A Stressful week...

To be honest, I had a really stressful week. It seemed like the longest week of work ever- probably because it was the first 5 day week since... well since awhile. Also, we had a Spiritual Emphasis week meaning we had a 45 minute assembly every morning. As great as it was, my students didn't respond well to the change of schedule which meant it was a challenging week for me!

So in the midst of a difficult week I've decided to think of the good things that happened that helped me make it through!

1. A word wall word this week was "was". I have the students write them in sentences each week. This is Gerardo's sentence: "The Miss from Kinder was very pretty."
2. Hearing some of the street boys from Micah project share part of their stories at a Spiritual Emphasis assembly and seeing how our students responded
3. Getting my first apple as a gift from my student Orquidea.
4. Getting random love notes left on my desk from students
5. 3 girls offering to stay in for recess to organize all of our classroom books!
6. Italian food for Jen Alderette's birthday and a ride home in a bolsitto for all of us gringos
7. A formal American thanksgiving dinner at a beautiful hotel in the city.
8. Seeing Mr. Greene freestyle dance for 5 minutes at the same dinner
9. Having a fall party at Jen, Julienne, Sarah, and Paula's house with lots of delicious fall treats!
10. Relaxing outside in the warm sun and listening to a sermon from my home church

Me & Aurora, the Bible teacher of my students
At the Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday night

Alright, now this past week doesn't sound as bad as I thought it was! I thank the Lord for giving me the strength to make it through this past week and for always giving me a reason each day to experience joy even in difficult circumstances!

La Tigra

On Friday night, my roomates, Nichole & Kaitlyn, Leslie Jones, and Lauren Manting headed up to La Tigra in the mountains and stayed at a bed and breakfast place for the night. The place is gorgeous and the view from the cabin was remarkable! What a relaxing and peaceful weekend after a busy week of school! 

Stairs leading up to our cabin

Inside of our cabin! These comforters were so warm which was great because the night was cool and rainy!

Kaitlyn looking out at the beautiful view on the porch of our cabin.

The gorgeous view from the cabin we stayed in!

Where we ate dinner and breakfast. This was the view from the eating area! Gorgeous!

The 5 of us who went!

A taste of Honduran countryside on our walk in an old mining community

On Saturday morning we walked about 2 hours to get to the bottom of the mountain and then hitchiked (first time!) in the back of a pick up truck to Valle where we spent the day looking around and shopping at all the markets there.

A great weekend after a busy and somewhat stressful week in the city.



Trip to Lago October 23-24

This weekend about 15 of us teachers headed up to Lago, a 4 hour trip away from Tegucigalpa. It was such a great weekend of relaxation after a busy first partial!

I stayed in this cabin with Jen Alderette, Julienne, and April

This was the lake we stayed at. I went paddleboating on it a couple times with Jen & Jenny.

On Sunday we headed out to a park with this waterfall.

The teachers on this trip.

Me and April

We went hiking behind the waterfall. One of the scariest things
I have ever endured. We literally hiked directly under the falls
to a point where I could hardly breathe or see anything. We
had to hold each other's hands and coach each other through it
but we survived! 

Thanksgiving Weekend!!

 On Friday I was starting to feel a bit homesick thinking about my family going to the cottage for Thanksgiving weekend. This is the first year in many that I would not be going with them. Thankfully, we had a lot going on here this weekend which made this weekend much more bearable!

On Friday we left for a Teacher's Retreat to a retreat center at the top of the mountain in Tegucigalpa. IST has this retreat every year for the purpose of the teachers to get to know one another better and to develop relationships between the Honduran and North American teachers.

The weekend was great! On Friday night we enjoyed a dinner, a time of worship, a talent show, and a bonfire. On Saturday we woke up VERY early at 7am for breakfast followed by a time of worship again in which I had the priviledge to help lead by playing keyboard. Afterward we spent the next couple hours in free time where many teachers played sports and many of us sat outside on a blanket and played Catch Phrase! Love that game! We ended the weekend with lunch and made our way back home on the bus by 2:00.

On Saturday evening, Alex, Nichole's boyfriend made us the most delicious Honduran dinner ever! It was amazing! It took him 2.5 hours to prepare and we were all so hungry, but it was totally worth the wait!!!

After church on Sunday I sat outside and enjoyed sitting in the sun while doing some work and then had the best surprise ever! As I was thinking about my family eating thanksgiving dinner back home today, my roomates were busy preparing me an authentic Canadian Thanksgiving dinner- love them! At 6:00, the table was set up- and there I saw stuffing, chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, and pumpkin pie! I was so suprised! Apparently while I was at the retreat they were organizing all this for me! The dinner was delicious- and they totally made my day! Thank you Kaitlyn, Nichole, Caitlin, and Sage!

