First Few Days

Hola all the way from HoNduRAs!!

First off I want to apologize in advance for any writing errors!  I am not a professional writer and I am typing these blogs fast to keep you up to date!

We safely arrived in San Pedro Sula yesterday morning—but my journey here started off very rough.  My 14 hour layover went by pretty fast, as I Skyped/talked to friends and family.  I couldn’t sleep at all until about 5 am, when I laid down for an hour because my stomach was bothering me.  At 6 am I went and got breakfast because I was extremely jittery.  The food helped a bit.  Around 9:30 am I met up with 4 of the other teachers who were on the same flight as me to Honduras.  We chatted for a bit and then it was time to board.  I was feeling kind of light headed and nauseous still, but I thought I was going to be okay.  Turns out, I wasn’t okay!  We all got in our seats, and slowly moved from the gate to the takeoff area.  I quickly became light headed, my hearing was muffled, I was drenched in sweat, and I knew my “first time using a puke bag” was about to happen, since I wasn’t supposed to get out of my seat since the seatbelt light was lit and we were moving.  I couldn’t find a bag in my seat, and the person behind me and next to me didn’t have one either.  Well, I started to get disoriented when all of a sudden someone put a bag in front of me, and in the aisle seat I was in, I gave everyone quite the show as I embarrassingly used the puke bag.  First time ever, and hopefully the last!  Well, the flight attendants were telling me I looked really bad, as my face and hands were extremely pale, I was completely soaked in sweat, and just very disoriented to the point where I couldn’t get words out of my mouth.  They didn’t know whether I spoke English or Spanish, so when I didn’t respond to them asking which language I spoke, they assumed Spanish.  So they started speaking to me in Spanish and all I can do is drink my water and try and force down crackers they gave me.  Finally a girl in my group called out that I spoke English so they would stop speaking Spanish to me.  They tried to tell me we should turn the plane around so I could get off because I looked horrible but I told them I was okay.  The last thing I wanted to do at that time was to be left alone in the airport while the rest of my group continued on to Honduras.  I reassembled myself as best as possible right before we were to take off (luckily during this whole sickness was happening, we were third in line for departure, so I didn’t hold us up on my own).  As we began takeoff, I got the worst pains in my stomach and back that I possibly have ever had.  I honestly thought my appendix or something was about to burst.  I closed my eyes holding back my emotions and just prayed continuously for the pain to go away and for everything to be okay.  As soon as the seatbelt light went off and we were able to get up Kylie helped me walk to the bathroom where I recomposed myself for a bit.  I felt better, but I was still nauseous for the whole plane ride.  Luckily, the puke bag did not need to be used again though.  I think it was a combination of nerves, not eating real meals for awhile, no sleep, and carrying all my heavy carry-on baggage.  

Finally we landed in San Pedro Sula safely along with our entire luggage!  We ate at the airport and exchanged some money and then began our 3 ½ hour bus ride from the airport to my new hometown, Gracias, Lempira.  SO much of this country reminds me of Africa.  If you know me well, then you know my love for Africa, and now my new love for Honduras already.  We checked into a beautiful hotel for the night and then walked down the road to a pizza place for dinner.  The pizza was delicious!  We then walked back in the rain because it had begun to storm, and called it a night as all of us were exhausted from our travels.  I slept wonderfully that night with the cool breeze and the sound of rain that put me to sleep.

We slept in and showered in the morning, and then we walked to the other hotel down the road where we had breakfast.  I had a yummy bowl of yogurt with fruit and granola all mixed together.  After eating we went into town to figure out bank accounts and buy our cell phones.  Next came lunch and then us girls who are living together moved into our house!  It is so beautiful.  I absolutely love it.  It is huge, completed with 5 rooms (we each get our own) a living room, a kitchen, and the two bathrooms and two showers are in the outside area, and we also have an awesome back yard.  Then we rode in the back of pickup trucks to the private hot springs in gracias.  They were so beautiful.  We first played sand volleyball then we went into the springs which are natural, and are just like a number of big pools, except they are very warm and some are actually hot.  I loved it so much!  It became dark at this time, and the power went out, which is when they lit all the tiki torches which was the light we used.  So breathtaking!  My new home is too amazing; I am so blessed.  Sarah, Zak, and I went to go catch fireflies in the field right next to the springs.  There were SO many of them, it was gorgeous to look at.  Unfortunately they were extremely hard to catch. 

