It's the weekend! It's February!
On Friday, I had a minor meltdown because I couldn't find ANYTHING to wear. I brought 3 pairs of navy pants and 2 navy skirts to use for my uniform... most of them were slightly bigger than I would normally wear clothes, but they were super cheap and I figured I'd wear a belt. Well, I walk up and down a mountain every day and have started running after school with some of the other teachers which has resulted in losing a little weight-- which I know is a good thing, but not when your clothes don't fit and there's no place to buy them in Gracias! Friday, my only option was the pants I'd been wearing all week and they were covered in dust and dirt so I was very frustrated. Luckily, Sarah lent me some of her pants, but parent teacher conferences are this coming weekend so I knew I'd need to figure something out so I didn't look like some unprofessional, young girl who didn't care how she looked! I talked to one of the teachers, Ana, and she said we could just go to Santa Rosa this weekend and she could help me find something. So, that's what we did! Ramon, Ana and I travelled about an hour to Santa Rosa on Saturday morning and spent the day shopping. We went into several stores and the market and eventually I was able to find a pair of pants and a skirt I liked. It was an interesting experience. Women's dress clothes here are made of really thin, really clingy material. So that was the first problem. Second problem is that Honduran women are TINY. We went to the market and tons of stands were selling navy dress pants but hardly anyone had bigger than a size M and no one had over a size L. Apparently in Honduran pant size, I'm an XL so that was discouraging, especially because the reason I was shopping was because I've lost weight!! :) There were a couple funny moments though. At the market (which is just rows and rows and turns of stands inside a big building), they let you try pants on behind their stands and someone would pin up a towel in the back corner. One place, they had no back area and no way to pin anything up, but they did have a big baby bassinet that could block one side of me and a lady that could hold up a blanket on the other side of me. So, I tried on pants with a baby looking up at me the whole time from one side, and a lady looking at me from the other. :) The pants were buttonable but certainly not wearable- you know what I mean, when your stomach just pushes itself out all over the sides of your pants? yeah... not something I'm going to be wearing to school. I showed Ana and said they were too small, and then the lady selling me the pants lifted her shirt up and showed me that's how she wears her pants! :) It's actually how most women wear clothes, which I find so odd. The tighter you can wear something, the better, even if it means you have shirt buttons popping and pant tops folding over. Very attractive, but not the look I'm going for :) Eventually I found what I needed - I got both the skirt and pants for about $22, or 450 Lempiras, which I thought was really expensive but... necessary purchases! Ana was so helpful and brought us to a sweet little coffee shop where I had some delicious chocolate cake! I ended up spending the evening with Ana and my neighbor Mrs. Laureles- we made some Valentine's for our kids, gave ourselves pedicures and watched a movie!
Today, I had an extremely productive day. The girls all went to town but I just couldn't get myself out of bed, so I stayed there until 10:30 (!!!!). Then, since there was no one around, I got bored and started to clean. I cleaned our kitchen, swept and mopped the floors and did all my laundry (including my bedsheets!) all by myself! Then, I burned some trash and by that time Jacki and Sarah were back. They bought some flowers in town, so we planted those in front of our house- it's so pretty! So, now I'm covered in sweat, ash and dirt and our water is off :) Hopefully I get clean before our Super Bowl party tonight! I think we are having PIZZA, and Kirsty and Rachel are making puppy chow right now! I don't think I care who wins, but last year John Elway was on one of the commercials so.... cross your fingers!!!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Ponderings (that is what blogging is for isn’t it?)
Last week, I had music clips of different instruments for some of my music classes to listen to. We've been studying the difference between winds, percussion, brass.... So, I used some music for the kids to hear the differences between the instruments. One song was "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic (proud, Flake?) .... It has some good flute at the beginning and the kids like the song so I thought, "Why not?" :) I played my different clips for the sixth graders and one girl, Angelica ((ahn-hel-ee-kah) said, "Miss, I don't like this song." When I asked her why, she told me that it was her and her dad's song- he had been in a car accident and didn't know if he'd make it out of surgery, so he told Angelica that would be their song. Now.... I'm sure many of you remember the Titanic craze... I was in 6th-ish grade (so the grade of my kids!) and I remember some of my friends going seeing it 13 times in the movie theater. I ... wasn't allowed to see it at all. :) It may conjure up images of a super sappy love story or a ridiculously over-romanticized Leonardo DiCaprio but... if you actually listen to the words of the song, especially right after your student told you this story and that her father had indeed died... you might get a little choked up. Not only did she tell me about her dad, but Angelica then asked Leonela (Lay-oh-nay-la) if both her parents were still alive. Leonela said, "My mom, yes. My dad... I don't know. We don' tknow where he is" to which Azucena (Ah-su-say-nah) responded, "Yeah, my dad moved to the United States and stopped answering our phone calls and changed his number." This conversation went on in the same week that the father of one of our third graders was shot and killed because of his huge involvment in drugs. Basically, Titanic ruined my week.
