long day, and then the confusion about our lodging for the night as well put me in a bad mood, but I rested a while and then had some dinner and felt better. We talked to Stacy and Harrison over dinner about a ton of things; Harrison was a Peace Corp worker and Stacy had taught English in Ecuador for a year. We met a variety of people at the brewery, which is always cool to hear everyone’s stories of why they’re in Honduras and where they’re from and where they’re going. I love it. It had been cloudy and thundering all day and it finally rained that night, which was so calming to listen to as I was falling asleep.
Monday we got up a decent hour, had breakfast, and called a mototaxi, who arrived later than we hoped. We got a bus to SPS from Pena Blanca and when we arrived arranged our transporation to Santa Rosa with a nicer bus line. We left around 2 pm, but then around 15 minutes outside of SPS, the bus breaks down. We are sitting in this hot bus, while the driver and ticket guy are trying to fix it. Eventually I got off the bus; I couldn’t handle sitting in the heat just sweating anymore. We waited for an hour for another bus from this line to get there, but when another bus towards Santa Rosa came, we jumped on it and lost the money we paid for on the broken bus. New tickets bought, we headed towards Santa Rosa at like 3:30ish and arrived around 6:30ish. I saw no buses in the terminal, only taxis. I ran across the street to get money from the ATM because I had none, and the ATM WAS OUT OF MONEY. It would happen.
At this point I was extremely frustrated because there were no more buses to Gracias so we’d either have to pay a taxi $30 to take us there or stay the night. Thankfully another guy needed to go to Gracias and we split the cab ride with him, with just enough money to pay the $10 each. The cab ride was a thrill ride: in the fog, at night with twisty roads and the cab driver’s car was not top notch, either. In Gracias, we called a mototaxi to bring us up the mountain and we didn’t even have money to pay for it! Thankfully our moto-driver was our neighbor and let us pay him back later. All I wanted at the end of this crazy long day was to take a shower to wash away the sweat, dirt and frustration. I got home and…we had NO running water. It had off all day so all our dishes were dirty, no one had taken showers since yesterday. That was the last straw for me. I did NOT want to be in Honduras that night. I wanted to go home to the United States where everything was clean, efficient, doesn’t break down and if it does, it’s fixed ASAP or get great customer service. Needless to say that was one my least favorite days in Honduras and unfortunately put a gray cloud over an otherwise awesome weekend.
Monday we got up a decent hour, had breakfast, and called a mototaxi, who arrived later than we hoped. We got a bus to SPS from Pena Blanca and when we arrived arranged our transporation to Santa Rosa with a nicer bus line. We left around 2 pm, but then around 15 minutes outside of SPS, the bus breaks down. We are sitting in this hot bus, while the driver and ticket guy are trying to fix it. Eventually I got off the bus; I couldn’t handle sitting in the heat just sweating anymore. We waited for an hour for another bus from this line to get there, but when another bus towards Santa Rosa came, we jumped on it and lost the money we paid for on the broken bus. New tickets bought, we headed towards Santa Rosa at like 3:30ish and arrived around 6:30ish. I saw no buses in the terminal, only taxis. I ran across the street to get money from the ATM because I had none, and the ATM WAS OUT OF MONEY. It would happen.
At this point I was extremely frustrated because there were no more buses to Gracias so we’d either have to pay a taxi $30 to take us there or stay the night. Thankfully another guy needed to go to Gracias and we split the cab ride with him, with just enough money to pay the $10 each. The cab ride was a thrill ride: in the fog, at night with twisty roads and the cab driver’s car was not top notch, either. In Gracias, we called a mototaxi to bring us up the mountain and we didn’t even have money to pay for it! Thankfully our moto-driver was our neighbor and let us pay him back later. All I wanted at the end of this crazy long day was to take a shower to wash away the sweat, dirt and frustration. I got home and…we had NO running water. It had off all day so all our dishes were dirty, no one had taken showers since yesterday. That was the last straw for me. I did NOT want to be in Honduras that night. I wanted to go home to the United States where everything was clean, efficient, doesn’t break down and if it does, it’s fixed ASAP or get great customer service. Needless to say that was one my least favorite days in Honduras and unfortunately put a gray cloud over an otherwise awesome weekend.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday April 16, 17, & 18
April 16, 17 & 18
Friday
Friday went fine at school; I feel more laid back on Fridays because I get to wear jeans and it’s the last day before the weekend. After school, Tad and I went down in town to use internet since it wasn’t working at the house because of the weather. First we tried Guancascos and the internet wasn’t working there; so we went to Don Juans and it wasn’t working there either! After a few tries, it started up. I had assumed and heard that if you bought something, like a drink or whatever, then you didn’t have to pay internet. We bought a few drinks and then dinner later since it was getting late, but when we went to pay, we ending up having to pay for internet and dinner and our drinks. Not doing that again!
Saturday
This weekend I took a trip to Lake Yojoa, which is one of the biggest lakes in Honduras. I’ve heard it’s beautiful around there. There’s also the only microbrewery located just outside the lake. Jacki and Kirsty had been here over Semana Santa and raved about it, saying how the food and drinks and surroundings were amazing, so that’s where I went! The unfortunate thing about Honduras is that what would take about 3 hours total if there were direct roads and we had a car takes about 6-7 hours via public transportation. So the trip started at 5am with a mototaxi ride to Gracias to catch a bus to Santa Rosa, to catch a bus to SPS, to catch a bus to Pena Blanca, which is near the lake. After arriving in Pena Blanca, you take a 10 minute mototaxi ride to the brewery. We arrived at at the brewery (called D & D; it’s owned by a guy from Oregon) around 1 pm. We checked into our room and as we were walking towards the restaurant to eat food, we hear, “Tad?!” Out comes Pat, one of Tad’s friends, Renske (one of the European girls who teaches in La Union) and a few other people. We were like no way. They were staying by the lake, too, at a different hotel, but had come to enjoy the brewery so we joined them for lunch and enjoyed spending the afternoon with them. They had all come with Renske and Laura’s host dad, Alvin, who owns the bus station La Union and is well known there. We had some good conversations in Spanish and English about how Americans are with sending money to developing countries. Do they do it to say, ‘Look how much money I gave to build this one classroom and look what I did to help these poor people?’ or do they do it humbly and let the Hondurans use the money they sent to build not just one classroom, but four? Someone had sent money to the school and only wanted to use this money to build one classroom, when it was more than enough to build four. But the donor said only one. It was just interesting seeing the perspective of a Honduran on that. After relaxing for the afternoon, the whole crew came back to have dinner with us. I really enjoyed talking with Laura and Renske for a bit, along with everyone else. We talked about going on a large fishing boat onto the lake the next day and they said they’d let us know if that worked out.
