More pictures of La Esperanza!

Us ladies in the smallest taxi in the world, with all of our luggage (3 big suitcases, 2 backpacks, and 3 other types of bags.)

Beto taking a picture of A.Glenda taking a picture of our room in La esperanza.

Just call me "Mama's Mule". Just Kidding. I love to help!



2 real mules...a popular mode of transport. Mom, Beto, and A. Glenda waiting for our bus to take us to Teguc. to go to the States the next day.


Notice the lady with the basket on her head. Totally normal. I plan on learning that soon.
In the blue truck...cheese, anyone?

and another ox cart parked by a valet.

Shelby's party and Seth and Ben's last night

Grandma with her favorite East Coast Gangstas!

I made the cake! Not professional, by far, but scrumpteously delicious!

Kinda blurry, but Seth with some of his favorite California girls! We drove to the top of Signal Hill to see the lights, and it was a beautifully clear night!

Seth and I at Shelby's party, and with their adorable dog, Jazmin.

We miss you Seth and Ben!

We love Seth and Ben

This morning my mom and I left at 5:30am to take Seth and Ben to LAX. Since we were already up, we went to Bake n Broil for breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal and Bake n Broil is my favorite restaurant. I'm going to have to buy new bigger pants after my one month here in Cali. I had blueberry pancakes, the "short stack" of just 3 huge pancakes. we get a lot of fruit in Honduras, but no blueberries, well, in the capital, yes, but not in my town.

We saw my mom's cousin there and had a nice breakfast together. Now I'm about to go back to bed till 11-ish when we leave for a King's Kamp meeting. I'm so excited to go to Kamp this year. I don't even remember the last year I was there. I'd have to really rack my brain to think when that was and I don't even like to rack my brain on a good day, let alone in a half asleep state.

I'm sad to see Seth and Ben go. It was an absolute RIOT to have them here. I hope my own kids are half as funny as they are some day. And they are considerate, strong Christians, and very helpful, just all around great young men.

Last night we drove out to the Riverside area to my sisters "new" house (my first time there) for my neice's 11th birthday party. It was a lot of fun, a lot of kids watching amovie, but we had Dominoes...mmm...,cake and ice cream, and she gave me a special party bag which wasn't a bag at all, but a leopard print chinese take-out box filled with girlie goodies! I love kids' birthday parties. Why don't adults hand out party bags anymore??? Filled with, like, phone cards, or starbucks gift cards, or movie tickets. hmm...getting some ideas...

Tijuana

Today, Seth, his friend Ben, and I drove to Tijuana, Mexico. We parked on the U.S. side and took a shuttle across. This is the way to go, except that on the way back there was still an hour wait at the border crossing. We walked around, ate, and shopped for about 3 hours before heading back. We're at the border under the arch. That helped us many times to get "unlost". Ben and i trying on hats, and a sign that says all you need to know for a visit to Mexico (except you gotta watch some tacos, know what i'm sayin?) We had a lot of fun but were exhausted!

Back in LA

Today was my second real official day back in Long Beach visiting the fam and friends. My nephew Seth is visiting from Florida with his friend Ben. Today, we, my mom, my neice and nephew who live here and Seth and Ben all took a tour of LA, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills.
As we drove past the Kodak Theater, we could tell something big was going on. There were news cameras, vans, and a large crowd of people standing around, but we couldn't really see anything. So we parked and went across the street for coffee. Then we walked across the street, went in a gift shop, and looked at the hand/footprints of some stars. Finally we reached the crowd and saw that it was Matt Damon getting his star on the walk of fame! It was so cool, but crowd control was...out of control. We couldn't seem to ever stand in the right place, but eventually we found a place about 10 feet from his SUV, so when he went to get in it to leave we were close and go some great pictures.

We also saw Johnny Depp just walking along the street in his pirate costume, coming out of a mini mart. REally it was a wanna be, but i rolled down the window and yelled "Johnny! Johnny!" He waved, smiled, and I took a picture as we slowly rolled by. It was awesome.

We didn't have a lot of time, but it was an amazing day...perfect weather, lots of laughs, and unexpected surprises!

Later we went to my aunts to swim and then to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner, where one of my nephews played a trick on Seth by telling the waiter it was his birthday, which really isn't till October, but Seth had to wear a "crown" and walk around the restaurant waving to his "fans" as we all sang "Happy Birthday!"

Happy Birthday Seth! We love you!

Vacation fotos

You can find Pepperdine fans ANY where!

Yummy .25 cent pineapple popcicle.

Us in front of our beach cabin in Roatan. Sooo hot and humid, but very fun, well, except for the sand flies! yuk!

All the iguanas just chillin'.

Me after translating nearly constantly for 2.5 weeks! Oh! And here specifically, I was trying to translate Italian to Spanish to English. Let's just say I had an appetite for dinner!

Snapshots

Just a few highlights from the trip. Mom and I (always sporting Waves pride, baby!) on the bridge over non-troubled waters at the bird park. I had the best cheeseburger in all Honduras. It's actually charbroiled, perhaps only 1 of 2 places that does that here!

The HOT MAMAS in our rented jeep! Look out!

At the iguana farm. The man and his wife have had the farm for over 25 years and it's a refuge for them (the iguanas, that is). People in Roatan burn hillside fires to drive them out, then kill and eat them. They started the farm just taking in a few and now have over 4,000! I got to feed them. We got there right at lunch time, so it was neat to see how they all scramble for the leaves. It sounded like pouring rain when they all walked (ran) at once. It was one of our highlights!

We've been having a good time relaxing in La Esperanza. Last night we moved to a smaller 2 bed room becasue the 3 bed room we had the first night was already reserved for these last two nights when we reserved our rooms. The bigger room had a nice big coffee table, a chair like a throne, a large cushioned bench for 3 people, and a mini fridge, with drinks!

