A day Out!!! and etc...

Not the best picture but to give an idea of how cows are transported to their death....here tis. We saw a larger cow in a smaller truck last week. but couldn´t get a picture of that.

Santi wore his lifevest for about an hour after he got out of the boat, when he went on  a walk with ¨Uncle Daniel¨.  There were beautiful cabbage and potato fields. 

My boat´s crew captain. 11 years old.

This tiny old lady could steer these three mean cows like nobody´s business.

¨the Dock¨

Lake Chiligatoro

I love the brightly colored houses

Mr. Daniel....champion rower

Getting ready to go. I think this was Santi´s first boat ride. this was an unplanned adventure.

Eric, 12, first time seeing a lake. 

I really don´t know what´s happening here. 

Hiking

Resting.  Here Mr. Daniel is imitating the cows across the way.

Wow. What a pretty river.

Picking wild blackberries. YUM! This is Jose. He was one of my first grade students my first year teaching in La Esperanza. He´s in fifth grade now!

Santi really enjoyed being outside! We walked...and walked...and walked...

¨Gala¨ 

mmmm....NON Poop-flavored carne! yea!

Our old friends invited us to their new property where we BBQ´s and explored. 

Enjoying the new homemade playdough and toothpicks

I showed him how to make a snowman and use toothpicks as arms 

Santi´s ¨snowman¨ 

Jorge and MIguel get promoted!

Miguel introducing himself

And Jorge. Sorry this was the best picture. 

Entering into their new third grade classroom.

Jorge was a little apprehensive at first.

Abely, in the green shirt, is a sister from church who teaches special ed at the school and who helped us get Jorge and Miguel ready to be mainstreamed.  She is very excited for them and involved in their development still.

She´s a very encouraging speaker. Here she´s introducing us and encouraging all the students in their studies.

Update on Jorge, Miguel, and Fatima

Miguel and Jorge came by today.  They were both wearing their PE uniforms, looking all proud. Yes, that´s right, they´re back in school after a 2 month teacher strike! Praise God! They seem to be doing pretty well. they have matured alot lately. After the death of their mother they have just moved up the mountain a little bit from where they were living and are being taken care of by an aunt. they have running water in the house and say that they take a bath daily, which, by the looks of them today, is true! yea! They proudly showed us their notebooks of work they´ve done and shared with us that their teacher is talking about moving them up to second or third grade soon, even though the school year won´t end until late November...or maybe January since they´ve missed two months.  Remember that they are 14 and 13 years old, so this would be great! We have a meeting with the teacher tomorrow morning at 7.30.

Speaking of getting up early, this morning a handful of men from church came to the house at 4.30!!! to pray. I helped the night before prepare two breads, banana and orange, and fry up the beans, and cleaned the house. So I stayed in bed when Beto got up at 3am to scramble some eggs, put them on bagettes with ¨sour cream¨and beans.  I also prepared the coffee last night...¨ESPRESSO AMERICANO¨!, SO ALL  Beto had to do this morning was ...¨CLICK¨ turn it on this morning.

This is an old tradition that the men got out of the habit of doing and are starting to get into again. Today was the first one in about a year or more and I´m glad we volunteered, because now we don´t have that hanging over our heads...¨should we invite this week¿¨but others will have to volunteer each week now.

I actually really like getting up early. WAIT. I think I just heard my mom faint!  In theory more than in practice.  Since the men made a little bit too much noise around 5.30 Santi woke up and then wanted to go eat with them. So we stayed up and I got a lot done, which I really needed to do. Santi andBeto took early naps around 10am and Santi went to bed early which means he should get up early, which I like much better than getting up at almost 10. ugh...

I spent most of my day at the computer reviewing a bunch of times all the paperwork that Beto has to have ready for his  US Residency interview at the embassy here in May! woo hoo! It´s a lot of details and we HAVE to have it all correct the first time.

Something we have to bring to the interview is proof of our relationship since the beginning and with santi, family, friends, in different settings, etc. So I spent a few hours going through all of our photos on Facebook, our blog, and our computer.  I found some of Miguel from when we first met him and I didn´t realize he was so small then and how much he´s grown!!! It´s amazing to look back and see from where and to where God has brought him and his family.

Last Sunday we were taking his older sister and her family back home after church and Beto asked her when was the first time she ever went to church. She said when we took her just a few years ago, and she´s in her early twenties. We had no idea. Sometimes we don´t realize what God is doing through us or that He is using us, but He is always Faithful!

An opportunity to give

http://www.christianchronicle.org/blog/2011/03/sudden-illness-claims-life-of-church-member-a-mother-of-five-young-children/

Please follow the link above to read about a Pepperdine graduate that passed away suddenly a few weeks ago.  I only knew of her when I was a student at Pepperdine.  She was the young mother of 5, from ages 3 months to 8 years old. This story really touches my heart. 

Day Trip

These were a big attraction. See how much we get out?

We paid about $2.50 to have a professional picture taken that came out about like this.  Santi is so proud of ¨his¨horse.  

We tried numerous times to get Santi to wear the hat but he INSISTED that the hat belonged only and always on the horse.

See? He doesn´t want me to wear it either.

This is my favorite. Truly captures the ¨real¨us. 

Santi and his ¨aunt¨Crystal at some fountains in the restaurant where we had lunch.  there were also birds, monkeys, deer, rabbits, peacocks, ducks, turtles, maccaws, and some others behind the restaurant.

The birds´area

He asked to get on one and then got scared. Checking them out from far away.

This is how we all felt by the end of the day.

We finally got to take a trip about an hour down the mountain to a little bigger town to celebrate my birthday.  .  Our first stop? COFFEE! There´s a ¨Starbucks¨equivalent in HOnduras that really doesn´t even compare but it´s pretty good! At least I got to buy three pound bags of coffee which is very good.  We walked around town looking for good clothes but alas, unless the used clothes place that brings US brands has anything, it´s hard to find anything good at the HOnduran stores that sell new stuff.
Then we visited the grocery store that sells exotic goods like Cool Ranch Doritos!
It was a good day out!