Sunday
Unfortunately the next day at breakfast we got a call from Pat. He told us one of the other guys who was there the night before, Derrick, had fallen off the back of Alvin’s pickup and cut his head open and had to get stitches late last night. So we wouldn’t be going onto the lake that day. I really wanted to see the lake though because I heard it was beautiful, so we walked almost to Pena Blanca when a taxi came and brought us to the hotel we wanted to go to on the lake, Agua Azul. It had a terrace restaurant with a great view of the lake. It wasn’t the clearest day that day, kinda hazy, but it just added to the beauty and the mystery of the lake. We weren’t quite sure how to make it back to town, but we asked the people inside and they told us to just wait for a bus to take us back to Pena Blanca. It worked. Love Honduras.
Tad and I decided we wanted to go to this waterfall we had heard about and that it was quite a sight to see. So we took another crowded bus to the drop off point and proceeded to walk until we found the entrance to the park. I tried talking to the guy and basically understood what he was trying to say about going in, needing to find a guide if we wanted to see the waterfall, go here, pay here, etc, etc, but I was still so frustrated I didn’t understand everything. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of just because I didn’t speak good Spanish and didn’t know what was going on. Well we decided to pay the guide to take us to the waterfall, so we paid the entrance fee, found our guide, left our stuff in the restaurant (he was like ‘You don’t need anything; you’re going to get very wet’) and headed towards the waterfall. I had no idea what to expect of this waterfall or what exactly we had paid this guide for, so I was blown away when I saw the size of the waterfall. It was about 140 foot waterfall; absolutely gorgeous. We kept walking, went through this gate and proceeded to climb along the rocks right next to the waterfall with our guide. We got close and were getting soaked and then he told us we were going behind the waterfall, but first had to jump into this pool from about 5 feet. We did it, and kept going towards the waterfall. It was so hard to breathe with the water rushing over top of me and getting in my eyes. I just had the guide lead me. Finally we made it so we were standing behind the waterfall; I could look up and see the water rushing over top of me. It was breathtaking and amazing.
We rested in a little cave behind the fall for some air and then made our way back to the cliff we were going to jump off of. Yes, I went cliff jumping (into water). Our guide pointed out the spot we needed to jump to; Tad went first and then I took about 5 minutes to work up the courage to actually do it. The highest cliff I jumped off of was 26 feet high; it hurt when I hit the water and I was freaking out a little in the air because it was a longer hang time. I’m so glad I did it though! I would have regretted it if I hadn’t; this was my reasoning to make myself jump: if I didn’t, when would I get the chance to again. After I went Tad jumped in a second time, which meant I had to as well, but after that I was finished; it hurt too much!
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Friday
Friday went fine at school; I feel more laid back on Fridays because I get to wear jeans and it’s the last day before the weekend. After school, Tad and I went down in town to use internet since it wasn’t working at the house because of the weather. First we tried Guancascos and the internet wasn’t working there; so we went to Don Juans and it wasn’t working there either! After a few tries, it started up. I had assumed and heard that if you bought something, like a drink or whatever, then you didn’t have to pay internet. We bought a few drinks and then dinner later since it was getting late, but when we went to pay, we ending up having to pay for internet and dinner and our drinks. Not doing that again!
Saturday
This weekend I took a trip to Lake Yojoa, which is one of the biggest lakes in Honduras. I’ve heard it’s beautiful around there. There’s also the only microbrewery located just outside the lake. Jacki and Kirsty had been here over Semana Santa and raved about it, saying how the food and drinks and surroundings were amazing, so that’s where I went! The unfortunate thing about Honduras is that what would take about 3 hours total if there were direct roads and we had a car takes about 6-7 hours via public transportation. So the trip started at 5am with a mototaxi ride to Gracias to catch a bus to Santa Rosa, to catch a bus to SPS, to catch a bus to Pena Blanca, which is near the lake. After arriving in Pena Blanca, you take a 10 minute mototaxi ride to the brewery. We arrived at at the brewery (called D & D; it’s owned by a guy from Oregon) around 1 pm. We checked into our room and as we were walking towards the restaurant to eat food, we hear, “Tad?!” Out comes Pat, one of Tad’s friends, Renske (one of the European girls who teaches in La Union) and a few other people. We were like no way. They were staying by the lake, too, at a different hotel, but had come to enjoy the brewery so we joined them for lunch and enjoyed spending the afternoon with them. They had all come with Renske and Laura’s host dad, Alvin, who owns the bus station La Union and is well known there. We had some good conversations in Spanish and English about how Americans are with sending money to developing countries. Do they do it to say, ‘Look how much money I gave to build this one classroom and look what I did to help these poor people?’ or do they do it humbly and let the Hondurans use the money they sent to build not just one classroom, but four? Someone had sent money to the school and only wanted to use this money to build one classroom, when it was more than enough to build four. But the donor said only one. It was just interesting seeing the perspective of a Honduran on that. After relaxing for the afternoon, the whole crew came back to have dinner with us. I really enjoyed talking with Laura and Renske for a bit, along with everyone else. We talked about going on a large fishing boat onto the lake the next day and they said they’d let us know if that worked out.
Sunday
Unfortunately the next day at breakfast we got a call from Pat. He told us one of the other guys who was there the night before, Derrick, had fallen off the back of Alvin’s pickup and cut his head open and had to get stitches late last night. So we wouldn’t be going onto the lake that day. I really wanted to see the lake though because I heard it was beautiful, so we walked almost to Pena Blanca when a taxi came and brought us to the hotel we wanted to go to on the lake, Agua Azul. It had a terrace restaurant with a great view of the lake. It wasn’t the clearest day that day, kinda hazy, but it just added to the beauty and the mystery of the lake. We weren’t quite sure how to make it back to town, but we asked the people inside and they told us to just wait for a bus to take us back to Pena Blanca. It worked. Love Honduras.
Tad and I decided we wanted to go to this waterfall we had heard about and that it was quite a sight to see. So we took another crowded bus to the drop off point and proceeded to walk until we found the entrance to the park. I tried talking to the guy and basically understood what he was trying to say about going in, needing to find a guide if we wanted to see the waterfall, go here, pay here, etc, etc, but I was still so frustrated I didn’t understand everything. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of just because I didn’t speak good Spanish and didn’t know what was going on. Well we decided to pay the guide to take us to the waterfall, so we paid the entrance fee, found our guide, left our stuff in the restaurant (he was like ‘You don’t need anything; you’re going to get very wet’) and headed towards the waterfall. I had no idea what to expect of this waterfall or what exactly we had paid this guide for, so I was blown away when I saw the size of the waterfall. It was about 140 foot waterfall; absolutely gorgeous. We kept walking, went through this gate and proceeded to climb along the rocks right next to the waterfall with our guide. We got close and were getting soaked and then he told us we were going behind the waterfall, but first had to jump into this pool from about 5 feet. We did it, and kept going towards the waterfall. It was so hard to breathe with the water rushing over top of me and getting in my eyes. I just had the guide lead me. Finally we made it so we were standing behind the waterfall; I could look up and see the water rushing over top of me. It was breathtaking and amazing.