This morning we were awakened by our neighbors and their tv at 7am. The hall isn't insulated like in a Marriot or something, so I had to politely tell them to please SIMMA DOWN NOW! The whole country seems to awaken at 5am, but at least they,for the most part, go to sleep early.

Later we enjoyed Beto's homemade Guatemalan tacos, and tonight we're dining with a colleague of mine who's making Honduran enchiladas. Tomorrow we leave for Teguc. and Monday for Cali! HOpe to see you there!

Almost done!

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in La Esperanza. We decided to fly back half way this time to save 5hhours, but we didn't expect to havea 3 hour delay in the airport in Roatan. We miraculously made it in time to catch the bus to La Esperanza and were at he hotel here around 4pm. We had a nice dinner there with Beto and got to sleep in today!

Our last few days in Roatan were really nice of course, but I don't miss the heat or the biting insects, flies and mosquitos. It's good to be home! Today we've been relaxing. Did some laundry and mom and aunt glenda helped me pack up my apt. which only took an hour instead of 3 days like we thought. it's going to be painted while I'm in the states. white instead of peachy pink. ehg to peachy pink.

we had so much fun in roatan renting the jeep and snorkeling. Aunt Glenda and I got burned on the backs of our legs and our backs, but it was worth it. If only we'd had an underwater camera! We were going to swim out to the reef but it's a long ways, so we took up a guy on his offer to take us out in his boat for an hour for $35. It was really worth it. He took us to one of the best spots where we jsut jumped out the boat and he stayed close to us the whole time. We saw tons of beautifullly colored fish, coral, and went to the drop off of the coral to the deep blue abyss. next time If i go again I'm definately taking a diving course. It's expensive but well worth it. I was just so anxious to go below the surface and keep seeing stuff. It's addicting!

In our jeep we rode around the island 2 days seeing lots of scenery and stopping whneever we wanted. it ended up being cheaper and "funner"than taking taxi's everywhere, and i hate knowing we're getting really ripped off on the taxi's prices. We went to a butterfly farm, which had cages of them and birds you could walk through. we also went to the iguana park where we walked through 100's of them on the ground. they also had some monkey's and an enclosed part of the sea with huge fish and turtles. all amazing.

we dined at some pretty nice places. well, nice isn't doing it justice. the restaurant sat high atop 70 stairs and the weather was perfect at dinner time. sometimes during the day we'd just be sweatin just sitting there. we definately needed some sweat bands from the 80's!

we did a lot of shopping and reading and napping in the a/c cabin which was a big hit with the ladies. it had a porch with chairs and an outdoor shower to rinse off before going in, and a mini frdge it was my 3rd time staying htere. they were the first hotel in that part of the island 35 years ago so they'know what theyré doing and are really nice, family owned.

when we went snorkeling we droke over the the best beach on the island and afterwards since we rented chairs for the day we stayed and read and ate and just were luxuriously lazy. the most embarassing thing happened to me though. I had bought a bikini only to wear there, i never wear them but i'd forgot my other suit. anyway, the back snap of plastic broke, but luckily i had quick hands and a tshirt over it, but i kept he top on underneath as best as i could becasue the tank top was white and you know how that is when it's wet. after we went snorkeling the captain, Gary, was pulling me into the boat. all of a sudden they all start laughing and saying my name and to look down. my top was dangling down around my neck. i just took it off and put it down. I was so anxiuos to get out of there when we docked i forgot it. Then Gary asked,"did you want me to keep this?"I didn't understand till i looked up and saw my top in his hand. it was all i could do to not grab it out of his hand and run away! Luckily it wasn't any worse!

een dee eye-lan,mahn!

It's saturday night...and we're exhausted.
yesterday we got up at 4am and our taxi was at the hotel at 4:45. That's right, we had our own personal taxi man the whole time we were in Copan Ruins. He was randomly selected to take us from the bus station to our hotel when we first arrived and he gave us his number, so we called him everyday to take us around. he was really sweet and didn't make mom or a.glenda nervous with crazy driving, so he was a keeper.

We rode the bus 3 hours and then had about a 1 hour, 45minute layover in San Pedro Sula, where A.Glenda and I walked to a mcDonald's to get breakfast. i'm not a huge fan unless I have it once or twice a year, and i think this may have been the second time of 07, so it was yuuuummmyyy!!!

Then we rode another bus for another 3 hours to the port, where we took a taxi about 15 minutes and waited at the port for about 2 hours. Lunch was microwave popcorn. yes, things were going a little downhill, but we weren't to be detered!

We boarded the boat and took a little bit of a choppy ride 2 hours to the island. They had to show the movie, "The Guardian" about scary Coast Guard rescues in dangerous seas. I tried to avert my eyes.

At the port they had the worst set up for people to get their luggage. It was all kept behind a waist high wall and behind it were only about 3 men working to get about 200 or more peopl's luggage. When we checked it we were each given a little ticket stub with a number, so the workers then had to go find our luggage with the matching number card attached to it. We just waited about 20 minutes till most people had cleared out. i was too tired to be pushy or aggressive at that point, something you learn you have to do sometimes in lines here or you'll stand in line aaaaaaalll day! We took about a 20 minute taxi drive to our cabin on the beach and have been relaxing ever since.

it's really hot and humid, but we got rain this morning and a lot this evening which helped to cool it off. This morning we found a really good New york deli, owned by New Yorkers, with good bagels, and the owner told us they had their first location on another part of the island. So we took a taxi late after noon to eat some snacks, but it closed about 2 minutes before we arrived. We paid $25, yes dollars! , round trip for the 40 min. taxi ride. You can pay for anything in dollars here and everything is so expensive. It's been such a shock for me to come from the poorest/cheapest part of the country to the most expensive! It's really hard for me to not feel like we're being taken major advantage of just because we're white, but at least I can "argue" in spanish if i absolutely have to.

