Givingthanks 2011

Our first soccer game in Honduras!

Team Olimpia

Our trip to Tegucigalpa was a really great time, and I’d love to share about it with you-enjoy!

Apple cobbler---YUM

Jaime and I at dinner

Our Christmas hats that light up!

Soccer Stadium

Furniture store in the mall--first time on a nice couch since we've been here--amazing!

All dressed up for Thanksgiving!

Tegucigalpa

Our beautiful Thanksgiving dinner!

We left early Wednesday morning with some of the 10^th and 11^th graders at our school.  They were heading to Tegucigalpa for the jazz concert we attended that night at our Abundant Life School there.  It took us about 7ish hours to get there, and it very crammed and uncomfortable in our bus and very noisy too.  The jazz concert that night was a lot of fun with the students.  I was very tired from the trip and the music was almost too relaxing, as I almost fell asleep a number of times.  But still, it was a fun night!  The next morning all the students left and it was just our group of teachers from Gracias in town so we went to the mall for a bit, which had a Wal-Mart—crazy!  It felt like we were in the states again, which was a nice feeling.  Eventually all the other American teachers got into town and we all started getting ready for our big Thanksgiving dinner that we were going to have at Pastor Evelio’s house.  The dinner was absolutely beautiful and the food was delicious.  It was really great to spend the holiday together as the little Honduran family we have all become.  The next morning we got breakfast at McDonald’s and then went to Valley de Angeles, which was a small touristy area with lots of souvenirs to buy.  For dinner we went to a nice sushi place and then to the mall for a movie, which turned into all of us going to see the latest Twilight movie, since that was the only movie playing in all four theaters.  It wasn’t the best movie, but it was nice to go to the movies again!  The next morning some of us went on a hike to La Tigra, which was really nice!  We reached a clearing at one point where the clouds were below us and just rising over the mountain—the cloud forests always amaze me!  That night we had pizza at the hotel and then we headed out to what turned into my favorite event of our trip—the Tegucigalpa Olimpia soccer game.  It was so much fun going to the big stadium, singing along with the chants that our friend Jean was teaching us, and watching the game.   We left early Sunday morning and played Christmas songs over the ipod speakers in the bus and sang along to our favorite songs.  Overall, our trip was filled with fun adventures and was just the refresher all of us teachers needed, and for that we are all so thankful!

It surely is the most wonderful time of the year!!!  Christmas music has been playing in our house since we have gotten back.  I even bought a Christmas hat in Wal-mart that says Feliz Navidad and has stars that light up, and I can’t help but put it on at times.  It’s exciting to sing “I’ll be home for Christmas…” in less than 3 weeks!!!!

Psalm 95:1-6

Hello Hello everyone!

I hope this post finds you with a smile on your face and love and joy in your heart.

Friday night we had our first parent-teacher conferences.  They went really well, and a lot of the parents were very friendly and encouraging.  We had some of the older students in our school translating for us, which was a lot of fun.  I got to know one of the 9th grade girls a lot better.  I didn't really have any problems with parents at the meeting, which I was very pleased about.  I was hoping that'd be the case since my kids only get E's, G's, and A's for grades (Excellent, Good, Average).  But I must admit, my first year of teaching is flying by.  I can't believe it sometimes...I am a TEACHER. The weeks just go by so quickly--I'm even flying home in less than a month for Christmas!

We have a our Christmas program on December 9th.  This program is HUGE.  Last year over 600 people attended the one night event.  Each grade performs a dance, which the teacher had to watch on a video and teach to his/her students.  Needless to say, it's been interesting and sometimes frustrating, but nonetheless fun.  My nursery students are dancing with half of the K-4 class, and they are pretty adorable doing their dance.  I am also helping out with the opening number which is the 9th grade girls.  They somehow heard I had a dance background, and the office quickly told me that I was helping Jaime with the dance.  It's been a challenge to learn the dance and then also teach it, but we have had a lot of fun doing it.  Our dance is almost 4 minutes long, and we only have less than 1 minute down so far, and only 2 weeks to practice--so prayers for our dance are much appreciated! I can say that I am already very excited to see the overall Christmas program that we have all been working very hard on. 