We rested in a little cave behind the fall for some air and then made our way back to the cliff we were going to jump off of. Yes, I went cliff jumping (into water). Our guide pointed out the spot we needed to jump to; Tad went first and then I took about 5 minutes to work up the courage to actually do it. The highest cliff I jumped off of was 26 feet high; it hurt when I hit the water and I was freaking out a little in the air because it was a longer hang time. I’m so glad I did it though! I would have regretted it if I hadn’t; this was my reasoning to make myself jump: if I didn’t, when would I get the chance to again. After I went Tad jumped in a second time, which meant I had to as well, but after that I was finished; it hurt too much!
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Friday, April 23, 2010
Monday-Friday, April 12-16
The days have been going alright this week. The amount of emotions I go through in a day is crazy; sometimes I feel so frustrated with the administration or my kids I could cry and then the next hour my kids do something that makes me smile or laugh. All these little frustrations keep building up throughout the day, whether because of the administration, my kids, not being able to teach well or handle my kids problems well, people being disrespectful and inconsiderate, etc, etc . All these little things add up everyday and have really dragging me down. I consider myself a flexible person most of the time and I can usually roll with the punches alright and let things go after they happen, but lately that hasn’t been the case and I don’t know why, which is aggravating. I think God uses my kids sometimes to show me how he feels when he’s trying to talk to me and I won’t listen or he’s trying to get my attention and I’m ignoring him. Maybe he feels exactly the same way I do when I’m disrespected or people won’t listen or don’t care or give me attitude. God uses whatever and whoever he wants to get our attention sometimes.
Tad said something a few weeks ago when I was really struggling coming back from Spring break, too. He said you just have to remember that you’re not here for you, you’re here for the kids. And maybe I’ve forgotten that; maybe I’m so focused on myself and how I feel that I’ve forgotten why I feel like God called me here in the first place. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate and give myself a reminder of what I’m doing here because I can’t continue my next two months here like this. I don’t want to; I want to enjoy my time as much as possible and while I know that frustrations will still come up, I just feel like right now I’m not enjoying my job. I’m just going through the motions of it, doing it, getting through the day. I never want that to be my attitude towards my job for a long time. If it is, something’s wrong with my attitude and spirit or what I’m doing I’m not meant to do for a long time, I guess. And I think that’s one of the things I’ve realized being here as a teacher (maybe just a teacher for Abundant Life): I can teach and I’m alright at it and I care about my kids and try to do my best, but I don’t think I’m meant to be a teacher.
Anyways, this week is SAG so most of the middle school kids are gone. We split up the hours between the middle school teachers, so I get a few extra free periods by not having Bible class from that. Other free periods were taken away by classes like PE (which I have to cover) and math, which I’m not technically supposed to cover; Mr. Calderon is, but apparently he has more important things to do since he’s the only principal at school since Mr. Lara is in Teguz with the kids. I really enjoyed being able to develop some more relationships with the middle school kids that were still here and hadn’t gone to SAG, whether that was just playing games with them or chatting. It’s just hard to then go back to teacher mode after that with them and find that fine line between teacher and ‘friend.’
One thing there’s been some confusion on when the teachers are actually going to be done at the end of the year; it may not be June 11, but a few days after like June 15…we’ll see. We had rain on Tuesday night with thunder and lightning. It was much needed and peaceful to listen to. I ran up Celaque the other day and it went pretty well; some days are good, some days not. I started the Joke of the Day this week with my kids and I didn’t realize sometimes how much jokes depend on knowledge of the language. The kids don’t get the jokes sometimes unless I explain them so I let them do a few in Spanish. I usually understand their jokes in Spanish, but even then I may not fully get it. That’s the thing I hate about not completely understanding Spanish, I could have more deep and relevant conversations or be able to joke around more if I knew more. It’s also the same with our kids and people here; they don’t seem to get sarcasm for example sometimes because they can’t pick up the nuances and tone besides just the words.
Tad said something a few weeks ago when I was really struggling coming back from Spring break, too. He said you just have to remember that you’re not here for you, you’re here for the kids. And maybe I’ve forgotten that; maybe I’m so focused on myself and how I feel that I’ve forgotten why I feel like God called me here in the first place. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate and give myself a reminder of what I’m doing here because I can’t continue my next two months here like this. I don’t want to; I want to enjoy my time as much as possible and while I know that frustrations will still come up, I just feel like right now I’m not enjoying my job. I’m just going through the motions of it, doing it, getting through the day. I never want that to be my attitude towards my job for a long time. If it is, something’s wrong with my attitude and spirit or what I’m doing I’m not meant to do for a long time, I guess. And I think that’s one of the things I’ve realized being here as a teacher (maybe just a teacher for Abundant Life): I can teach and I’m alright at it and I care about my kids and try to do my best, but I don’t think I’m meant to be a teacher.
Anyways, this week is SAG so most of the middle school kids are gone. We split up the hours between the middle school teachers, so I get a few extra free periods by not having Bible class from that. Other free periods were taken away by classes like PE (which I have to cover) and math, which I’m not technically supposed to cover; Mr. Calderon is, but apparently he has more important things to do since he’s the only principal at school since Mr. Lara is in Teguz with the kids. I really enjoyed being able to develop some more relationships with the middle school kids that were still here and hadn’t gone to SAG, whether that was just playing games with them or chatting. It’s just hard to then go back to teacher mode after that with them and find that fine line between teacher and ‘friend.’
One thing there’s been some confusion on when the teachers are actually going to be done at the end of the year; it may not be June 11, but a few days after like June 15…we’ll see. We had rain on Tuesday night with thunder and lightning. It was much needed and peaceful to listen to. I ran up Celaque the other day and it went pretty well; some days are good, some days not. I started the Joke of the Day this week with my kids and I didn’t realize sometimes how much jokes depend on knowledge of the language. The kids don’t get the jokes sometimes unless I explain them so I let them do a few in Spanish. I usually understand their jokes in Spanish, but even then I may not fully get it. That’s the thing I hate about not completely understanding Spanish, I could have more deep and relevant conversations or be able to joke around more if I knew more. It’s also the same with our kids and people here; they don’t seem to get sarcasm for example sometimes because they can’t pick up the nuances and tone besides just the words.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday-Friday, April 5-9
Monday I had a really rough day going back, despite the fact that I had a few days to get ready for it. I would say it was one of the hardest days to come back to here. I think being out of teaching for a week, traveling, being with my friends and having fun that it was hard to come back to the real world. It was the same for my kids; they kept saying, “Miss I want to sleep; let’s have more vacation!” But I eventually got through the day somehow and got the hardest part of after vacation out of the way. Tuesday and Wednesday were better with my kids. On the way home from school, I noticed this thing moving across the road. I pointed it out to Tad and we realized it was a snake! We weren’t sure which kind it was so we memorized the coloring on it and looked it up on the internet when we got home. We realized that we had just saw a coral snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in North America! I was amazed and freaked out. Good thing God was watching out and we were able to see it and ‘admire’ it from a distance.