What awful places and homes our students come from! Every single one of my students has had a family member die and for most of them, it's way more than one. The amount of crap they deal with is so, so terrible to hear. I'm beginning to learn that most of the students are not setn to the school because it is a Christian school, and, being from strong Christian families the parents want their children to grow spiritually. Instead, it's because it is a prestigious school and you can make a lot more money if you can speak English. Ahhhhh. cute.
However, I can at least say that that is not the intent of the school and its administration. I think God can definitely use twisted philosophies to further HIS philosophies.... I pray that my students are learning something from me besides English.
My students have been memorizing verses in song form. Some of the songs are definitely ones I made up, some are from VBS, some are random songs I know from church, and some are from STeve Green (I love him. I don't care that all my music selections are from the 90s!) The songs might have a few words missing or a few added, but the content is there. These are the verses we know so far.... how many do you recognize?
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning- great is Thy faithfulness.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and give peace.
Jeremiah 32:27
Ah, Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power. Ah Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thine outstretched arms. Nothing is too difficult for Thee- great and mighty God, great in council and mighty in deeds.
Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!
Philippians 2:14-15
Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may be called blameless and pure children of God.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Matthew 7:12
Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law of the Prophets.
II Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.k
I John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another for love comes from God and anyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, loveth not God for God is love.
k that's all I can remember right now- but look, I know them too! There's lots and lots of verses on love.... a few on how to behave in class.... ;) I am decorating my door for Valentine's Day and using ....
I Corinthians 4:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in good. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
I really, really love these verses and have always meant to memorize them but... haven't. SO. I think I'll make up a song and teach it to my kids and that will be the next one we learn. Just in time for the day of LOVE!!!!!
ok. Sorry this is full of lots of extra readin this time... pray for my kids, their families, all that. Enjoy your week!
What awful places and homes our students come from! Every single one of my students has had a family member die and for most of them, it's way more than one. The amount of crap they deal with is so, so terrible to hear. I'm beginning to learn that most of the students are not setn to the school because it is a Christian school, and, being from strong Christian families the parents want their children to grow spiritually. Instead, it's because it is a prestigious school and you can make a lot more money if you can speak English. Ahhhhh. cute.
However, I can at least say that that is not the intent of the school and its administration. I think God can definitely use twisted philosophies to further HIS philosophies.... I pray that my students are learning something from me besides English.
My students have been memorizing verses in song form. Some of the songs are definitely ones I made up, some are from VBS, some are random songs I know from church, and some are from STeve Green (I love him. I don't care that all my music selections are from the 90s!) The songs might have a few words missing or a few added, but the content is there. These are the verses we know so far.... how many do you recognize?
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning- great is Thy faithfulness.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and give peace.
Jeremiah 32:27
Ah, Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power. Ah Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thine outstretched arms. Nothing is too difficult for Thee- great and mighty God, great in council and mighty in deeds.
Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!
Philippians 2:14-15
Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may be called blameless and pure children of God.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Matthew 7:12
Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law of the Prophets.
II Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.k
I John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another for love comes from God and anyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, loveth not God for God is love.
k that's all I can remember right now- but look, I know them too! There's lots and lots of verses on love.... a few on how to behave in class.... ;) I am decorating my door for Valentine's Day and using ....
I Corinthians 4:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in good. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
I really, really love these verses and have always meant to memorize them but... haven't. SO. I think I'll make up a song and teach it to my kids and that will be the next one we learn. Just in time for the day of LOVE!!!!!
ok. Sorry this is full of lots of extra readin this time... pray for my kids, their families, all that. Enjoy your week!
Monday, January 18, 2010
I love my life.
This weekend was a nice, relaxing time at home. Since getting internet at our house we don't have to go to town so much and if we do, we don't have to stay for 5 hours while trying to catch up with everything! We also are getting a ride up and down from our house right after school on Wednesdays to grab groceries which is really nice because we don't have to take a mototaxi back up and/or stay for a long time. This Saturday we ended up walking to town just for fun but we didn't bring anything ... backpacks, computers, etc. We just walked! I even got a little sunburn! (The weather has been mostly warmer so that's nice). Saturday night we had church and hung out with friends. We have a new teacher here - Tad Vanden Brink from Michigan. He'll be helping at our school with the ESL program as well as teaching some Social Studies classes!
