living on the mountain

August 21 , 7:30 pm

Well I just got home from Parent Orientation. Today was a really good day, but really tiring. I was able to meet some of my students and every single one said they were very excited for school to start. I was a little worried getting sixth grade because other than having a sixth grade sister and seeing her interact with her friends, I don’t really know a lot about them. :) I chose an ocean theme for my room because 1) I am an El Ed major and themed rooms are necessary 2) I had the perfect door saying “Swim into Sixth Grade!” 3) The teachers said we needed decorations and it was slim pickin’s - the ocean seemed best. However, I was a little worried that ocean (since I did this same sort of thing for my first grade class) would seem babyish. (I tried to judge it by what Olivia would think but… she’s happy with anything :)) But I talked to the other Honduran teachers and they reminded me that the kids here stay ‘young’ longer because they don’t really have tv and movies and video games that make kids grow up faster. It seemed to be the case today when kids stopped by so… whatever :) I guess the true test will come on Monday- I’ll let you know if they tear everything down and run me out!
I guess tonight would be a good time to tell a little more about our living situation. My current roommates are Rachel (from Grand Rapids), Sarah (Indianapolis), and Jacki (Bolingbrook, Illinois near Chicago). We’re living in Rachel’s and my house while Sarah and Jacki’s roof gets repaired. They could be here for a monthish but.. It’s ok. It’s been really fun living together- we’re currently chillin, singing along to “American Pie” - classic. It’s also nice during the week to come home, have supper and then work on all our school stuff! Note: sometimes singing and school work is interrupted by what we are beginning to call ’Monster Bug Bash” - various ridiculously huge bugs that want to live with us! Weapons to choose from? A broom, walking stick, a machete left in the house… for the common moth/beetle/spider we’ll just use a flip flop or a piece of nicely aimed candy :) The first night the girls lived here, I was sick and not up in the house yet but I missed out on the bug fest of the century. The second night I was here, and we got smart. Rachel took the plastic wrapping from her mattress and we created a 'screen' with the plastic and duct tape. The next night we added our mosquito nets to the door frame and another window. It’s pretty great. Now we just smash a few big bugs a night instead of dozens and dozens. We’ve also found some big toads sitting in our kitchen. So, living on the edge of a national park has it’s ups and and downs.

This weekend we’re going to pick up some groceries and supplies in town. We’re going to walk down (about an hour and a half) and we'll be getting a ride back up in a mototaxi- it’s kind of like a clown car with three wheels and no doors- it’s steered by bicycle handle things…. :) It’s nice because then when we come back up the mountain with all our purchases we don’t kill ourselves carrying that weight! One of our neighbors owns a mototaxi so we just call him up when we need a ride and he’ll give us one for 70 lempiras (19 lempiras= $1). Our neighbors here are SO NICE. Tonight Rachel and I were walking home from Parent Orientation and some of our neighbors own a store and invited us in and gave us some Cokes because we were obviously exhausted from hiking up the mountain. They’ve also invited us over for supper and the women there told us they’d teach us how to make tortillas. They also have the sweetest kids that are constantly bringing us gifts. One night while we were over there, Sarah mentioned that she liked their clay wind chimes - they have windchimes with various shapes and this particular one had some little houses as the chimes. Two seconds later the girl, Paula had gotten her little scissors out of her room and snipped one of the houses off and gave it to Sarah! So, we just have to be careful about what we say we like. :) But, it’s very nice to have neighbors that we can hang out with and get a little family flavor.

Well we’ve moved from American Pie to Hairspray so we’re still having a good Friday night but I think I’m out of things to say for right now. Thanks for reading!

PS Our lights just went out. So I’m typing by candlelight. Very dual-century of me, don’t you think? :)