Thursday I had an alright day, but the afternoon was kinda tough with my kids. We had tutorias after school for language and I could not get them to quiet down and pay attention. We had a test next week, so I wanted to go over some of the things on the test. They just kept talking, making comments, being loud and not paying attention. And frankly I was fed up with it. I stormed out of the classroom after asking multiple time for their attention and asked Mr. Lara and Mr. Calderon to come and give a reminder to these kids about what respect was. They came and reminded them of why they were in tutotorias: to try to improve their grades; if they weren’t going to respect the teachers trying to help them with that and they didn’t care, then they shouldn’t be here. They also got a punishment of parents being called and recess taken away. I felt kinda bad, but they needed it so it wouldn’t happen again. I’m giving them a few more weeks in tutorias to see how they do and if their behavior doesn’t improve, some of them won’t be staying any longer. Friday was pretty laid back, especially with the older kids preparing for SAG (Student Annual Gathering in Tegucigalpa this coming week for the middle and high schoolers of all ALCS schools). They practiced their speeches, musical numbers and other things and the whole school basically didn’t have classes after lunch. They did well, but honestly some of the singing could've been improved; I give them props for doing it though! After school I ran up Celaque, which sucked after not doing for a week or two. Its always frustrating to me when I can’t make those hills; then I remember how high I am and that I live on a mountain. March Madness is done, but Tad and I had done brackets and betted a free dinner for Friday night for the winner. Guess who won? Man sense…HA!
Thursday I had an alright day, but the afternoon was kinda tough with my kids. We had tutorias after school for language and I could not get them to quiet down and pay attention. We had a test next week, so I wanted to go over some of the things on the test. They just kept talking, making comments, being loud and not paying attention. And frankly I was fed up with it. I stormed out of the classroom after asking multiple time for their attention and asked Mr. Lara and Mr. Calderon to come and give a reminder to these kids about what respect was. They came and reminded them of why they were in tutotorias: to try to improve their grades; if they weren’t going to respect the teachers trying to help them with that and they didn’t care, then they shouldn’t be here. They also got a punishment of parents being called and recess taken away. I felt kinda bad, but they needed it so it wouldn’t happen again. I’m giving them a few more weeks in tutorias to see how they do and if their behavior doesn’t improve, some of them won’t be staying any longer. Friday was pretty laid back, especially with the older kids preparing for SAG (Student Annual Gathering in Tegucigalpa this coming week for the middle and high schoolers of all ALCS schools). They practiced their speeches, musical numbers and other things and the whole school basically didn’t have classes after lunch. They did well, but honestly some of the singing could've been improved; I give them props for doing it though! After school I ran up Celaque, which sucked after not doing for a week or two. Its always frustrating to me when I can’t make those hills; then I remember how high I am and that I live on a mountain. March Madness is done, but Tad and I had done brackets and betted a free dinner for Friday night for the winner. Guess who won? Man sense…HA!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Semana Santa
San Pedro to Gracias
We rose early in the morning to try to get back to Gracias as soon as possible on Saturday. Our bus rides went pretty well. In Santa Rosa, we saw these little boys we had first met when we were in Santa Rosa at the beginning of the week. They’re quite active and friendly, so we had fun talking with them; they wanted to come back to Gracias with us! The rest of the weekend, we relaxed and enjoyed the rest of our vacation. Sunday was Easter and some of us attended our neighborhood church service; we took communion at the service and we used soda crackers and grape soda. Whatever works for here! It was a little weird for me to not be home around Easter going to service at Rez and to not be at the family gathering at Grandmas for lunch and Florida presents. But, I took some time to reflect on Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection just the same.
I apologize for falling behind in updating you all on my daily life! I'm trying to catch up from Semana Santa and now that I'm finished I should have more stuff up soon! Love and miss you all...thanks for all your prayers and encouragement!
We rose early in the morning to try to get back to Gracias as soon as possible on Saturday. Our bus rides went pretty well. In Santa Rosa, we saw these little boys we had first met when we were in Santa Rosa at the beginning of the week. They’re quite active and friendly, so we had fun talking with them; they wanted to come back to Gracias with us! The rest of the weekend, we relaxed and enjoyed the rest of our vacation. Sunday was Easter and some of us attended our neighborhood church service; we took communion at the service and we used soda crackers and grape soda. Whatever works for here! It was a little weird for me to not be home around Easter going to service at Rez and to not be at the family gathering at Grandmas for lunch and Florida presents. But, I took some time to reflect on Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection just the same.
I apologize for falling behind in updating you all on my daily life! I'm trying to catch up from Semana Santa and now that I'm finished I should have more stuff up soon! Love and miss you all...thanks for all your prayers and encouragement!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Semana Santa
San Pedro
Our friends were leaving this morning, so we had our complimentary breakfast at our hotel and then boarded our hotel shuttle to the airport with everyone aboard. We arrived at the airport; Steve, Mandi and Amy checked in and then we said our goodbyes. I didn’t think I would get emotional saying bye to the girls, but I started getting teary-eyed because I wouldn’t see them for another three months. I’m so thankful and blessed that they came down to visit me and see Honduras. After they left, we stayed in the airport for a while to wait for Jacki who was coming to pick up her mom and brother from the airport. We waited in the food court part of the airport, taught LB how to play Euchre and proceeded to play for the next hour while we people-watched. One of our favorite groups we watched was this group of young people who stood in line at Wendy’s. Since I’m in Honduras, I’m always curious why other gringos come here. We analyzed the group and made our guesses: Canadian (I had seen a Canadian flag on one of the kids’ backpacks), youth group or school, went to the coast (the girls had braids), and we tried to pinpoint their leaders and ages as well. After we had thoroughly thought about this group, we nominated Mike to ask them their purpose in Honduras. We were pretty darn close: a Canadian Christian school group who did a mission trip on the coast. Amazing what one can deduce from observation!