Sunday morning I went to the comedor and hung out with our neighbors. Abi and I spent about half an hour outside chasing hens and little chickens around - it was so great! Then we went inside and Abi did my hair and make-up - it was so beautiful! Luis Enoc also joined in on the fun but this was after he'd eaten a bunch of cookies so I had make up, glitter, knots and cookie crumbs in my head. Perfect Sunday morning/afternoon :) Since I was over, the neighbors made me stay for lunch- we had Yuca con chicarron. Yuca is kind of like potato or yam and chicarron is really good fried pork. Sonya had put some spices on the pork and it was SO SO SO good.
I had a dream last night that I was in Half-Price books picking out books for my kids. When I woke up I got so sad! I've been doing DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) for the first ten minutes of my reading class with the kids and we use books from the school library, but there aren't a lot of books that work for my kid's English reading level and are interesting. So after waking up from this dream, I layed in bed for a little while (well, obviously I stayed in bed, it was like 1 am :)) but I stayed up and thought for awhile and this is what I came up with.... if anyone is interested in donating books.... wouldn't that be so cool? You could put a little note in it and my kids could have some interaction with people from where I'm from! Anyway..... just a thought, I love books so so much I want my kids to like reading too! I think their reading level is about 2-4 grade so... Boxcar Children, those Great Illustrated Classic books, anything that has to do with soccer.... anyway. so if you want to send something.... that would be SO GREAT!
LBVP
guancascos
gracias, lempira, honduras.
ok. anyway, that has been my weekend! Today at school was great. I thought of a fun treat for my fellow teachers- teach the kids the Lamb Chop song. If you were a child, parent or teacher in the 90s, you probably know this song but if you don't .... here are the lyrics:
This is the song that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it, not knowin what it was
And they'll continue singing it forever just because (repeat.... forever)
What? I had to teach that repeat didn't always just mean two times! So now there are 2nd through 4th graders in Honduras that can sing that song. And my friends are.... really happy with me :) Ah.... the freedom of beinga teacher without curriculum. ;)
Not a lot elso going on. Hope everyone is having a great week! (how's the weather)
This weekend was a nice, relaxing time at home. Since getting internet at our house we don't have to go to town so much and if we do, we don't have to stay for 5 hours while trying to catch up with everything! We also are getting a ride up and down from our house right after school on Wednesdays to grab groceries which is really nice because we don't have to take a mototaxi back up and/or stay for a long time. This Saturday we ended up walking to town just for fun but we didn't bring anything ... backpacks, computers, etc. We just walked! I even got a little sunburn! (The weather has been mostly warmer so that's nice). Saturday night we had church and hung out with friends. We have a new teacher here - Tad Vanden Brink from Michigan. He'll be helping at our school with the ESL program as well as teaching some Social Studies classes!
Sunday morning I went to the comedor and hung out with our neighbors. Abi and I spent about half an hour outside chasing hens and little chickens around - it was so great! Then we went inside and Abi did my hair and make-up - it was so beautiful! Luis Enoc also joined in on the fun but this was after he'd eaten a bunch of cookies so I had make up, glitter, knots and cookie crumbs in my head. Perfect Sunday morning/afternoon :) Since I was over, the neighbors made me stay for lunch- we had Yuca con chicarron. Yuca is kind of like potato or yam and chicarron is really good fried pork. Sonya had put some spices on the pork and it was SO SO SO good.
I had a dream last night that I was in Half-Price books picking out books for my kids. When I woke up I got so sad! I've been doing DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) for the first ten minutes of my reading class with the kids and we use books from the school library, but there aren't a lot of books that work for my kid's English reading level and are interesting. So after waking up from this dream, I layed in bed for a little while (well, obviously I stayed in bed, it was like 1 am :)) but I stayed up and thought for awhile and this is what I came up with.... if anyone is interested in donating books.... wouldn't that be so cool? You could put a little note in it and my kids could have some interaction with people from where I'm from! Anyway..... just a thought, I love books so so much I want my kids to like reading too! I think their reading level is about 2-4 grade so... Boxcar Children, those Great Illustrated Classic books, anything that has to do with soccer.... anyway. so if you want to send something.... that would be SO GREAT!