Some pictures

At the bird park...mom guarding the mayan ruins, us in our taxi in front of the hotel, at a restaurant, mom and beto enjoying lunch, and me and aunt glenda having fun at Baxter. We miss everybody but are having a great time!blessings!

Macaw Mountain and Mayan Ruins

Yesterday we spent most the day relaxing since we traveled all day the day before. Yesterday afternoon we spent a couple hours at the famous Macaw mountain bird park, the only enclosed park of just birds...and a couple watch dogs, one named Ben Affleck. No resemblance.
We had a great English speaking guide included in the cost and the tour lasted around one hour. it´s a beautiful park with a creek that has a natural pool to swim in, and the restaurant sits on the bridge over it. We saw hundreds of different types of absolutely beautiful birds native to this region as well as some that are native anywhere from Canada all the way down to Argentina. We got some great pictures but unfortunately the computer here at the hotel is difficult to size them down in order to send. We each got a turn with a big Macaw on each arm and on our heads! Our guide was really funny and a great photographer! Afterwards we enjoyed a nice cup of coffee in the coffee shop. The coffee is locally grown and amazing, if you like that sort of thing.

Today we were up and at em almost as early as soldiers. Our tour guide, Juan, arrived at 7.30 and we took the local golf cart taxi one Kil. to the Mayan ruins. our tour was all walking and our guide was English speaking and very energetic. It lasted over 2 hours but it was amazing as well. When we arrived we were the only ones in the 25 mile square park and it was so cool and peaceful since it was only about 8am. The dew was still on the grass and it was cooler since it had rained the night before. We had a great time. All the people here, at least our tour guides, have all been very friendly, down to earth, and laid back, just like the culture.

After the tour we had brunch and played in the pool a bit, read our books, then did some shopping and had dinner. Tomorrow we can sleep in, thank goodness!

Thank God we are all healthy and able to enjoy so much of His beautiful creation!!

Tim Archer...my mom says hello! Hola

In the old world ruins

Today we are in the mayan Copan ruins in Northwestern Honduras, very close to the Guatemalan border. This town reminds me a lot of Antigua, Guatemala. Very touristy but absolutely beautiful! They have little red taxis like golf carts. the streets are cobble stone, narrow, and steep. Our hotel is old world hispanic style, just gorgeous. The people are very hospitable, like most hondurans, but this place has a different feel from the rest of the country, like going back even more in time than my town. I would put my town in the old west period, and this place at the time of the indigenous.

The girls, my mom and aunt, are doing very well despite all the traveling by bus i am putting them through. They are being real good sports. This morning we left the hotel around 8 to catch the 8.30 bus but it was already full, so we waited an hour for the next one. We took it 3 hours north to a big city and from the station took a taxi to another bus station. That bus we took another 3 hours to Copan. The second bus was much more luxurious. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it a 12, but others were not so generous.

Our hotel in La Esperanza and here in Copan were very luxurious to me but all I remember being said is that they wont ever complain again about staying in MOtel 6, whatever that means.

We will stay here a few days exploring the mayan ruins. I am so excited because i have never been here but have always heard about it. It has been a great way to see so much of Honduras to travel by bus, also, especially since they only run during the days.

Sunday, yesterday, we relaxed. In the morning we went to church and in the after noon we ate out. For dinner, Beto made pizza and I made salad and dessert. We invited over my neighbor Mr. Ken and our pastor. It was a lot of fun. We did a lot of walking in my town but I am giving the delux tour o f everything. That is why they pay me the big bucks.

Beto preached yesterday about the forgiveness of God. It was really good and mom and a. glenda enjoyed it even though it was in spanish.

I am so blessed to live in this country. I just love it and am so happy to be able to share it with mom and aunt glenda. God has been really gracious giving us near perfect traveling times and experiences, keeping us safe and healthy. Thanks for your prayers. God bless you.

Fun with mom and auntie

Hey Everybody...

Well, after the end of all the end of year activities, I had 3 days at home to clean the apt., wash clothes, and spend precious last moments with my apt. friends before we all went our separate ways. My windows were a huge job in themselves, being that my apt. is closest to the dusty street so it gets the brunt of the dirt. Last Thursday I headed to Teguc. where I stayed with Amber and had about 5 days to hang out with friends before my mom and aunt Glenda flew into town. Their original flight was cancelled so they've been here since Tuesday. We've done so much in the last 5 days, and we have about 2 weeks left! Our first night together in Teguc. we took Jeanne and Steve White to TGIFriday's for burgers. It was 4th of July! Ironically only mom and aunt Glenda got fajita's with little United states flags stuck in the meat with toothpicks!

Wednesday we took a city tour, private in a minivan. Our tour guide spoke english and was really knowledgable and sweet. the tour was only supposed to take 4 hours and we ended up taking about 6. He took us all over. Since we went so late we invited him to lunch and he took us to a typical Honduran food place. Very tasty!

Thursday we left the city around 7.30am for a 3 hour bus ride to Catacamas, east of Teguc. That is where the Christian ministry Predisan is. My mom and aunt wanted to see it because the directors have spoken at Pepperdine Lecture's before. It is an amazing medical clinic working to heal the whole person...spiritually, mentally, physically, and it is very modern, especially by Honduran standards. We went out to lunch with the director, Doris Clark, and another volunteer she had visiting her after our tour of Predisan and Cerepa, a drug and alcoholic rehabilitation center a little outside the main part of town. That same day we took the 3 hour bus ride back to Teguc. That night my old roomate Amber met us at the hotel and we ate in the restaurant there. That was a lot of fun!!! I'm enjoying the luxurious hotels and "free"food.