Unfortunately we had heard from Jacki and Ana earlier that day that NO buses were running because it was Good Friday, which is a much bigger deal here than Easter Sunday. That meant we’d be staying in SPS one more day. We found a taxi driver who helped us out by suggesting hostel (Tamarindo Hostel) to us. He brought us there and luckily some rooms were opening up in an hour or so. We left our stuff at the hostel and went to downtown San Pedro to grab some lunch. Little did we know we were just in time because most places closed at 1 pm on Good Friday and it was about noon. We ate lunch at McD’s, relaxed in the shade in the central park, bought our dinner from a street vendor (steak kabobs, pineapple and melon) and grabbed another taxi back to our hostel. The rest of the day we spent at the hostel napping, reading, relaxing and getting to know some of the other people staying at the hostel. It had a real community feel to it and we met people from all over the world there: the States, Denmark, England. We ate our awesome dinner, played some more intense Euchre (LB and I lost against Tad and Mike) and then bed for our early rise tomorrow morning.
Our friends were leaving this morning, so we had our complimentary breakfast at our hotel and then boarded our hotel shuttle to the airport with everyone aboard. We arrived at the airport; Steve, Mandi and Amy checked in and then we said our goodbyes. I didn’t think I would get emotional saying bye to the girls, but I started getting teary-eyed because I wouldn’t see them for another three months. I’m so thankful and blessed that they came down to visit me and see Honduras. After they left, we stayed in the airport for a while to wait for Jacki who was coming to pick up her mom and brother from the airport. We waited in the food court part of the airport, taught LB how to play Euchre and proceeded to play for the next hour while we people-watched. One of our favorite groups we watched was this group of young people who stood in line at Wendy’s. Since I’m in Honduras, I’m always curious why other gringos come here. We analyzed the group and made our guesses: Canadian (I had seen a Canadian flag on one of the kids’ backpacks), youth group or school, went to the coast (the girls had braids), and we tried to pinpoint their leaders and ages as well. After we had thoroughly thought about this group, we nominated Mike to ask them their purpose in Honduras. We were pretty darn close: a Canadian Christian school group who did a mission trip on the coast. Amazing what one can deduce from observation!
Unfortunately we had heard from Jacki and Ana earlier that day that NO buses were running because it was Good Friday, which is a much bigger deal here than Easter Sunday. That meant we’d be staying in SPS one more day. We found a taxi driver who helped us out by suggesting hostel (Tamarindo Hostel) to us. He brought us there and luckily some rooms were opening up in an hour or so. We left our stuff at the hostel and went to downtown San Pedro to grab some lunch. Little did we know we were just in time because most places closed at 1 pm on Good Friday and it was about noon. We ate lunch at McD’s, relaxed in the shade in the central park, bought our dinner from a street vendor (steak kabobs, pineapple and melon) and grabbed another taxi back to our hostel. The rest of the day we spent at the hostel napping, reading, relaxing and getting to know some of the other people staying at the hostel. It had a real community feel to it and we met people from all over the world there: the States, Denmark, England. We ate our awesome dinner, played some more intense Euchre (LB and I lost against Tad and Mike) and then bed for our early rise tomorrow morning.
Semana Santa
Tela to San Pedro
Today was sadly our last day in Tela because we had to head back to San Pedro. Our friends were flying out tomorrow, so we needed to be in town to make it to the airport. I spent the morning sleeping, eating breakfast on our beachside restaurant, and getting some last minute rays. I even got to try some coconut milk during breakfast, straight from a coconut. Tela was really busy today because it was so close to the weekend and of course it was beautiful the day we left. Before we checked out, we took advantage of our balcony at the hotel and took a bunch of group pictures with the gorgeous oceanfront in the background…paradise I tell you! We made our way to the streets to get a quick lunch of pupusas before we got a taxi to take us to the place where direct buses go to San Pedro. We were waiting for the bus and then Steve realized he had forgotten his phone back at the hotel. So Tad, Steve, and Mike quickly got a taxi back to the hotel to find it. Meanwhile, we girls were waiting, hoping they’d be back in time when the next bus came. One came and it stood waiting for a few minutes; I had almost lost hope that we’d have to wait another half hour when the boys rounded the corner in a taxi. I ran to the bus to ask it to wait (not necessary as I found out later), and we all boarded just in the nick of time. The bus was great; it was really direct this time and didn’t cram a whole bunch of people into the aisle.
We arrived in SPS about two hours later and had our hotel pick us up at the bus terminal. I had used this hotel (Villa Nuria) before for its convenience and all it offers for the price; the rest of the group agreed it was money well spent. Since we were in San Pedro, the Americans who were living in Honduras (LB, Mike, Tad and I) especially wanted to eat some American food; so we took the shuttle to the city all where there was an Applebees restaurant. A burger has never tasted so good when you haven’t had a good one in over 2 months! We relished our meals and then headed back the hotel. We girls just hung out and went to bed early to bed to be ready for tomorrow.
Today was sadly our last day in Tela because we had to head back to San Pedro. Our friends were flying out tomorrow, so we needed to be in town to make it to the airport. I spent the morning sleeping, eating breakfast on our beachside restaurant, and getting some last minute rays. I even got to try some coconut milk during breakfast, straight from a coconut. Tela was really busy today because it was so close to the weekend and of course it was beautiful the day we left. Before we checked out, we took advantage of our balcony at the hotel and took a bunch of group pictures with the gorgeous oceanfront in the background…paradise I tell you! We made our way to the streets to get a quick lunch of pupusas before we got a taxi to take us to the place where direct buses go to San Pedro. We were waiting for the bus and then Steve realized he had forgotten his phone back at the hotel. So Tad, Steve, and Mike quickly got a taxi back to the hotel to find it. Meanwhile, we girls were waiting, hoping they’d be back in time when the next bus came. One came and it stood waiting for a few minutes; I had almost lost hope that we’d have to wait another half hour when the boys rounded the corner in a taxi. I ran to the bus to ask it to wait (not necessary as I found out later), and we all boarded just in the nick of time. The bus was great; it was really direct this time and didn’t cram a whole bunch of people into the aisle.
We arrived in SPS about two hours later and had our hotel pick us up at the bus terminal. I had used this hotel (Villa Nuria) before for its convenience and all it offers for the price; the rest of the group agreed it was money well spent. Since we were in San Pedro, the Americans who were living in Honduras (LB, Mike, Tad and I) especially wanted to eat some American food; so we took the shuttle to the city all where there was an Applebees restaurant. A burger has never tasted so good when you haven’t had a good one in over 2 months! We relished our meals and then headed back the hotel. We girls just hung out and went to bed early to bed to be ready for tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Semana Santa
Tela 2
Kayaks today!! We left at 8; I can’t remember our guide’s name, but I do remember he said we could call him cowboy. He was really nice and pretty knowledgeable about the wildlife we saw on our trip. We took a short ride to the Garifuna village of Triunfo de la Cruz and put out on a freshwater/saltwater river. This river had mangroves growing in it, so we went into all these little outlets off the river to explore. Now I’m not an experienced kayaker; thank goodness they were doubles and my partner knew how to direct a kayak. We saw small alligators, beautiful flowers, birds, and and beautiful mangroves. At the end of the trip we tied all our kayaks together and dragged them back to our launching spot and made our way to the restaurant where our lunch was. This was by far the best part of our excursion; we ate lunch on the beach under a grass hut with the ocean several feet from us. We ordered fish and out came two whole fried fish, bones and all. It was delicious and such a perfect place to enjoy it.