There is a family from Texas here in Gracias right now who have been missionaries all over for 14 years: Shannon (father), Kristie (mother) and they have two kids Tyler and Emma who I played a lot with tonight with Sarah.  They have been here for a month already and plan to stay for 3 years but possibly longer.  Kristie is going to be teaching at our school too, Vida Abundante, and her two kids are the first two American students to attend our school!

We stayed in the springs for a long time and then we had dinner in the area when it began to rain.  Dinner was delicious and then we rode back to home and that’s where I am now and am almost ready for bed.  I showered and there is great water pressure, and I discovered the shower I used has no warm water and the cold water was ICE cold.  So that was a very cold shower tonight (and the night cools down pretty well) but the other shower does have warm water.  I was surprised we even have that at our house! I then found a gecko in my room—and they are the small ones that were all over in Africa too.  And then came the cockroach I found in my bed—ahhh! So happy I found it before climbing into bed!  There are also a lot of frogs here, but they are GiAnT!

8/11/11

Today we got picked up by the school bus to head to school for the beginning of our orientation!  We got dressed in our uniforms and took the 20 minute bus ride up the mountain on a very bumpy and unpaved road.  There was some miscommunication I found out I am now in the nursery room working with the 2-3 year olds.  They have never spoken English before, and hardly speak Spanish either since they are so young.  I have two assistants now too, who do not speak English either, and I am not allowed to speak Spanish in the classroom at all.  It should be very interesting.  I was a little bummed about being in the nursery instead of working with K4 students for a number of reasons.  Everything I brought is too advanced for the 2-3 year olds I think, I was really looking forward to my first year of actual teaching, and I wanted to form close relationships with my students, which is obviously harder to do with such young children.  But, God has me in that nursery for His reasons I know, and I don’t need to question that.  Even though they are so young, I was reminded of the importance of this Christian curriculum as a whole, starting from their very young age.  With that being said, there is a curriculum for the nursery still, so I am just going to stay positive and know that God will be working through me in that school for those students, no matter the classroom I am in.  

Typical school day:

All of us teachers will get to school around 7:20 am, and we start our morning off with a staff devotional.  We then head to our rooms and have a devotional with our students to begin our days.  My students typically will arrive a little later between 8-8:20 am.  I think I will be using a lot of pictures and acting out things that I am trying to teach.  iIt looks like they will be learning their colors, numbers, letters, and I plan to add in calendar time too.  We also sing many songs, so I plan to buy a guitar here to play along with to make it more fun.  At least I love young children, and usually young children love all, so hopefully my students will love me from the second they meet me! J We have a curriculum we are to follow which is the A Beka Christian curriculum.  My students go home at noon, and then I will be teaching in other grades (looks like it will be elementary math) until school ends around 3pm.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays all of the teachers stay until 4 pm and either coach a sport or help tutor.

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We went through a large portion of our manual and then we had lunch at the school.  Tomorrow is the same thing again!  We then came home and us girls went grocery shopping.  Three of us decided that we are going to buy groceries together and split the cost since we are not picky eaters.  Now we are sitting in the hotel nearby where we get free wireless internet; very nice!  I plan to post pictures soon of a few things—I just forgot my camera chord at the moment!  Today is also Sarah’s birthday, so we are going out to eat and to the youth pastor’s house after for cake!

Random things:

I have still been feeling very sick here and there, and it is just a very uncomforting thing.  If you could be praying for my health, and the health of all the teachers it would be greatly appreciated!  I think I just need to adjust to the altitude and heat and continue to drink lots of water and eat plenty of food.  Everything is in Spanish here, and very few people know English.  Even our students’ parents do not speak English.  The teachers who have been working here for some time keep telling us that we will pick up the Spanish language quickly, and I really hope that I do.  It would be great to come home from Christmas and to have already learned the language very well! 

So far God has been teaching me that as much as I am prepared for something, things can easily change.  And I am not always in control of those changes.  Only He is, and I still fully believe I am in the place that He wants me to be in for this year.  It’s my job to fully trust Him, rather than to question Him, and that is what I am continuously reminding myself of lately.  It’s a very humbling thing for me!