easter.

ok. I'm blogging. It's been a little while, but I do have a lot to talk about :) Spring Break was really wonderful. It was fun to make new friends and hang out with old, but I was happy to be home after the week of gallivanting around the country! After Copan Ruinas, we went to Tela, which is a beach town. Tela is actually the place where most Hondurans go for their vacations. Most non-Honduran tourists go to La Ceiba or Roatan, but it's good because it's cheaper and you get more culture! The first day we got there, the weather was really beautiful, but I spent the two hours of prime afternoon beach time in a bank line. That was pretty fun. The next day was really rainy, but we girls went shopping around town and that was good. I mostly just browsed, because I'd completely under-budgeted for the trip but I liked just looking at all the different things! We ate at some really good seafood restaurants (I have never enjoyed seafood. Side story: Once upon a time, my dad worked at a company and we went to a conference with him at a fancy restaurant with fancy meals. The first night, I got a whole salmon. with the eyeball still in it. haven't wanted to eat seafood since... until now!) My food tastes have become really adult since being here, so that's good news. :) The third day, we finally had a good day of sunshine. The rest of the group actually went on a kayaking trip, but because of my money shortage, I opted out and instead enjoyed a day at the beach (I got some of my hair braided), and enjoying the air conditioning in our hotel room. I also finished East of Eden! Oh it was so good, if you haven't read it, you should. (I guess depending on your age, I don't really know what my reading audience age-range is so... kids, ask your parents :)) The last day in Tela was when all the local people were coming in for their vacations so we got to see a lot more activities. We got henna tattoos, saw fire dancers, ate some really good food, and met and talked with different Honduran groups. On Thursday, we traveled to San Pedro Sula to bring everyone to the airport. On the way there, we discovered that on Friday (the day we planned to go home), there would be NO buses going anywhere. So we were stuck in SPS. Tad, Rach, Mike and I dropped everyone off at the airport and then ended up staying for a couple hours and playing Euchre. This is a card game I've never learned before, which apparently is practically a sin for someone that went to a Midwestern Christian college- especially a Dutch one! but, I learned and I don't think I was too bad. We had heard of a hostel to try so we got in a cab after wasting as much time as we could in the cool airport and asked our driver to take us to the hostel. While in the car, we started talking with him, and he told of us a different place that was cheaper and nicer. SO, of course we went there! It was nice and fairly cheap :) This hostel had a rule about not eating in the rooms, but it had a really big kitchen with lots of utensils and a living/dining room for everyone to eat it. It was really neat. The night we stayed there, there was a group from Brown University, some girls from Norway, Scotland, Sweden and England, a group from Asia... it was crazy! But great to talk to people for a little bit. Saturday was our big travel day, and I was so thankful to be home after a long day on the bus.

When I got home Saturday, I actually ended up spending the evening to myself. My other roommates weren't home and I had some emails and grading and stuff to catch up on so I just worked at the house. It ended up being a good and bad thing. It was good to have some time to myself, but I think it was bad because I got to thinking about things. In the last couple weeks, there have been a few significant deaths that have occurred to people I knew or have very close friends that knew/were related to them. Obviously, death is always hard for the people that it affects, but I also feel completely helpless as a friend. I can't do anything, and I REALLY can't do anything when I'm in another country. It was one of the few times that I've been really unhappy to be here. I think it was very interesting that it was Easter weekend. Good Friday is really celebrated here with the Catholic tradition, but Easter is not really a big deal. Easter is seriously one of my favorite times of the whole year. It is so soaked in tradition for me and my family and it was really hard not to do that this year. It was hard to not be at home for my friend; to not be at home for my family to give me advice and just to be there with them; and to not eat any Jello Jigglers or deviled eggs at the McKinley's and fight with Nick the whole time! :) It was also really weird to not have a huge Easter service and to celebrate and remember why we have Easter. I had to really think about it myself. I talked to my mom a couple days ago and we talked about how it kind of sucks that I have all these sad things that have happened to people so close to Easter- the one holiday where we kind of celebrate death- but also that it's kind of interesting because as Christians we know that Friday isn't the last day of the story. Sunday comes and Jesus gives a whole new look on life and death. My door has the phrase, "Morning Has Broken" and I think it is such a beautiful picture of Easter. It is always darkest before the dawn... (Batman anyone? :)) but after that, wow. When the morning breaks, it is so beautiful.

