I have had the most enjoyable last few days. On Friday evening, our friends Dennis and Vicente were in Villa Verde with three people from a church in Michigan that buy supplies for our school. We went out to supper with them and then spent time with our friends. Saturday, we cleaned up our house a little bit and brought our laundry to be done by some of our neighbors. Us girls attempted doing one load of our white shirts last weekend, and while we were fairly successful, it took us a long time. Since we haven't really done any other laundry since being in Honduras, there was a lot between the four of us and our neighbors offered to do all of it for us. Paying for it is definitely worth it- my clothes were clean and dried in the sunshine. Wonderful. It's pretty much decided that Sarah and Jacki will just stay in the house with Rachel and me. We seriously enjoy every minute of our time together- every night is full of ridiculous laughing and dance parties and getting to know one another. It also is going to save us money! So on Saturday, we went into town and picked up a bunch of groceries and some things to make our house a little 'homier'. We bought a bunch of mats four about $2 each, a shower curtain rod (up until this point we've been using the shower curtain as a bathroom door because we didn't have a rod big enough for the shower, but this meant when someone showered, the bathroom was inaccessible, so the rod is a drastic improvement!

One thing about shopping in Gracias is that there aren't any Walmart or Target-like stores. We had to go to one store for our shower curtain rod and a pot; another store for our cereal, peanut butter, sauces, and other more American food; several stops through the market for various fruits and vegetables; and then we always stop at a place that sells homemade fresh fruit popsicles that are delicious! The lady who owns the store gave us some sample bags of her chile salsa and pico de gallo salsa that were wonderful as well, so we'll have to go back for some full jars.

One of our favorite treats to make involves cookies called Intensos (they don't really do candy bars here, it's more cookies or chips). Intensos are kind of like those Kuebler elf cookies except better. This weekend we discovered that if you add peanut butter and sprinkles... oh my goodness, they're so good. We've maybe gone a little overboard on eating them but that's ok. We realized this weekend that we haven't really had any snacks since being here so we're just trying to change that a little bit!

We've actually eaten really well and I like almost every food I try. On Sunday, our neighbors who own a comedor (a small restaurant) invited us down the road for breakfast. They made us baleada, which are basically tortillas folded in half filled with beans, cheese and mantequilla- which is kind of like a creamy sauce they use for all kinds of things. We also had some coffee that they make with pepper and cinnamon- something I'm probably going to have to keep drinking when I come back to the States because it was SO good. Paola also ran up to a little vineyard and got us some little grapes.

Our neighbors are absolutely wonderful. Paola is in fourth grade and it's her grandma and aunt that own the comedor. Her aunt, Sonia has two kids- Abigail (pronounced Ah-be-guy-yil here) who just turned three and Luis who is a year and a half. Sonia is 23, so basically the age of all of us girls. We went swimming with all of them on Sunday afternoon and it was so fun. That afternoon, Sonia came and taught us how to make tortillas and we ended up doing a pretty good job! The kids came over and played in our house- Sonia told us they ask all the time to come visit and we love having them here. They are so precious. That evening we went to church with the family. All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

School coming on Monday morning wasn't that bad either. I had one of those days where I just loved teaching. I have always, always loved kids and wanted to be a teacher, but yesterday I just loved the TEACHING part of it. I'm not sure what it was- it wasn't that my students had this sudden breakthrough of 'oh! I get it!" but they try so hard and I love explaining things to them. I really love sixth grade. My kids are wonderful and sweet and understand humor. Today, the people that are working on our courtyard were using lots of loud tools. Since our classrooms are all open, it made it very difficult to teach and I kind of made a dirty look in the direction of the workers and said something like, "Can you please just be quiet?" One of the boys who gets in trouble all the time for talking piped up, "Miss! Put their name on the board!" since that's what I do if the kids don't stop talking. It was so funny, and of course I wrote 'workers' on the board with several checkmarks. My kids loved it.


After school on Monday, a lot of the Honduran teachers were getting together to play soccer (or as they call it here, futbol). They wanted us Americans to join but none of us play futbol so we were pretty hesitant. The second reason we were hesitant is that our PE teacher, Mr. Bran (who is also our neighbor) was going to be 'coaching' us. Mr. Bran spent last year as a trainer for the Honduran Woman's Futbol team. He told us they're not very good at all but... they're still a professional tean and for someone like me that about the only things I play are a musical instrument or ping-pong... was a little intimidating. However, we girls decided we should probably start bonding with the staff and just play. It ended up being a lot of fun and if I stay on defense, I think I could be a fantastic addition to the team! :)

This weekend we are planning on traveling to San Pedro Sula to see the Hoduran mens futbol team play against Trinidad and Toboggo. All of us girls are really excited. I've been missing my BBroncos so it will be nice to cheer for someone again. We had such a fantastic weekend this past weekend that it will be hard to beat, but I think it's possible. I'll let you know how it goes!


Oh and sorry, I want to post some pictures but sometimes the internet at the place we go is waaaaaay too slow and it's just impossible. I'll try to soon!