Discovering more of Honduras!

The day before we left for Guatemala, we had an extra vacation day. So Tori, Jenna and I decided to head half an hour away to Comayagua while Bethany hung out with her family while they were in Honduras. Needless to say, we had a blast! 

This is me in front of the Catholic church in Comayagua. Please note the Common Grounds bro-tank! It was a gorgeous building! Every time I see a gorgeous church building, I'm blown away by the intricacy and the beauty of the building. This time, I was given a thought, what if, the church, like the actual church known as "us" were as spiritually intricate and awe inspiring as this building. Buildings like this often point people's eyes towards the church. What if, we, as the church, pointed people's eyes towards Jesus Christ? What if the unity among believers, which we often have to fight for, was so beautiful, people couldn't help but look and wonder at the beauty that is the Church of Jesus Christ. Just food for thought! 

And here's Jenna and I. I am so blessed by the friendship I have with this girl! She's been an encouragement to me even before I considered coming down here to teach! 

Nice view right? 

And here's Teeny Tori!

The builders made the stones on the ground in the shape of the shadow cast by the church building. Pretty cool right? I thought so too! 

I do love panoramas. Take a look at those beautiful mountains!

And on our way down, we saw a bat! I told my dad that as soon as I took the picture, I realized the flash might scare him and make him go crazy and I would get rabies from bat bites. His reply? "I don't think the flash bothered him. Ever heard the term, blind as a bat?" Hmm...

Here's me in the teeny-tiny stair case! Any of my friends from Alpine remember Fat Man's Misery? This kind of reminded me of that!

Tour buddies! We stopped at a coffee shop and got a cookie! 

And that was our trip to Comayagua! 

My 4th grade class!

Took me long enough to get these pictures up. Oh well. Better late than never?

This is 4th grade class. I've discovered that assisting in this class is my element. I think I enjoy being an assistant much more than being a teacher, though I still enjoy my first graders. But, when I'm assisting, I have the ability to get on the same level as these kids and just be their friend and be an encouragement when I can. This class is also at the age that I just love. They're old enough that you can be silly with and play with maybe even a little sarcastic, but they're also young enough that they haven't hit the rude and crazy age of the teenagers. 

These are some of my Fourth Grade girls getting ready to get their "cereal." The cereal they have at school only comes on Mondays and it has oats and rice and sugar (I think). It's supposed to stick to their ribs a little bit longer to keep them from getting too hungry. 

This is my Recess assistant and awesome roommate, Teacher Bethany with some of the girls. I can't get over how sweet this picture is!

And then, we have my boys. I thank God so much for these sweet boys and continuously pray that they will grow into the men that God desires for them to be. Pray with me that they would break the chains of alcoholism and adultery that has entangled Honduras into a life of poverty. I pray that one day, these boys would become the spiritual leaders of this country, pointing all towards Jesus Christ.

This girl...is a character! Her name is Jasmine. Just look at her! Does she not make your heart melt?

Aaaaaand, this is Milton. We're not saying this out loud...but uh...anyone ever heard the term, "teacher's pet?" Don't know why that term came into my mind. Nope. Not at all. 

Jasmine, Isis (pronounced ee-sees) and Kenssi drinking their cereal!

Dilver, is such a sweet kid! One day we were on our way home from school and it started raining. The windows in the bus were down as always. I was getting sprayed with rain but it didn't bother me too much. But Dilver decided I didn't need to get wet so he reached up and closed the window and then patted his chest like, "I've gotcha teacher!" So adorable! The other day, Teacher Kathy (4th grade teacher) asked him if he would like to pray. It was such a sweet prayer that I had to blink back tears. Nothing but thankfulness in this kid's heart! 