Yesterday we slept in and took a noon bus for my house. We arrived around 4, had a couple hours to relax, and went to my apt. complex to have homemade beef veggie soup with Mr. Ken. It was a good time of fellowship. It was fun to try to get a hotel room here yesterday. I guess Im used to how things are here. we looked at four rooms till finally the hotel clerk personally showed us the suite...the LARGEST ROOM IN THE CITY!!! It was just good enough for my mom and aunt, so we took it! I am thoroughly enjoying my time with them!!!

For the weekend we are staying here in my town, relaxing and enjoying a lot of time with Beto. This morning he made us homemade rools, refried beans(not homemade), eggs and coffee. I brought bacon and we all enjoyed a brunch at my apt. It's a lot of walking here in town from the hotel to my place so we take it slow. We've been at the internet now over an hour but are enjoying coffee's and ice creams. Beto is speaking a lot in english and entertaining us with funny stories.

God is so good. We';ve had great weather and safe travels, food, shelter, and of course wonderfully happy times with each other and other friends. Praise be to Him for His grace, love, peace, mercy, and joy! May you feel and enjoy Him today!

Highlights

Highlights

The last few weeks were pretty difficult but at least they went by fast. After the English Teacher’s Conference in Tegu., I came down with Bronchitis. I put off going to the Dr. and kept working until I just had to go. The school principal took me to a dr. he knows (discount) and he paid for the visit and helped me pay for the medicine. Two weeks later and I’m feeling much better.
The last two weeks of school were seemingly the busiest of the whole year. There were “end of the period”, “end of the year” evaluations, cleaning up, activities, projects, and the last day party, which was unfortunately not much since I wasn’t feeling well, and almost half of the class didn’t come.
After the last day for students, the teachers had a week of paperwork, and this part, if you ask any teacher here, is the most ridiculous aspect of teaching in Honduras. It was the most difficult week for me by far, and the kids weren’t even there! We have to finish the grades and then transfer them perfectly, and I mean PERFECTLY, to three different papers. One for the school, one for the parents, and one for the government. The students who fail must take their recuperation tests this same week, but before they take the test, we have to tutor them a few hours. If they don’t pass the test, they have another chance in August when they return. If they didn’t pass the whole year, they also take that test in august, but we have to write a study guide for them to study this summer, along with the test and answer key to leave at school in case for some reason the teacher isn’t able to give it in august. The grading scale is such that those with excellence are graded more severely and those who “don’t do anything” are given chance after chance after…well, until they pass. Even if a student fails, he’ll most likely go on to the next grade, but at the same time take his class from the previous year to make it up. Basically it boils down to a ton of work for the teacher, which never seems to be worth anything, so much so that many teachers pass their kids on to avoid the hassle.

The primary teachers have a lot more paperwork than do the secondary teachers, so the secondarys are paired/grouped with a primary. At one point I had three other teachers helping me to copy over in ink what I’d written in pencil on the certificate, then the pencil is erased. The ironic thing is that the ink shows through to the other side and looks really tacky, something you’d think the government would somehow refuse. The other irony is that while so many students are failing, all the papers must be “pretty” or done again and again until “very beautiful.” It doesn’t seem to matter that half of secondary is failing one class or another, but that things look nice. At one point, a colleague of mine was so nervous, she forgot how to make an 8. “Do I start at the bottom? Do I start at the top? Do I go counterclockwise or clockwise?” She had her team stop and they all practiced their 8’s for about 5 minutes.

It takes 3 days to finish the paperwork and you don’t want to have to do it again. But this year the administration in the office had to redo most of the teachers’ papers because they weren’t up to standard. So we wonder why they don’t just do them all in the first place since they know how they (the government) want them done?

What happened with me is that I had all the reports done, “perfectly” except for one thing. Early in the year I was given my grading papers. One for Composition, for Reading, for Spelling, and for Grammar, and finally titled “English” to give the average of all the classes. I’d done this all year. On the final report there was a space for Composition but not for English. On the report for the parents there was a space for English but not composition. So I put the grade from the Composition paper on the composition line on the first report, and the English average on the parent’s paper where it said “English”. The bad thing is that 2 years ago the school stopped giving the English averages, but the secretary “forgot” and gave it to me anyway, so I’d been doing this extra work all year. Not a lot of work. No big deal. But now all the reports had to be done again correctly. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to do them, the secretary did, but I felt bad. She’s really sweet and I’ve never known here to do something absent minded like this, but she got them all done a second time in half the time as me.

Things are going very well spiritually, as I’m still taking the discipleship class. I’ve had more time to read and currently am reading “The Jesus I Never Knew” by Phillip Yancey. I read last night about how important it is to study Jewish culture of that day to learn more about the life of Jesus. This morning my Bible study was all about Jesus as a baby and looking back in the Old Testament about the Jewish customs Jewish parents followed. It was fascinating. I love how God speaks to us by showing us the same theme in different ways around the same time.

Happy Summer Vacations!

Lazy, crazy, dog days of summer

There's our Caramelo after a hard day's work. You can see her paperwork stacked up there. Sorry the fence got in the way of the second picture. A horse just chillin in the " street" while the truck incessantly honks. It finally got out of the way about 2 minutes later. Oh the excitement of La Esperanza!