I'm so thankful today for all that the Lord has blessed me with in my life- for my family back home who loves me and prays for me; for my new experience in Honduras and all the blessings that have come from that- awesome roomates, my students, the opportunity to teach, and experience a new culture. I am so thankful for everything the Lord has blessed me with! God is so good!

Vacation to Ceiba

Because Independence Day is such a big deal here we had three days off for it from September 15-17; so 17 of us teachers decided to head up to the north coast to Ceiba. We left at 5am and travelled on a bus for 9 hours until arriving in Ceiba around 4pm

Upon arrival we got our rooms- I stayed with Jen Alderette, Julienne, and Jenny. The first evening we swam in the Carribean Sea (such warm water!), swam in the outdoor pool, and headed out to the supermarket in Ceiba to stock up on groceries  for the rest of the weekend.

Thursday, Sep. 16

Woke up at 7:30 am to be picked up by a boat at 8 am for a trip to several islands where we went snorkeling and sunbathing. We saw some really cool fish- my favorite of course was the star fish! Spent the afternoon back at our resort on the ocean. Ended the day with a communal spaghetti dinner. Our room's house was to prepare the pasta- remind me to start boiling water an hour earlier than normal when cooking for 25 people... good thing everything is late in Honduras anyway!

Friday, September 17

Woke up at 8:30 am and got picked up by a pick-up truck at 10am for our next excursion in the canopy. This was a sweet excursion! First we ziplined down about 15 lines through the jungle with a gorgeous view. Then we spent the next few hours relaxing in the Hot Springs as we were served a platter of fresh fruit and pampered with a mud bath.

The rest of the day we spent relaxing by the ocean and then went out for dinner as a group. I had the opportunity to hold Bobby's (one of the staff for IST) children! They are beautiful!

Independence Day

Independence Day is a very big deal out here in Honduras! The week before Independence Day we had what felt like 5 different assemblies. We had one large assembly in the poli in which several classes performed different songs and dances of the Honduran tradition.

 

Above is a picture of my students dancing to some song about green bananas. I am still not really sure what the significance of the song is. The left picture is a picture of my two students: Sarah and Jorge. To the right are Hector and Josue (the biggest and smallest boys in the class!) Below is a picture of Sarah, Ana Carolina, Josue, and Laura!

My typical work day...

Before you think that all I do here in Honduras is have fun and travel, I would like to give you the schedule of my typical work day just to show you that I do work... a lot!

5:15am  
Wake up (if I am lucky- sometimes Nichole wakes me up at 6:10 when I am late)  and get ready.

6:35am
Picked up by school bus

6:45 am 
Arrive to school and dash to my classroom and rush to get things as organized as I can in 25 minutes in order to feel somewhat prepared for the day ahead.

7:10am  
Students enter classroom. Help get kids settled. I developed a system where I put a timer on the   promethean board with a 3 minute countdown and they need to have their bags unpacked and sitting down within those 3 minutes. It works very well! Then the students copy down the day's agenda and turn in their homework. Well that's what they are supposed to do anyway... we're still working on it.

7:25      
Spanish class- another teacher teaches them Spanish so I get an extra 1/2 hour to prepare for the day. Thank goodness- I just can never get enough time in the day!

8:00      
Pray with the students, do calendar, finish agenda, try to remember to do attendance, and teach  math

9:20      
Recess- I spend this time preparing for the afternoon subjects if I am lucky. Often I spend this time helping students who need extra help with homework or simply help with desk organization. Everything takes longer with my students because some of them still speak and understand little English.

9:40      
I teach Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies straight to 12

12:05    
We are all ready for lunch. I scoot them as quick as possible so I can make it out for yard duty

12:35   
Teach 1 or 2 subjects and some specials where other teachers come in. I am so thankful when there are special subjects in the afternoons because that means I get some time to get re-organized! Often these preps are spent just cleaning my desk- somehow by 1:00 my desk is always overflowing with papers!

2:30    
Bell rings and students get ready to go home. I walk them to the bus, say good-bye and go back to
my classroom to clean up the mess and prepare for next day.

5:00    
Go home. Sometimes I go home on the 3:10 bus but lately its been 5

Evening  Spend several hours lesson planning, preparing materials for next day, and grading.

And then repeat schedule 5 times...

It is exhausting, but I love it!! I love teaching; I love my students; and I love learning how to be a better teacher each day and constantly trying new things to make things go smoother in my classroom. I thank the Lord for giving me the strength each day, and that my students put up with me despite all my shortcomings as a first year teacher!

El Picacho