LBVP
guancascos
gracias, lempira, honduras.
ok. anyway, that has been my weekend! Today at school was great. I thought of a fun treat for my fellow teachers- teach the kids the Lamb Chop song. If you were a child, parent or teacher in the 90s, you probably know this song but if you don't .... here are the lyrics:
This is the song that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it, not knowin what it was
And they'll continue singing it forever just because (repeat.... forever)
What? I had to teach that repeat didn't always just mean two times! So now there are 2nd through 4th graders in Honduras that can sing that song. And my friends are.... really happy with me :) Ah.... the freedom of beinga teacher without curriculum. ;)
Not a lot elso going on. Hope everyone is having a great week! (how's the weather)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
back again.
I remember the one reason I liked snowy cold weather (and there is only one reason) - all the bugs are dead. The first week back I quickly acquired 17 new bug bites- 3 on my face, one right under my eye which proceeded to puff up and make me feel like I was squinting at people for about 4 days :) But other than that, I'm pretty happy to be back. I thought I'd be thrilled to be back, which I am, but it was a little bittersweet realizing how long it's going to be before I'm home again. For those of you wondering... yes Emily's wedding was beautiful. I only cried a little bit :)
When I left Honduras it was 70 degrees. When I came back, it was FREEZING. Okay, so relatively freezing. It's between 40-50 degrees which sounds like it could be decent but.... it's windy and cloudy and gray and we can't escape from it ever. Our houses and schools are completely open so I just dress in lots and lots of layers :) Hopefully it gets back to being nice and sunny and WARM!
School has been about as good as can be expected for the first week back. My kids are wild and goofy and don't want to work! I bought a gumball machine while at home with lots and lots of gumballs to use for incentive with my class. The first day I had it at school, I (yes of course it was me!) knocked it on the floor and since it only cost a dollar it definitely broke... right after I filled it all the way up with gumballs. I instantly had 21 sixth graders crawling on the floor trying to grab all of them. awesome :)
I have actually felt really out-of-sorts since being here and I don't if it's from lack of sleep over break or just getting back into daily routine. Saturday, we were walking down the mountain and I turned my head to make fun of one of my friends (two lessons here: 1) never make fun of your friends 2) never, ever stop looking at the road when you are walking on a mountain). I tripped, fumbled around in the air for a little bit, and then landed on my hands and knees and skidded for a second. It was great! I think my palms will heal but... kind of sucked while it was happening!
Part two of feeling out of sorts was Sunday morning. We usually try to make pancakes over the weekend because we actually have time to have a long breakfast. I thought I'd be helpful and cook that morning.... pancakes from a mix- easy right? It should be .... but for some reason I could not make pancakes. Plus I was knocking things off shelves all over the place- in my defense we have a very small kitchen without any counters but still- I felt very uncoordinated and ridiculous. After scraping 4 pancakes into the trash, I burst into tears and told my roommates I just couldn't do it! Looking back now.... it's funny. Crying over pancakes? hilarious right? :) But I really did feel highly incompetent and stupid so it was kind of a bummer. Anyway, I think I've mostly gotten over my more-than-usual uncoordination but .... we'll see :)
OH. I forgot. I'm typing this from my house. We got internet on the mountain :)
Enjoy your week!
When I left Honduras it was 70 degrees. When I came back, it was FREEZING. Okay, so relatively freezing. It's between 40-50 degrees which sounds like it could be decent but.... it's windy and cloudy and gray and we can't escape from it ever. Our houses and schools are completely open so I just dress in lots and lots of layers :) Hopefully it gets back to being nice and sunny and WARM!
School has been about as good as can be expected for the first week back. My kids are wild and goofy and don't want to work! I bought a gumball machine while at home with lots and lots of gumballs to use for incentive with my class. The first day I had it at school, I (yes of course it was me!) knocked it on the floor and since it only cost a dollar it definitely broke... right after I filled it all the way up with gumballs. I instantly had 21 sixth graders crawling on the floor trying to grab all of them. awesome :)
I have actually felt really out-of-sorts since being here and I don't if it's from lack of sleep over break or just getting back into daily routine. Saturday, we were walking down the mountain and I turned my head to make fun of one of my friends (two lessons here: 1) never make fun of your friends 2) never, ever stop looking at the road when you are walking on a mountain). I tripped, fumbled around in the air for a little bit, and then landed on my hands and knees and skidded for a second. It was great! I think my palms will heal but... kind of sucked while it was happening!