And I know beautiful. I live in Honduras! :)

Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Well, Spring Break has officially been happening for 2 days and I am SOOO thankful. After 3 straight months of work, we were all definitely ready for a break!

We (Rachel, Tad and I) left right after school on Friday and headed to Santa Rosa to meet up with two of Rachel's friends and two of Tad's friends who came to visit. We enjoyed some good coffee, getting to know each other, and PIZZA!! (I think the friends from the states were a little disappointed that we weren't jumping to show them Honduran food but... we haven't had pizza for a very long time :))Then we pretty much crashed in the hotel and prepared for a morning of traveling. Saturday we left early and took buses to Copan. We settled into our hostel (one room, 3 sets of bunk beds, and one extra bed in the middle- but its like $7 a night so we don't complain :)) and went and visited the bird park here in Copan, then went and had some supper. We walked around the town and visited a couple places that Rach and I remember from when we were here in October. We found a karaoke bar to hang out at for the evening so that was pretty exciting. A group from Utah was there and the first thing we heard sung was "Dancing Queen" so.... we stayed :) This morning, everyone went to the Ruins, but since I've already been there and am trying to save a little money.... I stayed home and read East of Eden. AHHH. It has been SO long since I've been able to read and I really, really love this book so far so it was definitely a morning well spent. For lunch we went back to the bird park because they have a natural pool there and our tickets last three days, so we swam there and ate after. It was so relaxing and such a beautiful day. At 3, we left on a 3 hour horse tour up the mountain. Our guides were really great and it was so fun! (The only time I've been on a horse was at Hidden Acres when they set us on top of a horse with a helmet on our head and walked us around in a circle :)) We're freshening up here at the hostel and then we're going out to dinner somewhere. There's a place here that has suuuuper good dessert so we might check that out too. :) Tomorrow we are leaving at 6am to go to San Pedro Sula and then on to Tela (the BEACH!) for a few days. We'll be bringing all the friends back to San Pedro and heading back home to start school again on Monday! Semana Santa is this week of Easter, and it's very celebrated here- with parades and services and parties. I'm not sure what all we will be doing or how much we will be able to join in the festivities because of traveling, but I'm hoping to see some celebrating. Maybe I'll have to buy some eggs, find a stove and some dye and have my own Easter egg hunt on the beach :)

Enjoy your Palm Sunday and the rest of this Holy Week!

fathers day in honduras....

It's Father's Day today during school. We've been working on cards all week, so today while my kids finished up, I came up with a song. Why not? It's TRADITION! (get it? :))

(Fiddler on the Roof)

I'll let you guess the tune. Maybe it'll take you awhile but... I think if you read through it, you should get it :)

this used to be my dad's van. this is my parking job. (he taught me, not my fault)

Well doctor dads are hip
I really dig those styles they wear
And the gangsta dads with the way they walk
They knock me out when I'm out there

The dads that work on farms really make you feel alright
And the policemen dads with the way they hit
They keep their families safe at night

I wish they all could be Dan Vander Ploeg
(wish they all could be Dan Vander)
I wish they all could be Dan Vander Plooooeg


The business dad has the shoeshine
And the surfer dads get so tan
I dig the dads that have their own business
Though none are quite as good as Dan

I've kind of been around this great big world
And I've seen all kinds of dads
Yeah, but I can't wait to get back in the states
Back to the greatest daddy in the world!

I wish they all could be Dan Vander Ploeg
(wish they all could be Dan Vander)
I wish they all could be Dan Vander Plooooeg

we both look really good in this pic. happy fathers day ;)