After lunch we enjoyed swimming and jumping around in paradise. We didn’t want to leave, but it was clouding up. When we got back to the hotel, we relaxed, took naps, chilled. For dinner, the other girls had found this place that had a variety of food nearby, so we went there. The service was slow and the guy got kinda confused on our orders, but it all ended up alright and we got to watch some soccer. Tela was starting to get busier since it was getting closer to the weekend, so there were a lot more people out and about. All along the beachfront there were people selling things; I decided I wanted a henna tattoo. So I spent the next 15 minutes getting that done and people watching while I sat. We decided to go out and enjoy the nightlife and dancing with the locals, which ended up being a blast and a great way to spend our last night in Tela.
Kayaks today!! We left at 8; I can’t remember our guide’s name, but I do remember he said we could call him cowboy. He was really nice and pretty knowledgeable about the wildlife we saw on our trip. We took a short ride to the Garifuna village of Triunfo de la Cruz and put out on a freshwater/saltwater river. This river had mangroves growing in it, so we went into all these little outlets off the river to explore. Now I’m not an experienced kayaker; thank goodness they were doubles and my partner knew how to direct a kayak. We saw small alligators, beautiful flowers, birds, and and beautiful mangroves. At the end of the trip we tied all our kayaks together and dragged them back to our launching spot and made our way to the restaurant where our lunch was. This was by far the best part of our excursion; we ate lunch on the beach under a grass hut with the ocean several feet from us. We ordered fish and out came two whole fried fish, bones and all. It was delicious and such a perfect place to enjoy it.
After lunch we enjoyed swimming and jumping around in paradise. We didn’t want to leave, but it was clouding up. When we got back to the hotel, we relaxed, took naps, chilled. For dinner, the other girls had found this place that had a variety of food nearby, so we went there. The service was slow and the guy got kinda confused on our orders, but it all ended up alright and we got to watch some soccer. Tela was starting to get busier since it was getting closer to the weekend, so there were a lot more people out and about. All along the beachfront there were people selling things; I decided I wanted a henna tattoo. So I spent the next 15 minutes getting that done and people watching while I sat. We decided to go out and enjoy the nightlife and dancing with the locals, which ended up being a blast and a great way to spend our last night in Tela.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Semana Santa
Tela 1
Unfortunately it was rainy and cloudy our first day in Tela. We were all pretty bummed, but got to sleep in, have breakfast and then the girls decided to go shopping while the guys stayed back and played cards. So the girls (Mandi, Amy, Laura Beth, and I) went shopping around Tela in the drizzle rain. Amy and Mandi both wanted to find hammocks and we all had fun looking at all the little trinkets and souvenirs we could buy. They had some really nice stuff and I wish I could’ve bought more: picture frames, candle holders, paintings, jewelry. After shopping we had a snack and came back to the hotel to play cards for a little while before we had lunch. The guys left and did their look around town. We had a chill afternoon and then got ready to go to dinner. We had a few options; one was on the other side of town and we didn’t know exactly where it was. We started wandering and asked for directions, but still couldn’t find it; plus we were getting into a shady part of town.
We turned back and headed back to one of the first places we saw called Casa Azul. It had a great atmosphere; while we were there they had to turn the power off for a bit, so we even got some candlelight dinner for a bit! The owner was very hospitable; he gave us a free appetizer and made sure we had everything we needed. We heard about places to kayak and visiting Garifuna villages around Tela and decided to set it up that night to do the next day. I was really excited because I had wanted to see a Garifuna village for a while, as well as kayak in the mangroves. The Garifuna people here in Honduras are black; their ancestors were slaves who were brought to the Caribbean during colonial times. They’ve developed their own culture and language, but can also speak Spanish as well. After dinner, we wandered along the beach front by the restaurants, had some dessert and then bed.
Unfortunately it was rainy and cloudy our first day in Tela. We were all pretty bummed, but got to sleep in, have breakfast and then the girls decided to go shopping while the guys stayed back and played cards. So the girls (Mandi, Amy, Laura Beth, and I) went shopping around Tela in the drizzle rain. Amy and Mandi both wanted to find hammocks and we all had fun looking at all the little trinkets and souvenirs we could buy. They had some really nice stuff and I wish I could’ve bought more: picture frames, candle holders, paintings, jewelry. After shopping we had a snack and came back to the hotel to play cards for a little while before we had lunch. The guys left and did their look around town. We had a chill afternoon and then got ready to go to dinner. We had a few options; one was on the other side of town and we didn’t know exactly where it was. We started wandering and asked for directions, but still couldn’t find it; plus we were getting into a shady part of town.
We turned back and headed back to one of the first places we saw called Casa Azul. It had a great atmosphere; while we were there they had to turn the power off for a bit, so we even got some candlelight dinner for a bit! The owner was very hospitable; he gave us a free appetizer and made sure we had everything we needed. We heard about places to kayak and visiting Garifuna villages around Tela and decided to set it up that night to do the next day. I was really excited because I had wanted to see a Garifuna village for a while, as well as kayak in the mangroves. The Garifuna people here in Honduras are black; their ancestors were slaves who were brought to the Caribbean during colonial times. They’ve developed their own culture and language, but can also speak Spanish as well. After dinner, we wandered along the beach front by the restaurants, had some dessert and then bed.
Semana Santa
Copan to Tela
We got up very early on Monday morning to catch a direct bus to San Pedro to make our way to Tela. From my knowledge of most direct buses, they usually go faster and don’t stop as often. Things are never predictable in Honduras though and this one stopped quite often and kept picking up people until the whole aisle of the bus was filled in addition to the seats. Steve, one of Tad’s friends, had a baby next to him in the aisle who either got sick or carsick and starting spitting up; it almost landed on him a few times. And we weren’t even in San Pedro yet! Haha. We arrived at the bus station, scrambled to get a bus to Tela as quickly as possible and left around 10:30. This bus ride was quite uneventful and we arrived in Tela around noon. We got a taxi to our hotel, but realized we may have to pay before we could go into our rooms. So we decided to drop off our bags and Tad, Laura Beth and I went to the bank. I didn’t desperately need money and I had an ATM card for our bank, but neither Tad nor LB had a card. We got to the bank and our hearts sank when we saw the line. It was probably 50 people deep, no joke. I decided to use the ATM and unfortunately Tad and LB ended up standing in line at the bank for 2 hours to get their money!