Part two of feeling out of sorts was Sunday morning. We usually try to make pancakes over the weekend because we actually have time to have a long breakfast. I thought I'd be helpful and cook that morning.... pancakes from a mix- easy right? It should be .... but for some reason I could not make pancakes. Plus I was knocking things off shelves all over the place- in my defense we have a very small kitchen without any counters but still- I felt very uncoordinated and ridiculous. After scraping 4 pancakes into the trash, I burst into tears and told my roommates I just couldn't do it! Looking back now.... it's funny. Crying over pancakes? hilarious right? :) But I really did feel highly incompetent and stupid so it was kind of a bummer. Anyway, I think I've mostly gotten over my more-than-usual uncoordination but .... we'll see :)
OH. I forgot. I'm typing this from my house. We got internet on the mountain :)
Enjoy your week!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
el programa de navidad
The Christmas Program.
well. I'm glad that's over with! Our morning started with a ride down the mountain at 6:30 in the morning. During this ride, I somehow dropped my cell phone out of my pocket into the streets of Villa Verde and it was kindly picked up by one of my neighbors! We got to the church about 7 and got ready for the kids to come. We practiced from 8-11:30. That day was the first time we worked with the drama people from Tegucigalpa so it was a lot of moving around and deciding stage placement. My girls were SO GOOD. We all brought books and just sat and read together or played Uno or Memory... it was wonderful, I was so thankful that it was only my girls dancing because I had no boys to keep in line! Still, it was a long morning and my girls were happy to go home for lunch. The teachers and I ran to a restaurant that had baleadas for 8 lempiras! (that's like 30 cents. and they're delicious) Then it was back to the church at 1 to begin decorating. We had an interesting decorating set up- we had to tape about 32 pieces of poster board together and then nail it onto a wooden frame for the back drop to two huge canvas paintings (of the town of Bethelehem of course). Not only did we have to do this almost impossible task once, but we had to make one blue posterboard creation and one black. Of course by the time we had it all taped together, the posterboards had slowly gotten taped together farther and farther down so that when we tried to nail them on the wooden frames.... it was disastrous. I'm sure there was a better way to have done it, but by the time we got to that point of realization it was too far into the process. We were all tired and ready to go to bed and we were only halfway through our day! The principals had estimated we'd be done setting up by 4:30, but 4:30 turned into 5:30 and we had to eat supper before the kids started coming at 6:45. We ran to the same place as lunch and I left early to find some safety pins in case my girls skirts decided to fall down. I went to several, several stores looking for 'ganchos'. One store, the guy brought me to hangers, clothes pins, bobby pins, and diaper pins-- apparently all are called ganchos but there weren't any actual safety pins. Very frustrating. It was getting kind of late, and I still needed to get ready so I decided to give up and walk back to the church. Surprise.... I got totally lost. Gracias is not a big town, there's no reason I should have gotten lost but I did! I asked lots of different people how to get to the church or the big paint store that I knew was right by the church and every person told me a different direction. Remember how I dropped my phone in Villa Verde? So... no way to contact anyone. Perfect! It was about 6:20 and I needed to be ready at 6:30 so I finally grabbed a mototaxi and he brought me. I was so thankful I gave him 100 lempiras (about $5) which is an obscene amount of money for a taxi ride but I didn't even care I was so happy to be alive and not lost! With about 3 minutes left I threw some clothes on and skipped the very, very necessary 'wash my hair' part of getting ready... I'd been working in a hot church all day so I felt pretty disgusting but! Such is the life of someone who is completely directionally challenged. :) My girls arrived looking lovely and their skirts stayed up so we were saved from that humiliation. The program started out fine, but when it was my girls' turn to get up on stage, I told them to go ahead and go and I started walking over to the floor where I would remind them of motions. Some other teacher (I'm pretty sure someone from Tegucigalpa) was standing by the stage and yelled at my girls that they couldn't start yet and told them to get off the stage.... and as soon as they walked back down, their music had begun and they were supposed to be dancing! They walked/ran to the middle of the stage, stood like they were ready for the song to begin except it was already beginning and... oh it was terrible. I kept mouthing, "JUST START HERE!" and would do the action... and then would say it again while the girls continued to stand there without moving, staring out into the audience. I felt so bad for them! Finally someone in the sound booth started the song over and my girls danced beautifully, but it was a ridiculously stressful moment!
The rest of the program went well, we finished about 10 pm and went home exhausted. I was pretty proud of myself on Tuesday and Wednesday because I actually required that my students work for awhile and they complied! Our party was great, I went home and packed in about 20 minutes (seriously), and hung out with the girls and our neighbors for our last evening in Honduras. Thursday morning, we woke up and drove to San Pedro Sula. Normally we take the bus, but the family of one of my students offered to take us in their van service. It took about 3 hours instead of the usual 5-6 on a bus, so that was awesome! We relaxed in San Pedro for the evening and left for the US in the morning.