the mom day

Saturday I felt like a mom. (I kind of liked it, anyone surprised? :)) It was our neighbor Paola's 10th birthday party and she didn't have anything for her party. I'm not sure why, but I volunteered to help her shop in Gracias. She, Ramon and I headed down in the morning in the back of a pickup truck with about 9 other kids (there had been a free doctor at the school so we brought them home) and we started shopping. Well, first Ramon and I had to go to the bank and get money, so Paola came and sat on my lap and waited with me to talk to someone. Then we walked around and got plates and napkins and basic stuff like that. We stopped and had lunch and one of Paola's friends came by so she ate with us too. I told Paola she could order anything she wanted on the menu so she got this pork dish that came with fries.... she ate the fries and like one bite of the expensive meat. :) Then, it was on to the party store. This is where I think I learned parent lesson number 1. Do not ever bring a child into a party store if you don't really want to spend a lot of money! We walked in and there were a billion piñatas hanging from the ceiling. Paola expressed interest in a life-sized guitar (actually I'm pretty sure it was bigger than a real guitar) piñata because it had Hannah Montana's name on it and little picture of her face on there as well. I was not planning on getting a piñata, and especially not one that big, but there weren't any other age appropriate options so I ended up telling her we probably couldn't get one. She was really sweet about it, but the storekeeper had noticed the whole Hannah Montana exchange and definitely used it to his advantage. He was laying out banners and balloons and bags for candy and hats (including a really special, more expensive one for the birthday girl, of course!) candles and invitations and packages of 7 plastic cups .... all overpriced, none of which I really wanted to get.... but Paola was so excited!!! So we got all those things except the cups and invitations (the party was that night, duh) and she was so happy so it was mostly worth it ;)

We stopped at a choco-fruit store (frozen fruit dipped in fondue chocolate and then covered with a variety of things) that's owned by a mom of one of Paola's friends. We chatted with Lorean's mom for awhile while Paola played in the back. I think one of things that made me feel like a mom was that she kept asking permission for things- she asked if she could go to the pulperia with the girls and asked to go across the street and talk to her aunt, things like that - I felt like I was really in charge!

We got cake and some candy and finally headed up the mountain (we were in town for like 5 hours, I was pretty exhausted). Paola fell asleep and drooled all over my shirt on the way home , it was precious :) We got home and instead of taking a nap like I really wanted to, I filled all the bags with candy for favors and helped her pick out something to wear and painted her fingernails and nice bright pink. Her mom and aunt had made a huge pot of Chinese rice for all the guests (it's like a delicacy here, everyone is in love with Chinese rice) so when everyone got there, us girls helped pass out plates and then cleaned up. Paola was so happy and had such a lovely day. It was great to see her with all her presents and friends, but I was tired after all my errands so I went to bed, and let her real mom take over for the rest of the night and weekend ;) All in all it was a great day, and a great party even without the piñata ;)

lenguas.... (languages. or tongues ;))

When the verb ser is used with a first or second person subject in the main clause, followed by a relative clause, the verb of the relative clause will be conjugated in third person, based on its agreement with the relative pronoun as subject.

uh huh. So, I have this Spanish grammar book from college. Let me tell you a little bit about me and Spanish in college.... we did not get along. I think I had a boyfriend during my grammar class which equaled not as much studying as I should have done, and there was all this grammar vocabulary that I didn't understand at all. I think in one of my education classes, I had a professor that said we learn things like that to forget them, so as far as English went.... I don't remember direct objects or relative pronouns or antecedents. Anyway, all that to say, when we moved those to learning in a different language... I really, really didn't understand and I didn't try to learn it. (Bad idea, kids, pay attention in class!- and I'm not just saying that cuz I'm a teacher now ;))

Fast-forward a couple years, and I'm now having to teach the English language and grammar to my 6th grade- which means I really have to know what I'm talking about! So, now that I actually understand some of these vocabulary terms, I actually really enjoy the grammar side of things. So, I decided to take out that Spanish book (which I brought to Honduras for fun, and didn't understand at the beginning of the year) and I understand it now! Which means my Spanish skills have improved greatly. I also am trying really hard to talk to people in Spanish and not worry if I sound dumb. I'm learning! YAY!

windmills and wooden shoes and honduras.

k. part two of 'how books dictate my life'

This one time, (like last weekend) my roommate Rachel's parents were coming to visit. I folded all my clothes for the first time since... September probably (I'm not even joking), we organized all the food on our shelves so they looked nice, and had ourselves a through Spring cleaning. Monday night, everyone was gone and I decided I should clean the bathroom since... that's an important thing to do when you have company coming. (I learned that from my mom ;)) So, I started in and here's the thing with our bathroom- the sink is pretty terrible. It's this tiny little porcelain thing that moves everytime we touch it. Pretty iffy. Also, the plastic pipes are cracked so at the beginning of the year I had put plastic and duct tape around them to keep the water from spraying out. This works fairly well, but there's still a pretty steady drip so we keep a big bucket underneath that we empty every few days. Well. People were visiting- and not just any visitors- parents! So, we had to make it look we really know what we're doing here :) I thought it would be a good idea to readjust the plastic and fix it up a little bit. Once I took the plastic off, I decided the pipes were really gross and it'd be a good idea to clean them out. So, I took the pipes off and stuck them in a bucket of bleach water. Then I investigated. (If you've read Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, you might know where this is going. If not, keep reading because it gets better :)) I discovered that the sink was held on by a metal plate and the screws were loose and I thought, "Wow, if I can just screw this thing back in our sink will be fixed and everyone will think I'm ridiculously handy!" First problem- we don't have a screwdriver in our house. But we do have butter knives which ended up being the perfect size. Second problem: the sink is what water comes out of and there are tubes connecting the faucet to the water outside. I found this out when I thought I'd just take the sink off the wall and unscrew whatever that little white thing was attached to a tube running into the wall.... yes. I have a college degree, and yes a very powerful stream of water came shooting out at me and into our bathroom.


