La Esperanza...Hope

I’ve moved! And I have a peace that God has brought me here and that I am where I am supposed to be. Let me tell you a little story.

So I’m in the Burger King at the airport last Wednesday after dropping off our last groups to go back to the U.S. A gringo turns around to Amber, Alyssa, and I and starts to casually make conversation by asking us if we’re flying out. We get to talking and I find out that he works at a bilingual school about 4 hours Teguc. I tell him I’m a teacher looking for a job. We exchange information. That night I call the director and tell him I met Ken in the airport and would like to know more about the school. He invites me to come check out the school the next day.

So Thursday I get up at 4am, but with our time change recently I actually got up at 3am. When I realize that I am too early to catch the 6am bus, I go back to sleep. Later I get to the bus station to find out there isn’t a 6am bus, there’s a 7:20 bus which puts me at the school at 11am, but I told the director I would meet him at 9am, and I don’t have any cell phone minutes to call him. I wait at the bus station until 7am when the stores open so that I can buy a phone card. Well, by that time the bus was full. So I had to take a taxi home, call the director (Troy), and tell him I will come the next day.
After a few minutes he calls me back and asks if I can take a bus to another city nearby the school as soon as possible and they will pick me up there. So I get in a taxi for the third time in 3 hours and take the bus to a town called Siguatepeque (see-gwat-uh-peck-eh).
They pick me up and we drive another hour to La Esperanza, where I see the school and have my interview. They ask me why I came to Honduras. After I tell them my story the academic director looks at me and says, “You are the one for this job. We have been praying and waiting on faith and here you are.” They hired me to teach English to 2nd-6th grade. There is a school bus that will pick us up everyday at 7:30 and take us home at 4.
That night on the way home in the bus, I did a lot of thinking. This is a great (and only) opportunity that pays decent and provides a furnished apartment that I don’t have to pay utilities for. But I’ll be living alone (although other teachers will live in the same complex), and not know anyone, and have a much smaller living area. But after talking to Amber, who said God definitely has His hand in this, I knew He was leading me here.

So here I am, in my kitchen overlooking a quaint neighborhood lush with greenery and flowers, and mountains. It’s raining and peaceful. This village and surrounding areas is the poorest in Honduras, with an average income of only about $350 per year. I will have a lot of adjusting to do. It is so different from Tegu. The other teachers told me that the electricity goes out a lot just “whenever”, which it did today. There are no ATM’s, no fancy coffees, no “Espresso Americano’s” (like Starbucks), no Dunkin Donuts, no big supermarkets, malls, or theaters. It is definitely “Hometown Honduras”. But I like so many things about it: the quaintness, the cool weather, the quietness, peacefulness, and simplicity. One could walk the entire town in about an hour or less.

I have met really wonderful, friendly, Christian people here that work at the school. Ken (who I met at Burger King) and his wife have fed us 2 meals already and will feed us tonight. Ken has taken me into town twice to show me the market, the central park, coffee shops, internet cafes, etc. to help me get oriented. He took me up to a point where we could overlook the town and so I could see where everything is from our apartment. There are two permanent outdoor food markets in town, mostly fruits and veggies, and on the weekends the mountain people come down to sell their goods... it kind of reminds me of a small European town in that you can’t really buy everything you need in one place; you go one place for meat, another for bread, another for butter, etc. In fact yesterday we went to “the best grocery store” in town. When I went to the “deli”, someone called over a lady who took out a prepackaged stack of ham for me. That’s about as fresh as lunchmeat gets here I guess.

I have met the other teachers. The director and his wife are wonderful people. They picked us all up for church today and I love it. They are the type that will bend over backwards to help out someone. Tomorrow they will provide lunch at the school and will soon have us all over to their house for dinner. They also bring pizza or lasanga to the school for the teachers about twice a month, homemade. I was just thanking God so much for bringing me here. The church is exactly like a place I’ve been praying for god to take me this past year because it is alive and fulfilling!

Thank you for your supporting me and staying up to date on this journey. It is so exciting to see what god has done and is doing, that He brought me here “at the last minute”, but of course, at just the right time. After other jobs fell through and other opportunities didn’t succeed, here I am moved to another town and just 5 days ago I had never heard of this school. It is called Southwest School, and isn’t labeled as Christian but the kids do receive bible class there and the teachers are encouraged to pray and lead a short devo at the beginning of each class time if they want.

Thank you for your continued prayers.
Finally, as some of you may know, Beto moved back to Guatemala about a month ago to look for work. It has been very difficult but we are learning a lot. Please pray for him personally and for us relationally. I am actually closer to the Guatemalan border here than I was in Tegu so he’s planning on making a once a month trip here to visit.

Blessings!
Check out more at southwestschoolhonduras.com