So. I'm at home! Wedding stuff is starting, so it should be a busy, fun couple of weeks. I'll be in Em's wedding on January 2, drive to Omaha on January 3, and fly out early on the morning of January 4. See you then!
well. I'm glad that's over with! Our morning started with a ride down the mountain at 6:30 in the morning. During this ride, I somehow dropped my cell phone out of my pocket into the streets of Villa Verde and it was kindly picked up by one of my neighbors! We got to the church about 7 and got ready for the kids to come. We practiced from 8-11:30. That day was the first time we worked with the drama people from Tegucigalpa so it was a lot of moving around and deciding stage placement. My girls were SO GOOD. We all brought books and just sat and read together or played Uno or Memory... it was wonderful, I was so thankful that it was only my girls dancing because I had no boys to keep in line! Still, it was a long morning and my girls were happy to go home for lunch. The teachers and I ran to a restaurant that had baleadas for 8 lempiras! (that's like 30 cents. and they're delicious) Then it was back to the church at 1 to begin decorating. We had an interesting decorating set up- we had to tape about 32 pieces of poster board together and then nail it onto a wooden frame for the back drop to two huge canvas paintings (of the town of Bethelehem of course). Not only did we have to do this almost impossible task once, but we had to make one blue posterboard creation and one black. Of course by the time we had it all taped together, the posterboards had slowly gotten taped together farther and farther down so that when we tried to nail them on the wooden frames.... it was disastrous. I'm sure there was a better way to have done it, but by the time we got to that point of realization it was too far into the process. We were all tired and ready to go to bed and we were only halfway through our day! The principals had estimated we'd be done setting up by 4:30, but 4:30 turned into 5:30 and we had to eat supper before the kids started coming at 6:45. We ran to the same place as lunch and I left early to find some safety pins in case my girls skirts decided to fall down. I went to several, several stores looking for 'ganchos'. One store, the guy brought me to hangers, clothes pins, bobby pins, and diaper pins-- apparently all are called ganchos but there weren't any actual safety pins. Very frustrating. It was getting kind of late, and I still needed to get ready so I decided to give up and walk back to the church. Surprise.... I got totally lost. Gracias is not a big town, there's no reason I should have gotten lost but I did! I asked lots of different people how to get to the church or the big paint store that I knew was right by the church and every person told me a different direction. Remember how I dropped my phone in Villa Verde? So... no way to contact anyone. Perfect! It was about 6:20 and I needed to be ready at 6:30 so I finally grabbed a mototaxi and he brought me. I was so thankful I gave him 100 lempiras (about $5) which is an obscene amount of money for a taxi ride but I didn't even care I was so happy to be alive and not lost! With about 3 minutes left I threw some clothes on and skipped the very, very necessary 'wash my hair' part of getting ready... I'd been working in a hot church all day so I felt pretty disgusting but! Such is the life of someone who is completely directionally challenged. :) My girls arrived looking lovely and their skirts stayed up so we were saved from that humiliation. The program started out fine, but when it was my girls' turn to get up on stage, I told them to go ahead and go and I started walking over to the floor where I would remind them of motions. Some other teacher (I'm pretty sure someone from Tegucigalpa) was standing by the stage and yelled at my girls that they couldn't start yet and told them to get off the stage.... and as soon as they walked back down, their music had begun and they were supposed to be dancing! They walked/ran to the middle of the stage, stood like they were ready for the song to begin except it was already beginning and... oh it was terrible. I kept mouthing, "JUST START HERE!" and would do the action... and then would say it again while the girls continued to stand there without moving, staring out into the audience. I felt so bad for them! Finally someone in the sound booth started the song over and my girls danced beautifully, but it was a ridiculously stressful moment!
The rest of the program went well, we finished about 10 pm and went home exhausted. I was pretty proud of myself on Tuesday and Wednesday because I actually required that my students work for awhile and they complied! Our party was great, I went home and packed in about 20 minutes (seriously), and hung out with the girls and our neighbors for our last evening in Honduras. Thursday morning, we woke up and drove to San Pedro Sula. Normally we take the bus, but the family of one of my students offered to take us in their van service. It took about 3 hours instead of the usual 5-6 on a bus, so that was awesome! We relaxed in San Pedro for the evening and left for the US in the morning.
So. I'm at home! Wedding stuff is starting, so it should be a busy, fun couple of weeks. I'll be in Em's wedding on January 2, drive to Omaha on January 3, and fly out early on the morning of January 4. See you then!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Estaré en casa para navidad! (i'll be home for christmas!)
