Monday-Friday, May 3-7

The days during the week seem to run together more now so I forget what’s happened until I take time to remember the week (or ask other people what happened this week). Unfortunately, our water has not been consistently running for about a week now. That means we take showers at Kirsty and Julia’s (or not at all); do dishes with water from jugs or the pila that we fill when the water’s on; have to flush the toilet using a bucket of water, and can’t wash our hands very well. I never realize how much I use water on a daily basis until I’m without the convenience of it. We’re still not sure why it’s been on and off the entire week because we have plenty of water in the river behind our house so water shortages or outages aren’t necessary. We don’t know if it’s something to do with our pipes or pipes farther up the mountain or what. It just gets kinda old waiting for the water to come back on or wondering if you’ll have water in the morning or not. I think it probably bothers us more than our neighbors. They deal with it (although I would think it would bet a little annoying to them as well) because they’re used to it happening. We, being from America, are used to having water at our immediate disposal whenever we want it; therefore when it’s like this consistently for a week, we get upset. I was thinking about this and other things that happen in Honduras that can get under my skin. It bothers me more because I’m not used to it being a part of my normal life. Buses breaking down, the water not running or electricity going out are all a part of a ‘normal’ life for quite a few Hondurans; so it doesn’t bother them to the extent it may bother me. It would be like if my car broke down or had problems everyday in the States; I would come to expect it so while it’s still frustrating, I expect it. Most cars aren’t like that though in the States so when something like that happens, we get angry, frustrated, all those great emotions. That’s the best comparison I can make at the moment…

We had some visitors to our house this week. One of Jacki’s friends in Michigan knew these people and they were coming to visit Honduras and decided to come to Gracias because we were here and they’d have a place to stay. So Tuesday night they rolled in after a full day of travel. Two or all of them were from the West Michigan area; both of the girls and the guy went to GVSU. It’s crazy talking to people who visit through connections because you always find other connections. I was talking to Justin, the guy, and found out we got to the same church back home and have mutual friends. I am always blown away by how SMALL of a world it is. Also, one of the girls, Betty Sue, had received an email about a teaching opportunity for ALCS and realized it was in Gracias where she was coming to stay. She didn’t end up interviewing, but coincidence just the same. They stayed with us for a few days and then left for Teguz to visit one of Justin’s friends who was teaching there.

Schoolwise, it was just a normal week. I did chapel on Wednesday about Mother’s Day and famous mothers in the Bible. Some of my kids were ‘pensar mal’ as they like to say (thinking badly) again this week. We had a new vocab list for reading and Marcos wondered why we didn’t have 10 words like we did earlier in the year because he liked the bigger lists. Leonela commented that he likes big things and some of my boys started laughing and giggling. I turned around and asked what was going on; the situation was explained and I couldn’t believe that their 10 and 11 year old minds went there! Since Mother’s Day was this coming Sunday, we took a few periods during the week to make Mother’s Day cards, on which the kids did an awesome job. Claudia’s birthday was on Wednesday, so her mom brought cheesecake for the class on Friday; as the kids would say que rico (how delicious, good, rich, etc). I have 5 school weeks left here in Honduras and 7 weeks until I get home. Only 5 weeks left of a 10-11 month experience here…wow. More reflections on that later.