NCET at UPNFM

Don´t you love acronyms? Reminds me of the good ol days at Pepperdine.
Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I went with some coleagues to a Conference of English Teachers. It was held at the Pedagogical University In Tegucigalpa. It was a lot of fun, informative, and worth the time and money. Of course, the school paid our way, so I guess I should say it was worth THEIR money. I got to stay the 2 nights with Steve and Jeanne White, the President and First Lady of the Baxter Institute. It was such a blessing. They have good ol fashion southern hospitality...and a washer and dryer, and Jeanne is a first rate cook. The first night I had 3 of her homemade rolls, the second night 2 plus I think I put away half the caserole dish of macaroni and cheese all by myself. Thank you Steve and Jeanne! I always enjoy my time with you!
I got a little of a cold in Teguc. even though it was hot hot hot, but that was part of the problem. Here in La Esperanza it is very mild so the sudden change back and forth did me in, plus I´m not used to A-C, which they have in Teguc.
On the bus ride back my seat was empty until a woman with a 3 month old baby asked if the seat next to me was free. Of course I couldn´t lie. I was just praying that the baby wouldn´t cry the whole time. This was before we left and we were sitting at the station. Then a young lady pulls up in a cab and gets out with a beautiful white toy-sized dog. I thought, oh my word, certainly she´s not getting on the bus with that! It´s a puppy! and if it has to use it? Sure enough she did get on, and sat next to my colleague. THen I was very happy to have to 3 month old baby next to me! I was like, oh my gosh, it´s the Paris Hilton of Honduras! The dog had a neon pink collar with rhindstones and a shirt! But it was surprisingly very well behaved, and rode the 3.5 hour tour all the way to La Esperanza. On the second leg after the lady next to me deboarded, a man sat next to me. I closed my eyes to rest and felt him put the arm rest down between us, so I comfortably leaned into it. When I opened my eyes I saw that it was his arm, not the arm rest! So I turned my body so as to not touch him, but that automatically put his hand brushing up against my backside. So I had to turn again. He was a pleasantly husky man. Hondurans have just about the opposite sense of personal space as us North Americans. If you get on a bus with just one other person in the STates you´d most likely choose a seat far from that person, but here if one gets on a bus and you´re the only one on it, you´re likely to have a seat partner immediately!

REcently I recieved 8 boxes of books donated by some friends and family. I hope to have my own store in a few months but meanwhile I put some up on display in this local internet cafe and the family that owns it isn´t charging me commission! In the first 2 days I sold 2 of the 5 books, so I´m very excited about that!

Things are going really well in life right now, spiritually and otherwise. In two weeks school´s out!, and at the end of June I´ll be traveling back to Tegu to spend time with some friends. My mom and aunt come July 2 thru the 23rd and we´ll be traveling all that time. I´ll be coming back with them to visit SoCal for one month! HOpe to see you there!

Saturday lunch and such

Here we all are at our Saturday lunch place. YOu can see the new "walls"she just put up about 2 weeks ago to separate the kitchen from the dining area. Today she only had fish fried whole, with the head and all, so most of us had tacos or fried chicken. Those plates come with a ton of fried plantanes, salad, and rice for only $1.40. and the owner lady is super sweet. She's been known to give us a free bowl of beans or extra plantanes or extra piece of chicken. I think all our visits helped her to pay for her walls!

I'll try to remember to include a picture of the market next time. It's overflowing with mangoes! I love them and it seems the farmers can't sell enough. The price has gone down significantly the last few weeks from .50 a piece to like5 for .50 cents. You see mango pits and peels everywhere littered in teh streets. It's definately mango season here, no doubt.

I'd like to now include a few funny recent quotes from some first graders homework. keep in mind they can hardly write yet in Spanish let alone in English!

These come from homework where they had to write sentences with verbs...

1. "I see her at the tickle window." The WHAT window?! I want to know what her mom was trying to say when she wrote that for her daughter.

2. "I spend too much money on groceries". again, written by mom?

3. "They use plenty of stunt double people in the movies." wow.

4. "My mom is wack."

5. "My mom is trip(ping)." The last two remind me of my ghetto days, but no one would ever say their mom is wack! I think the student meant to write "working".

OPEN HOUSE!

Today was the 2nd annual Open House at Southwest School. The teachers still arrived a little after 8am and spent the entire morning, well, until 1pm, cleaning and settting up the classrooms. I didn't have as much to do as others it seemed and it still took me to entire time to get everything done, but i didn't have to rush. Since most of us "roam", we had more than one classroom to decorate. The day went pretty fast. I didn't have too much to "show off" from English class, especially compared to science or art. Although I do teach art but I didn't think to save anything for today so I still didn't have too much to show off. I have a lot of ideas for next year, though. A little over half of the second graders came. It's pretty stressfull to pull off a successful open house. I had thoughts in my head all day of my open house in 6th grade. That was one of my more memorable years and I remember how much I always enjoyed going to Open House and showing off things to my parents, no matter what they were.
It's hard to believe that there are only 3 weeks left of school!

Happy Mother's Day!

At church today it was quit a service for The Big Day. Like I said earlier, it's like Christmas here. All the festivities of The Day actually started Friday, when I had 7 students absent from 2nd grade! This morning at around 2am, my neighbors said they started to hear the firecrackers. Yes, that's right. It's like 4th of July AND Christmas toggether! And they even blow them up here for Christmas too! So I am glad i'm a hard sleeper. They, my neighbors, also heard live music close by so Ken got up at 4am to walk toward the sound and see what it was. Apparently our neighborhood had the option of hiring some serenade singers to come to the door of their mother to sing, complete with a guitar, a tuba, and a drum. I mean, what serenade is complete without a tuba???


At church we had the usual worship time, then about 4 different short performances by the youth, and then a sermon. It was the most interesting Mother's Day sermon I've ever heard. The pastor basically lectured/chastised all the men on how to be better husbands. In this machisto culture, I'm not sure if it was taken well or not. He was preaching on how men should treat the mother of their children everyday, but I felt like I was eavesdropping in on a "man-to-man"talk.