WEEK TWO: SHEPHERDS
I will be home in six days. Crazy. We've been working on our Christmas program, so that's been keeping me busy which is good. Monday is the night of the program and we have to be in town at 7:20 am, we're practicing for 4 hours, have a break for lunch, the teachers stay and help decorate until 4, be back to practice again at 5:30 until the program at 7, have the program and stay to clean up afterward! s0.... looking at a very long day with school on Tuesday morning :)
This week was shepherds (pastores) and I hid pictures of the Christmas story characters around the school and made the kids a scavenger hunt page to try and find them all. They LOVED it. They were a little better at keeping secrets this week so that's good :) Only 3 people found Baby Jesus, so I was excited about that hiding spot :) The kids were pretty good considering the crazy schedule this week so that was nice. My only frustration was with trying to teach "Research Projects" - which includes bibliographies, sources, taking notes.... bah. Hopefully they are able to understand eventually! It's especially frustrating because there is not a lot of resource books in our library. The project is for the students to research a country (not Honduras or the United States) because that was about the only thing that could be researched with the books, and even those are sadly lacking in information. Example: most of the books have maps with the USSR still labeled. So... who knows how accurate the information is, and I don't know how many of my kids have access to the internet (plus that would make another rich/poor division between my students), but I suppose they can still gain the research project experience even if the information is completely inaccurate!
I'm really happy with things here, but as it gets closer to 'being home' time, I've started thinking about the things I will NOT miss about living here ... here are some of them:
~ not being able to flush toilet paper/having to throw that trash away
~ the billions of mosquitos/spiders/ant bites that I have had for four months now
~ rocky terrain wherever I go
~ having to pay things in exact amounts (everything is done in cash here and no one ever has change)
~ crappy internet
~ I'm going to put 'cold' nights, but I know I can't really complain based on the blizzardy weather in Iowa right now :)
~ not being able to drink tap water
~ no carpets anywhere
~ people not being able to call me back!!
~ not being able to watch Broncos games
~ my family and friends!!
So hopefully not having all these things in the US will balance out the nasty weather that I am not looking forward to AT ALL!
See some of you in a week! The rest of you... whenever :) Have a good 3rd week of Advent!
I will be home in six days. Crazy. We've been working on our Christmas program, so that's been keeping me busy which is good. Monday is the night of the program and we have to be in town at 7:20 am, we're practicing for 4 hours, have a break for lunch, the teachers stay and help decorate until 4, be back to practice again at 5:30 until the program at 7, have the program and stay to clean up afterward! s0.... looking at a very long day with school on Tuesday morning :)
This week was shepherds (pastores) and I hid pictures of the Christmas story characters around the school and made the kids a scavenger hunt page to try and find them all. They LOVED it. They were a little better at keeping secrets this week so that's good :) Only 3 people found Baby Jesus, so I was excited about that hiding spot :) The kids were pretty good considering the crazy schedule this week so that was nice. My only frustration was with trying to teach "Research Projects" - which includes bibliographies, sources, taking notes.... bah. Hopefully they are able to understand eventually! It's especially frustrating because there is not a lot of resource books in our library. The project is for the students to research a country (not Honduras or the United States) because that was about the only thing that could be researched with the books, and even those are sadly lacking in information. Example: most of the books have maps with the USSR still labeled. So... who knows how accurate the information is, and I don't know how many of my kids have access to the internet (plus that would make another rich/poor division between my students), but I suppose they can still gain the research project experience even if the information is completely inaccurate!
I'm really happy with things here, but as it gets closer to 'being home' time, I've started thinking about the things I will NOT miss about living here ... here are some of them:
~ not being able to flush toilet paper/having to throw that trash away
~ the billions of mosquitos/spiders/ant bites that I have had for four months now
~ rocky terrain wherever I go
~ having to pay things in exact amounts (everything is done in cash here and no one ever has change)
~ crappy internet
~ I'm going to put 'cold' nights, but I know I can't really complain based on the blizzardy weather in Iowa right now :)
~ not being able to drink tap water
~ no carpets anywhere
~ people not being able to call me back!!
~ not being able to watch Broncos games
~ my family and friends!!
So hopefully not having all these things in the US will balance out the nasty weather that I am not looking forward to AT ALL!
See some of you in a week! The rest of you... whenever :) Have a good 3rd week of Advent!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
angels we have heard on high!