And here's Milton and Jonathan. Jonathan is so stinking funny. His desk is closest to the teacher's desk where I sometimes sit to grade papers or organize folders or other such fun things. A couple Friday's ago, the kids had a vocabulary and spelling test (in which they all did AMAZING). I was putting their test results in their folders (which go home every Friday) and Jonathan, poor boy, was so nervous about his test score he couldn't concentrate on anything Teacher Kathy was saying. He peaked and saw his folder was on the top of the stack. He looked at me and grabbed his head in anxiety and scrunched his little face. So, being the pushover that I am with this class, I gently and discreetly held up his test score, 100%!!! He almost jumped out of his chair and then did this little quite dance and smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen. 

And here's some of the kids with Solomon, the husky dog that belongs to Rhonda's kids but just kind of wanders everywhere...especially where there's food!

And here's some more of the girls! The one posing is Claire. That is all her personality right there!

And Ingrid on the swing with David not looking at me haha!

I love this picture. Enough said. 

And last, but not least, here's my boys playing some form of Football Americano...I think. Either way, there's usually at least one band-aid after recess. 

Gozo

For the first time since I've been here in Honduras, I'm actually starting to REALLY enjoy life. 

Life has been the hardest I've ever experienced in this first month of living here. Not only was I dealing with living on my own for the first time, but I was dealing with living on my own in a third world country. There was so much to get used to: Shower heads that tried to kill you. Bugs that decided your shower was their shower (I have a love hate relationship with slugs). A grocery store that really has no rhyme or reason to it's organization (they have sugar on the baking aisle, the snack aisle, and the...um...female aisle). The lack of hot water. The vinegar washing of vegetables. The public transportation. The walking everywhere. Not knowing the language. New food (some good, some bad). It's just been extremely difficult. 

But now, for whatever reason, I am finally starting to feel comfortable in my surroundings. In church this morning, I finally gave up my last battle to God. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders. 

And to celebrate my freedom from current anxieties, I sat on the hammock in our backyard and saw these wonderful clouds! God is good! Dios le bendiga!  

Week 3 of school and some photo evidence showing I survived!

Here's to Friday! I love the kids that I work with, but yes, by Friday, I am exhausted! 

I won't lie, teaching First Grade has been one of the most frustrating things ever. They are sweet kids but there's always the few who can be a pain. We have the talkers, the tattlers, the kid that everyone tattles on, the whiners, etc.. I still love them SO much though! My biggest battle has been lunch duty. 1) I've never done anything close to lunch duty. 2) The kids don't understand me and I don't understand them. Their English is still very minimal and my Spanish is very minimal. 3) I have 27 kids, and there are two stalls for their bathroom. 4) They also have to brush their teeth during the time allotted for lunch. 

So, for 1) I'm clueless. 2) Major language barrier. 3) The bathroom situation ALMOST made me cry, we were starting 15 minutes later than we were supposed to, which is valuable teaching time with the kids. 4) Yes, there are the few who like to spit on each other. 

Thankfully, after week 3 of this, we're working things out. Yay!!! We actually started 10 minutes earlier today which was an AWESOME feeling! 

And here's some pictures!

I sat on the bus with these two girls for a couple days in a row. They kept asking me to make the sound of a "cat" or a "dog" or a "duck." From the picture I'm sure you can tell I made them do the sound of a pig!

 

 This is Kayra. She's one of my first graders and is SUPER smart. She's also incredibly sweet AND accepted Jesus into her heart at church on Sunday! Such an awesome thing! And She likes to make faces. 

 This is Elkin, one of my fourth graders. I had to take a picture of him today because the band-aid on his eyebrow was just too cute. He was playing "Football Americano" and that should explain it. I think I put a band-aid or clean off blood from at least one boy every other day. God is gracious and has strengthened my stomach so that the sight of blood doesn't make me queasy (And to anyone who is wondering, I do wash my hands afterwards!). 

And this picture is for my dad! This is Claire! She is another one of my fourth graders and is also Kayra's older sister! Please notice how my skin is getting darker! Please, please, please notice ;)
Also, the two teeth, one nostril, and one eye that you see at the bottom left-hand corner, that is Roger.