After the sermon the 32 mother's present lined up in front facing the church and were each given a nice fleece blanket. earlier each mother was given a number when they arrived. they then raffled off slippers and a few buckets filled with lard, rice, beans, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a bag of sugar, and a few lollipops. Our " mother"in the apartments, Beverly, won one of the buckets. She's planning on keeping and using the bucket but will probably donate all the food. She just won't be using a 2 pound tube of lard anytime real soon.

After the service, Pupusas were served to everyone. That's a lot! Pupusas are originally from El Salvador. They're made(this is my best interpretation) with a ball of masa and whatever you want in there, cheese, beans, chicken, beef, and then patted flat and fried. They are super good. If you're close, head to a hispanic part of town in LA or Long Beach. You're sure to find a place that has them.

Saturday

Today myself just woke up around 5.30am! I so wanted to sleep in, but to no avail. I´d woken up everyday last week at 5.30 on purpose to go running for 30 minutes, because I love seeing the sunrise, and there´s hardly any people out and it´s cool, no cars to stir up dust. So I guess after only 5 days my body thinks that it´s normal. Well, I had a nice relaxing time to read and do some cleaning this morning. Later on I washed my clothes on the scrubboard, which I´m also really used to now. I´ts a workout in itself. I pictured myslef as tired as a boxer, needing a break, and wanting my coach to come up beside me to rub my shoulders and give me a snack ...maybe a chocolate chip cookie?,, and some water.

For lunch most of us from the apartments went to a little hole in the wall restaurant in the big market that sells everything from fruits and vegetables to dishware to soaps, etc. The lady who cooks has gotten to look forward to us becuase we´ve been eating lunch there every saturday for about 3 months. She serves great tacos or a plate of fried chicken with extras for only about $1.50 a plate. Sometimes she has fish, like i wrote about before.

After lunch I was supposed to substitute an english class taught by a co teacher, but only one student showed up and the building was all locked up becasue the electricity is out all over town. I can write here because there´s a generator.

I saw the market today through the eyes of a visitor and not a resident. It´s bustling with large baskets and people sitting on wooden benches trying to sell as many of their wares as possible. They shout what they sell, trying to get you to buy from them. There´s not a lot of room to walk down the middle äisle¨, especially when there are two different men with their bikes trying to go in the opposite direction. It´s THE place to hang out, especially on the weekends. That´s where people fellowship, gossip, and lounge the day away with their friends.

There were a lot of plastic plate sets wrapped up in colored plastic wrap and paper tissue flowers being sold for Mother´s Day. That day is huge here. It´s huge in the States too, but it seems more of a big deal here, more like how the STates celebrates for Christmas. Most schools have big programs and the day after is even a holiday for a lot of businesses and schools.

Back to the market, one must walk through all of it, asking the different prices, to see who has the best deal. That´s one thing I miss about the States, is that there everyone gets the same price in the Ralphs or wherever. You go in, pick up your stuff, and don´t leave feeling ripped off...well, maybe you do anyways, but at least you don´t feel you´re the only one because you´re a certain color so everyone thinks you have plenty of money and can surely spend twice as much on fruits as everyone else. For instance today Beto got to a vendor before me and was waiting there. When I asked the lady the price of her tomatoes she gave me a higher price than she did him, but she lowered it to what she charged him when he told her that we were together.

Finally, another observation...as I walked to this internet cafe, the streets were packed with mountain people waiting for the ¨chicken bus¨or a pickup to hail them up the mountain with all of their goods they´ve bought for the week. I saw one large truck with wooden slits up the sides packe with people...they looked like cattle. I wanted to take a picture but felt a little uncomfortable. It´s totally normal to them and I see it all the time, but today it struck me hard somehow. People here for the most part are really really hard workers and live in, what would be such uncomfortable circumstances.

Happy Mother´s Day to all the mother´s , especially mine!

Daily life

We drink lot's of coffee because we like to look like this!

Lately I've been thinking about some crazyish things that sometimes happen in La Esperanza. Here's a short list:

1.Seeing elderly ladies dressed up, standing in the back of moving pickups.

Better than walking!

2. When I run alone I carry a small rock in one hand to ward off any stray/annoying dog chasing/barking at me. I've never had to hurt one...yet.

3. Having the power go out 4 times in one week for a lengthy period of time. It takes creativity to use an electric coffee pot without electricity, let me tell you!

4. Buying eggs by the crate of 2 dozen and walking home 1/2 a mile with them in a plastic bag. It's not easy either over those cobblestones!

5. Drinking coffee with a scoop of ice cream. If you've not yet, you should try it!

Over the past few weeks I've learned a lot about myself. One lesson came from a difficult parent who came up with excuse after excuse no matter what I told her was the problem for her sons bad grades(1st grade). Whatever I said she counteracted it with another excuse. She asked me to give her son tutoring, which was frustrating for me because he acted the same as in class...spaced out and difficult to teach. She then wanted private, paid tutoring. She seems willing to do whatever it takes (or have me do whatever it takes) to help her son raise his grades. So yesterday i go for the first private tutoring from 5-6pm, and that's after he's had general tutoring in school with other students fro 3-4. the poor guy was tuckered out!!!

I arrive and she asks if I am going to give him tutoring 2 days lke we discussed or only one day. She's asking me how much he really needs. I said, "We'll start with 2 and see how he does." I didn't start till she paid me in advance because some other teachers had problems with that, you can imagine, i won't go into detail.

after the lesson was done, she asked again if he really needs the tutoring 2 days. I was wondering if she meant he might need it more, like 3 days a week. Then she says, "Well, the tutoring is really expensive and I'd like to get it down to 1 day a week as soon as possible." Well, maybe you can think of what I was thinking. Oh the joys. It's not too expensive, not for a family of their meens, "meaning" frequenting the local bar/karoke hot spot. But instead of getting really frustrated/angry like I might have in the past, I found myself calm, patient, and realizing that I can do all I can and some people still won't ever be happy.