First week of Advent: ANGELS
My family celebrates each week of Advent with a different character from the Christmas story (apparently that's not how all families do it :)). The first week we talk about the angels and have Secret Angels (like Secret Santas). So, since the teacher gets to decide everything and I miss Advent with my family.... this week, I had my class participate! We read Luke 2 and learned different Christmas songs each day (they don't know any Christmas carols!) We also drew out Secret Angel names ... by the end of the week every single one of my kids knew who their secret angel was, including mine. So.... we may need to work on the keeping secrets thing. :) But, overall it was a wonderful way to begin getting ready for Christmas. The weather here is so nice and I don't watch tv to see ads, so I kind of forget it's Christmas. The girls and I had a bonfire a few weekends ago and in the middle of chopping down wood for the fire, Kirsty chopped down a tree that we've decorated with lights and ornaments and that's about as winter-y the house has gotten!
I finished teaching the choreography this week, so now we just have to perfect the dance! They have moved the program to be next Monday, December 14, so that gives us a lot more time. Wednesday and Friday of this week we are getting out of classes at noon to go to Gracias and practice on the stage where we'll be performing. The program is a really big deal- people from the school in Tegucigalpa are coming and it's going to be televised. The outfits are 525 lempiras each because a seamstress is making all of them. That's about $25 each which is a LOT of money for the families here. That's kind of frustrating because the students will only wear it once, but if they don't have money to buy them they can't be in the program. As teachers we've pretty much decided to pay for any of our students so that they can be a part of the Christmas ,program, but it's a little frustrating. It's an expensive school so most of the students are from wealthy families, but there are also quite a few scholarship students and I wish there weren't expenses that caused division.
I think it'd be really great to find some families from the United States that would be willing to support students for the Vida Abundante Schools, so if anyone is interested , let me know and maybe when I'm home at Christmas I can get more information out.
Speaking of being home for Christmas.... that's in two weeks! I almost can't believe it. Things have gone so quickly here and I'm sure with our Christmas programming, it will just go faster. I'm really excited to go home but not really excited about the snow. I've almost forgotten what real cold feels like :(
Hope your weekends are wonderful, pray for me and my kids this week that we don't kill each other working on this dance! And that the boys won't die of boredom while I teach the girls for 2 hours a day! Second week of Advent: Shepherds! Woo!
My family celebrates each week of Advent with a different character from the Christmas story (apparently that's not how all families do it :)). The first week we talk about the angels and have Secret Angels (like Secret Santas). So, since the teacher gets to decide everything and I miss Advent with my family.... this week, I had my class participate! We read Luke 2 and learned different Christmas songs each day (they don't know any Christmas carols!) We also drew out Secret Angel names ... by the end of the week every single one of my kids knew who their secret angel was, including mine. So.... we may need to work on the keeping secrets thing. :) But, overall it was a wonderful way to begin getting ready for Christmas. The weather here is so nice and I don't watch tv to see ads, so I kind of forget it's Christmas. The girls and I had a bonfire a few weekends ago and in the middle of chopping down wood for the fire, Kirsty chopped down a tree that we've decorated with lights and ornaments and that's about as winter-y the house has gotten!
I finished teaching the choreography this week, so now we just have to perfect the dance! They have moved the program to be next Monday, December 14, so that gives us a lot more time. Wednesday and Friday of this week we are getting out of classes at noon to go to Gracias and practice on the stage where we'll be performing. The program is a really big deal- people from the school in Tegucigalpa are coming and it's going to be televised. The outfits are 525 lempiras each because a seamstress is making all of them. That's about $25 each which is a LOT of money for the families here. That's kind of frustrating because the students will only wear it once, but if they don't have money to buy them they can't be in the program. As teachers we've pretty much decided to pay for any of our students so that they can be a part of the Christmas ,program, but it's a little frustrating. It's an expensive school so most of the students are from wealthy families, but there are also quite a few scholarship students and I wish there weren't expenses that caused division.
I think it'd be really great to find some families from the United States that would be willing to support students for the Vida Abundante Schools, so if anyone is interested , let me know and maybe when I'm home at Christmas I can get more information out.
Speaking of being home for Christmas.... that's in two weeks! I almost can't believe it. Things have gone so quickly here and I'm sure with our Christmas programming, it will just go faster. I'm really excited to go home but not really excited about the snow. I've almost forgotten what real cold feels like :(
Hope your weekends are wonderful, pray for me and my kids this week that we don't kill each other working on this dance! And that the boys won't die of boredom while I teach the girls for 2 hours a day! Second week of Advent: Shepherds! Woo!
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