I solved this problem by screwing the tube back on and deciding to just hold the sink while I also screwed the plate back in. Slightly tricky angle, but do-able.... except for the fact that our house is made out of adobe, which is basically dried mud. This means that no matter how many times I screwed that stupid thing in, it was going to keep falling out because the wall is just not strong enough to hold it anymore. So I was stuck. Rachel came home (thankfully her parents decided to stay in town for the night and come see our house in the morning) to a soaking wet roommate and bathroom. We both ended up working on the sink for about 40 minutes, which included the oh-so-lovely water tube that was attached to both wall and faucet to this time come out of the faucet and spray both of us several, several times (after seeing me, Rach put on her swimsuit before helping so I would probably say she's the smarter of us two ;)). So what does this have to do with my book? I'll tell you! In Hans Brinker there is a story about a little Dutch boy who, on his way home, sees a leak in the dike and sticks his finger in it. He stays there all night because he knows if he takes his finger out, the water will make the hole bigger and bigger and pretty soon all of Holland will be flooded!


So, Rachel and I were two little Dutch girls with our thumb over a tube for a very long time (to save all of our house from being flooded!) before we decided to call a neighbor to see if there was any way to turn the water off to our house. Which, of course there was. So we set our sink on the floor and went without water until some people from school came up Wednesday and today and fixed it for us. Now we have shiny, new metal pipes; some branches that the cut to keep the sink propped; and a faucet that somehow got broken off and doesn't work. Which means.... we still can't use our sink, but that will have to be fixed another day. :) Anyway, it was a pretty fun time and quite the learning experience!


ps. It's taken me this long to find out that I can put pictures throughout my blog instead of all in a big clump in a separate blog , so maybe I can start being a little more high tech and add pics :)

how books have completely dictated my life :)

I've decided to stay a second year.... I told my principal on Monday and he was pretty excited. I also said something about it to my kids and they were even excited, and a little disappointed I'm going to stay teaching 6th grade and not moving on to 7th. :) So that's a good thing right? I've been thinking about living here a lot lately- obviously- because I was trying to decide if I should stay for sure.... and let me give you a list of books that helped me make my decision:
Swiss Family Robinson
Little House books
all the American Girl books
(ok movie but still...) Peter Pan
anything about Native Americans
anything about WWII- esp Anne Frank and The Hiding Place where people stay hidden in walls :)
Chronicles of Narnia
Boxcar Children

see any theme in these books? ok maybe you don't because maybe you haven't read them so I'll just tell you. They're all these stories about kids/people having to live out in the wilderness or by themselves or foraging around for food and shelter and water.... my siblings and I would seriously play these kind of games all the time. We'd run around outside all day and pretend we were on a boat looking for an island, or be sitting in our teepees cooking 'food'.... one time, my dad got mad because we'd pulled up a bunch of plants for our 'supper' and it was his rhubarb haha :)

Anyway, what does this do with now? I love my life. I feel like I'm really Laura Ingalls Wilder or Roberta from Swiss Family Robinson or Peter Pan! (cuz most of the time, he really is being played by a girl so, I can say that :) I've found that I love love love having to wash all my dishes outside and look at the mountain while doing it; that I wash all my clothes by hand; that I burn trash... it seems so romantic and simple and lovely. you should all come try it :)

So. that's what's going on. I have a second edition of 'how books have completely dicated my life' that is related to the book Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (a Dutch favorite ;)) but I'm going to have to wait to share about it because it is WAAAY past my bedtime. I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've blogged, I'll try to get better at the updates!