God is teaching me a lot lately and changing me. I read recently that for some it's easier for us to believe that God loves us than that He can change us. That's me, I admit, so I'm praying for God to change me and to help me believe that He can.

Pray for Beto. He won't be teaching at Southwest next year. the law has changed to require all P.E. teachers to be certified. He is hopeing for a pastoral/ministry job in a town about 2.5 hours away where a new church was just started.

And for those who don't know we've postponed the wedding, so pray for us and God's will to be done. I will be here another year teaching at least. I really like it and feel it is the right thing to do right now.

Blessings!

Bag o' Milk

For some who were interested in this phenomenon, here's a picture of how I buy my milk. Usually I cut a small hole in one of the top corners and pour it into a pitcher, but when it's being used(my one and only with a lid), I cinch it with a clothespin and CAREFULLY set it on the top shelf of the fridge, in the back corner held up by my jar of salsa and a can of Coke. It's good tasting but so inconveniente, but I buy it because I refuse to buy the shelfed boxed milk and it's cheaper than buying it in the jugs like we do in the States.

In other news, the school year is winding down nice and quickly. I am looking forward to doing more fun activities with my students these last four weeks.

Family Day program

Father's Day here is in March and Mother's Day the same as in the States, so to avoid doing a program for each so close together, we combined them into one Family Day Program.

Each class did something, a dance, a song, or something, and it went really well. It was held at the Lion's Club.

The first picture is the principals creative way to hang up the large banner. He tied a full bottle of water to the rope that was tied to the banner and threw it up and over the rafters. It took a long time and a few trials before he finally got it, and then they decided that because of the wind it wasn't in a good spot, so after trying to place it for about 30 minutes, it was no good and they had to move it, behind the basketball backboard, but hey, only in Honduras (we use that saying a lot!)

Two pics of bright costumes dancing: 1st grades doing a traditional Honduran dance in traditional costumes. The two girls for a close up of the dress. The kids in one long line are my 2nd graders showing posters they drew and painted of their families and said what they love most about their family.

Chiminike

Some pics from our field trip last Friday to Tegucigalpa to the Children's museum.

The boy laying with his mouth open is on a bed of nails. You lay down first and then they push a button and automatically the nails come up. This way you don't feel the pain. Pretty cool. I tried it.

The last picture is like a jungle gym but in a design of a cell nucleus. I loved the creativity at this place. There was a "Learn about your Body"room and on section talked about different bacteria and how they make you smell bad, your pits, your mouth, etc. and they actually had smell simulators. Of course I had to try it to see if it worked and boy did it! ugh! but it gave Amber a good laugh.

One of those days

Ever have a day like this?
I get up around 7 (no school today!) and decide I'd like to have chocolate chip pancakes during my devo time. But to make the pancakes, I need the kitchen utencils, which are dirty, so I clean the dishes. Bueno, I can begin. I start the mixin and alas! my milk has gone bad, so I borrow some from Beto but since his fridge is an overachieving refridgerator, it's frozen, so I have to hold it over the stove fire for about 8 minutes, making a mess of the condensation dripping down onto the stove. Finally I get enough milk in the mix and realize I don't have any baking powder. And I'm in my pijamas, so I have to change clothes to go to my neighbors to borrow the powder. Bueno, I get it and finallythe mix is ready. This all takes about 45 minutes, then I cooked the pancakes, got everything on the table, cleaned up the countertop, and after all that I finally had my breakfast/devo about an hour and a half after I woke up. And I don't even have KIDS!
Later I returned to the store where I bought bad milk yesterday, of course not knowing it was bad until I got home, so I returned to the store yesterday only to find it had already closed(on Sundays if something is open at all it will only be open from about 8am till noon or 1pm. So I went today but they said I had to bring in the empty bags I bought yesterday. See, they come in a plastic bag and then I putthem in a pitcher at home, but they were pouring in chunky. gross. So I had to walk all the way home(about 10 min.), dig the bags out of the trash(thank goodness I wasn't too ambitious and had already taken the trash out!) and walk back to the store. Pretty surprisingly, they gave me two new bags of milk, no problems! Yes!
Tomorrow we have off too, Honduran Labor day.

Field Trip!

Today the Kinders, Preperatories, First and Second Grades went all the way to Tegucigalpa on a field trip! We went on the busses that have a monopoly on running hourly/daily to Teguc. from La Esperanza (the owner's have a kid in the school). It was about a 3 hour bus ride, and a lot of parents went! That's the different thing here: there was at least one parent for every kid, it was almost mandatory. I was in charge of one sweet girl (the one who ate her work) because her mom went on the other field trip with her brother. The school split up into younger/older kids and the older kids went to a lake and some caves. This was all for Earth Day.
The Children's museum we went to is called Chiminike(chim-in-ikee). I called Amber ahead of time and she met us there and got in free as a teacher. We'd always wanted to go but never got around to it. I'd always thought it was more like a Chuckee Cheese's, but it was an awesome science and industry-type museum. On the way there we passed the Federal Court building and Dani, my "charge", said, "Oh miss, it looks like the White House! Except it's green. So maybe it could be called The Green House! But it also has some orange (bricks), so it could be called the green and Orange House.!"
The 3 hour tour was really cool and afterwards we got to go to the mall! to the food court! and eat....oh, the plethora of choices! The kids from school are so funny. Whenever they see a plane or helicopter they get soooo excited, like it's a space ship or something! Definately a different tribe than I had in Watts.