I went in search of my friends who had gone to lunch while we were at the bank, but couldn’t find them. I found a cheap baleada place to eat lunch at and then tried looking for Amy, Mandi, and Steve again. Since I couldn’t find them and they had the room key, I decided to just lounge by the pool and wait for them. I ended up napping on one of the lounge chairs after our long and early travel day. We eventually reconnected with everyone and spent some time soaking up the rays before the sun went down. Rain clouds were starting to gather and before we knew it, it was downpouring. We went to dinner at a nearby hotel. I got this amazing fish and got to listen to the rain while we ate. We all decided to go for a late night swim in the ocean after that, and then hit the sack.
We got up very early on Monday morning to catch a direct bus to San Pedro to make our way to Tela. From my knowledge of most direct buses, they usually go faster and don’t stop as often. Things are never predictable in Honduras though and this one stopped quite often and kept picking up people until the whole aisle of the bus was filled in addition to the seats. Steve, one of Tad’s friends, had a baby next to him in the aisle who either got sick or carsick and starting spitting up; it almost landed on him a few times. And we weren’t even in San Pedro yet! Haha. We arrived at the bus station, scrambled to get a bus to Tela as quickly as possible and left around 10:30. This bus ride was quite uneventful and we arrived in Tela around noon. We got a taxi to our hotel, but realized we may have to pay before we could go into our rooms. So we decided to drop off our bags and Tad, Laura Beth and I went to the bank. I didn’t desperately need money and I had an ATM card for our bank, but neither Tad nor LB had a card. We got to the bank and our hearts sank when we saw the line. It was probably 50 people deep, no joke. I decided to use the ATM and unfortunately Tad and LB ended up standing in line at the bank for 2 hours to get their money!
I went in search of my friends who had gone to lunch while we were at the bank, but couldn’t find them. I found a cheap baleada place to eat lunch at and then tried looking for Amy, Mandi, and Steve again. Since I couldn’t find them and they had the room key, I decided to just lounge by the pool and wait for them. I ended up napping on one of the lounge chairs after our long and early travel day. We eventually reconnected with everyone and spent some time soaking up the rays before the sun went down. Rain clouds were starting to gather and before we knew it, it was downpouring. We went to dinner at a nearby hotel. I got this amazing fish and got to listen to the rain while we ate. We all decided to go for a late night swim in the ocean after that, and then hit the sack.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Semana Santa
Copan: Day 2
Today was our Ruins day! We made a quick breakfast out of Espresso Americano and baleadas. Tad decided he wanted some fruit instead so he went in search of some bananas. He comes back with this bag and I look inside and informed him he had just bought platanos, not bananas haha. He was disappointed, but we gave them to the restaurant where we ate baleadas so they could use them. We started our short walk to the ruins and it was already a warm one in the morning. Again, I had already been to the ruins once, but it was great seeing them again at a different time of the day with different people. Everyone thought it was amazing, which they are; it’s also amazing that they let you just walk on the ruins instead of just staring at them. We met some other people from the States vacationing there, including some guys from University of Wisconsin; we asked them why they chose Honduras and they were like it as cheaper than Mexico (so true). I wish more people knew about how much Honduras has to offer vacation-wise; I know I’ll keep coming back to Honduras from now on for vacation before I think about other countries.
After a hot day at the ruins, we decided to go back to Macaw Mountain and use our tickets for the natural pool. It felt amazing and refreshing; we just got to relax by the water or in the hammocks near the pool. We ate lunch at the park and then headed back to get ready for our horseback ride. I haven’t ridden a horse since I was around 10, so I was anxious to see how it went. The horses weren’t huge (thank goodness), but some of them had a little feistiness and kept biting each other when another would get close. So that made for an interesting ride. Our guides only spoke Spanish, but between Mike, Laura Beth and I we did fine communicating what was needed and even got to joke around with them a bit. Our guides were a father/daughter team; the girl was hilarious and spoke Spanish more clearly than her father, so I had fun talking with her. Our ride went through the country side, across the river and up to a Mayan village, La Pintada, where we got to see the school there and meet some of the kids who live in the village. They’re poor and sell corn-husk dolls to help make money.
I had a blast riding my horse; whenever he saw another horse starting to do anything besides walking, he would follow. So I got to trot quite a bit and actually got to a canter or gallop, which was my favorite. Trotting is just so bouncy; cantering or galloping (I’m not sure which it was) is a lot smoother. After our hot horse ride, we freshened up for dinner at Pizza Jims, the local pizza joint in Copan. It was so good! We wanted dessert after dinner and went to ViaVia, this great little café, for brownies and Belgium beer. We were all pooped from our action-filled day that we crashed into bed.
Today was our Ruins day! We made a quick breakfast out of Espresso Americano and baleadas. Tad decided he wanted some fruit instead so he went in search of some bananas. He comes back with this bag and I look inside and informed him he had just bought platanos, not bananas haha. He was disappointed, but we gave them to the restaurant where we ate baleadas so they could use them. We started our short walk to the ruins and it was already a warm one in the morning. Again, I had already been to the ruins once, but it was great seeing them again at a different time of the day with different people. Everyone thought it was amazing, which they are; it’s also amazing that they let you just walk on the ruins instead of just staring at them. We met some other people from the States vacationing there, including some guys from University of Wisconsin; we asked them why they chose Honduras and they were like it as cheaper than Mexico (so true). I wish more people knew about how much Honduras has to offer vacation-wise; I know I’ll keep coming back to Honduras from now on for vacation before I think about other countries.
After a hot day at the ruins, we decided to go back to Macaw Mountain and use our tickets for the natural pool. It felt amazing and refreshing; we just got to relax by the water or in the hammocks near the pool. We ate lunch at the park and then headed back to get ready for our horseback ride. I haven’t ridden a horse since I was around 10, so I was anxious to see how it went. The horses weren’t huge (thank goodness), but some of them had a little feistiness and kept biting each other when another would get close. So that made for an interesting ride. Our guides only spoke Spanish, but between Mike, Laura Beth and I we did fine communicating what was needed and even got to joke around with them a bit. Our guides were a father/daughter team; the girl was hilarious and spoke Spanish more clearly than her father, so I had fun talking with her. Our ride went through the country side, across the river and up to a Mayan village, La Pintada, where we got to see the school there and meet some of the kids who live in the village. They’re poor and sell corn-husk dolls to help make money.