To conclude, a few prayer requests...

The family of Marta, a 60-ish woman in our church who died of cancer last night.

Our small youth group Bible study, to encourage more youth to come.

Those in La Esperanza who are living without any esperanza, "hope".

Pics of Tampa

A recent quote"

"Miss, I'm brushing with refreshing crystals! mmm!..." a 1st grader as she passed me on her way to the bathroom after lunch to brush...it's standard in schools here.

Here are just a few pics of the fun times we had in Florida. Lindsay strawberry picking, us in the van rocking out to Amy's favorite musack, and Caleb and Seth helping Hope to wave goodbye. So sad! The red-bearded lumberjack type guy in the foreground in the van isn't one of my sister's birth children, but he became my nephew while I was there. Vive the Groh's!

Goodbye Spring Break...boo hoo..

Well, my trip is almost officially over. I've already started my trip back, a day early. I tried to change my original ticket to leave from Tampa, but with my ticket that's impossible, with Contintental. So I tried to just change it to a different day and time. Again, it's contintental. So i tried to just change the day, but leave at the same time. Well, monday was already sold out but even if i could've gone tuesday they woul'dve charged me the same amount of money i paid in the first place!
so instead of renting a car and driving from tampa to jacksonville through the night, i got a cheap flight from tampa to jacksonville on southwest, which....oh my goodness. Their cheerfullness is just NOT WELCOME after the frustrations of going through security. You know that Bible verse that says something like "singing to a wounded soul only makes it worse" ? I think i'ts in Proverbs.
I had blueberry muffin mix in my backpack because i had to first take out 10 pounds of stuff from my suitcase so i would'nt have to pay the overweight fee (good thing they don't have a weight limit on people!) . The xray machine showed a mysterious green substance, so of course the lady took everything out of my bag and said, "Well, I'll let you go with your canned blueberries THIS time, even though I should'nt, because it's in a box. Ok, can I have you put your stuff back in your bag?" I wanted to say, "No, you put it back. You took it out." and of course i had to chug all my water and the rest of my coke. A minute later as i'm putting all my stuff back in my backpack, which is nearly impossible since it's 10 pounds of stuff i pulled out of my suitcase, another old lady comes over, picks up my almost empty bottle, and says, "oh, you still got food in there." well, you can imagine the thoughts that went through my mind!
so what should've been an enjoyable flight wasn't b/c i don't enjoy cheery people when i'm mad.

i get to the hotel in a shuttle just fine. but there was an old man who was also waiting for the shuttle and he yells, "he girl. you got that there big ol suitcase on the plane?" well, i'm standing here with it, aren't i? turns out he's on the same shuttle as me. oh joy. he and the driver, both named jack (like, oh my gosh! you're jack too? how cute! that's how it would've gone down in Los Angeles) jabbered away, one from NY and one from Georgia, so it might as well have been in Chinese for me.

I forgot my canned pie fillings in my sisters car, so once i got to the hotel, i walked to the nearest walmart, which wasn't far (surprise surprise...i'm in the south!) and got asked twice by two creepy white guys if i wanted a ride. after it happened the second time on the way back i began to think, hmmm....maybe that's not unusual here. maybe it's just that friendly southern way. but after i asked, i found out it was the creepy kidnapper way.

i'm safe and sound now in my hotel and will leave here tomorrow at 4am to catch my 6am flight and get home at around 4pm tomorrow. THen work on Monday! Happy happy, joy joy.
Hope you all enjoy your Easter more than if you're traveling!

Tampa

I'm here visiting my sister and her family on a last minute spring break trip. Let me fill you in on the adventures of traveling.

To get a cheap flight at the last minute i had to come contintental, which i swore 12 years ago i would never take again for other problems i had...but alas...and i knew it wold happen again.
I flew out of a northern town in hondruas and the flight was late leaving to go to houston. i had a one hour lay over there but since it was late i didn't make my connecting flight. i was in the next to the last row of the plane, so it took me "forever" to get off of it, and I had to go through customs, and had to pickp my bag and check it again before flying onto Jacksonville, which for those of you who know Florida know it's not that close to tampa, but like i said, it was cheap. i waited at the bag merrygo round for 30 minutes before i realized it was sitting on the ground next to it! i could've made my connection if i'd seen it at first!

the funnest/challenging part was the layover in houston. since i missed my connection i had to wait about 3 hours till the next flight. i got major culture shock within the first minute in the airport. for those of you who have been in the int'l. terminal in continental, you've seen the 100's of t.v. screens up on the wall that show lot's of visual moving images all at once...freaked me out. now i'm making myself sound real out of touch. i thought i would start crying when i called my sister.

i couldn't decide either what i wanted to eat! i decided that whenever i move back to the states i'll either be so skinny from not being able to ever decide what to eat and just giving up, or i'll be so fat from not being able to decide and eating everything. the terminal seemed to go on forever...on wing was about the size of our airport in honduras, and that's only one wing of one terminal of one airline! amazing! America truly just does have too many choices.

i was excited about the toilet seat covers, paper towels, and hot water in the bathrooms, (i like to wash dishes here with hot water even tho my sis has a dish washer),. and there was food in the bookstores i'd never seen before. there were more starbucks than i think i've seen in Long Beach, and even a Ruby's diner! it was probably the most exciting part of my trip so far! just kidding amy!

it's been great so far and i'm really blessed to be able to spend this time with family. yesterday we went to a strawberry farm and picked strawberries fora bout an hour and came home with literally at least 25 pounds of them, all for only 6 dollars. we've already made chocolate covered ones, strawberry bread, and had strawberry smoothies for breakfast this morning.

tomorrow we go shopping and i'm mostly going to stock up on food itemsi won't see again till december.
Have a happy Easter week everyone!