I had a blast riding my horse; whenever he saw another horse starting to do anything besides walking, he would follow. So I got to trot quite a bit and actually got to a canter or gallop, which was my favorite. Trotting is just so bouncy; cantering or galloping (I’m not sure which it was) is a lot smoother. After our hot horse ride, we freshened up for dinner at Pizza Jims, the local pizza joint in Copan. It was so good! We wanted dessert after dinner and went to ViaVia, this great little café, for brownies and Belgium beer. We were all pooped from our action-filled day that we crashed into bed.
Semana Santa
Copan: Day 1
We left Santa Rosa in the morning from the hotel and started our adventure to Copan. The buses went pretty well to Copan and when we arrived we took motos to the hostel. It was Mandi and Amy’s first mototaxi ride so it was amusing to see their excitement. We got settled into the hostel and decided to go right away to Macaw Mountain, the park where you can see macaws and other birds native to Honduras and Central America. They also have a nice restaurant and natural pool there. Laura Beth and I had both been there before when we last went to Copan, but for the others it was all new. I love the park though, so I didn’t mind going again. After we finished the tour we headed back to town to the central square to do some tourist shopping on the streets. They have tons of tables set up all along the street with jewelry and trinkets and loads of shops with gifts. There were several unique things I saw that I wanted to buy; the thing is I wouldn’t know what to do with them or where to put them here or back home in the States. There were things like beautiful vases and wooden placemats and frames, rugs, and pictures, but without a place of my own and not knowing what I’ll doing in the next year makes those things unnecessary for me right now.
After shopping, we went back to the hostel to rest and get ready for dinner. We ate at this pupusa place we had been to last time we came to Honduras; you can get pupusas really cheap which is great. I was really hungry when our pupusas arrived I said out loud, “yum, yum, yum,” and made the waiter laugh. Afterwards we went to a bar/restaurant where they had some dancing and karaoke and spent the rest of the night there. Tad and Steve had some Honduran women dance with them and try to teach them how to salsa or something; it was entertaining to watch.
We left Santa Rosa in the morning from the hotel and started our adventure to Copan. The buses went pretty well to Copan and when we arrived we took motos to the hostel. It was Mandi and Amy’s first mototaxi ride so it was amusing to see their excitement. We got settled into the hostel and decided to go right away to Macaw Mountain, the park where you can see macaws and other birds native to Honduras and Central America. They also have a nice restaurant and natural pool there. Laura Beth and I had both been there before when we last went to Copan, but for the others it was all new. I love the park though, so I didn’t mind going again. After we finished the tour we headed back to town to the central square to do some tourist shopping on the streets. They have tons of tables set up all along the street with jewelry and trinkets and loads of shops with gifts. There were several unique things I saw that I wanted to buy; the thing is I wouldn’t know what to do with them or where to put them here or back home in the States. There were things like beautiful vases and wooden placemats and frames, rugs, and pictures, but without a place of my own and not knowing what I’ll doing in the next year makes those things unnecessary for me right now.
After shopping, we went back to the hostel to rest and get ready for dinner. We ate at this pupusa place we had been to last time we came to Honduras; you can get pupusas really cheap which is great. I was really hungry when our pupusas arrived I said out loud, “yum, yum, yum,” and made the waiter laugh. Afterwards we went to a bar/restaurant where they had some dancing and karaoke and spent the rest of the night there. Tad and Steve had some Honduran women dance with them and try to teach them how to salsa or something; it was entertaining to watch.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Thursday and Friday, March 25 & 26
Thursday
I had a pretty good day, although it was hot and my kids were tired, crazy, and ready for break as much as me! I was a little frustrated during tutorias, but made it through and came back home for dinner and packing for Semana Santa! One cool thing today: got a ride up to my house in the back of an empty dump truck! It was great.
Friday
Today was a good day, considering it was the last day before vacay. Everyone was kinda laid back and did easier stuff; we let our kids play or have a party to celebrate. Tad, Laura Beth and I left right away after school to Gracias to catch the bus to Santa Rosa to pick up our friends. I was so excited on the bus; I was bouncing up and down on the seat because I couldn’t wait to finally see Mandi and Amy! They were coming to Honduras for our Semana Santa to travel and see me. We had been planning this since the fall and it was finally here. When we arrived in Santa Rosa, I rushed off the bus with my stuff and sprinted across the street to Espresso American where they were waiting. I literally attacked them when I saw them; we caused quite a scene! Semana Santa could finally begin!
We did all of the introductions between Mandi, Amy, Tad, Laura Beth and Tad’s two friends, Mike and Steve. Steve met Mandi and Amy at the airport and they all traveled to Santa Rosa from San Pedro together. Mike is actually working in Honduras right now for a microfinance group which is helping small coffee farms down here (if you want more info about this, let me know!). Mike had found us a hotel so after all the intros we loaded into taxis and settled into our hotel. We freshened up and headed out for dinner in town to a great pizza place. For those of us from Gracias, it was a treat to have great American-like pizza! Everyone got to know each other more chatting about jobs, Honduras, the States, West Michigan, etc. We ended the evening at the hotel poolside. Tomorrow….COPAN!!
I had a pretty good day, although it was hot and my kids were tired, crazy, and ready for break as much as me! I was a little frustrated during tutorias, but made it through and came back home for dinner and packing for Semana Santa! One cool thing today: got a ride up to my house in the back of an empty dump truck! It was great.
Friday
Today was a good day, considering it was the last day before vacay. Everyone was kinda laid back and did easier stuff; we let our kids play or have a party to celebrate. Tad, Laura Beth and I left right away after school to Gracias to catch the bus to Santa Rosa to pick up our friends. I was so excited on the bus; I was bouncing up and down on the seat because I couldn’t wait to finally see Mandi and Amy! They were coming to Honduras for our Semana Santa to travel and see me. We had been planning this since the fall and it was finally here. When we arrived in Santa Rosa, I rushed off the bus with my stuff and sprinted across the street to Espresso American where they were waiting. I literally attacked them when I saw them; we caused quite a scene! Semana Santa could finally begin!
We did all of the introductions between Mandi, Amy, Tad, Laura Beth and Tad’s two friends, Mike and Steve. Steve met Mandi and Amy at the airport and they all traveled to Santa Rosa from San Pedro together. Mike is actually working in Honduras right now for a microfinance group which is helping small coffee farms down here (if you want more info about this, let me know!). Mike had found us a hotel so after all the intros we loaded into taxis and settled into our hotel. We freshened up and headed out for dinner in town to a great pizza place. For those of us from Gracias, it was a treat to have great American-like pizza! Everyone got to know each other more chatting about jobs, Honduras, the States, West Michigan, etc. We ended the evening at the hotel poolside. Tomorrow….COPAN!!
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