Sunday we had a Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of American friends here.  We met a missionary couple when we first got here (Kevin and Melissa) and then there is another bilingual school in Gracias called Minerva, where a bunch of Americans teach at as well.  So we all decided to have a dinner together and all make a bunch of our favorite Thanksgiving foods.  The day was a lot of fun talking with one another and eating some delicious food and desserts.  We only have one more day left of school this week because on Wednesday morning we are heading to Tegucigalpa (the capitol) for the rest of the week until Sunday.  I cannot tell you how excited I am for this trip!  We meet up with ALL of the other American teachers at all the Abundant Life Schools and stay in a hotel that the schools put us in for free, along with food provided for us while we are there.  Now, let me remind you that they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, but our school is being extremely giving for this holiday that we celebrate.  Apparently they do their research and on Thanksgiving night we all dress up and have a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner together, with turkey and all of the other delicious food we all typically have.  All I have to say is...YUM!  Now, my grandma's pumpkin pie won't be there (and I absolutely love her pumpkin pie) but other than that, it seems like I will be very blessed this Thanksgiving in Honduras.  

I hope and pray that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family and that there are so many things you are thankful for.  

Psalm 95:1-6
"O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker."

Some things I find myself thankful for here:

*The things I continue to learn about God, life, myself, my students, and Honduras daily

*My students smiles, laughs, and how their faces light up with I smile at them

*The relationships I have made with many friends here

*The ability to see improvement, and to let that be enough

*Skype--to hear and see my friends and family that I love so much

*Our home, even if it often has cockroaches, ants, and a mouse

*Our Wednesday night Bible study

Have such a blessed THANKSgiving, and remember, I am thankful for YOU!

Cowboys and Indians

Friday night the youth group in Gracias had a bonfire that was cowboys and Indians style!  It was a fun night for all of us to dress up and enjoy interacting with the youth a bit more. 

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Saturday Jen, Kiley and I went to Santa Rosa to the orphanage again.  When we walked in all the children were eating Cheetos, fingers and mouths painted completely orange.  Lets just say we all ended up with Cheetos all over our clothes, but it didn't even matter.  I just love the orphanage and feel so blessed to love on those children when we are able to go.  

The happiest little boy you'll ever see!

This little cutie rocked himself non-stop in his rocker with a smile on his face!

This little girl was brought to the orphanage by social workers because her parents were not feeding her and she is extremely malnourished.  She is one and a half years old, and her bone structure looks that age, but she was so incredibly skinny.  Luckily, she was eating well and in good loving care now.  Thank God!

Sunday we had a church service with a group of Missionaries from Texas that were here for a week.  Shannon was working with the group, and we decided to have an English service together.  Our group of teachers led the worship music, which was a lot of fun.  We all talked together with one another with how God is working in us here, and from the stories it's very obvious He is working within us all here!

F is for freckles!!

Everything is going really well in the classroom.  We are doing lots of fun activities in our class, and everyday brings something new.  I hope you enjoy the pictures that show what we are learning about!

f

5 apples up on top!  We cannot do more than 5--this was extremely difficult, but entertaining!

The letter E with our bodies!

Fiesta Tipica

Yesterday was our schools Fiesta Tipica.  It was a big party in the park to raise funds for our school, and our school in La Union.  All of our staff dressed up in typical Honduran clothing, and sold food and drinks in different huts that were made just for this event.  The day was filled with lots of beautiful and colorful clothing, music and dancing, and delicious food and drinks.  My group sold drinks in our hut, “La Gota Fria.”  In English it doesn’t translate very well, but it means something like “The Cold Drop.”  It turned out to be a very busy hut to be working in, and sticky, and filled with bees from the sweet drinks.  But all in all, it was a LOT of fun serving everybody.  Some of the grades at our school even performed cultural dances, which were fun to watch too.  It was a beautiful day overall, and fun to play dress up for the day!  The La Union school has their Fiesta Tipica in February that we will go there for too. 

Other than the fiesta, everything else has been going really well too.  I wrote my first note in Spanish home to the parents, and I said everything correctly when I had my assistant read it.  I was SO excited.  It was a note about needing the names of all the family members that live in the same house as each student, so we can make potato print families for the letter F this week.  A few of us are starting Spanish tutoring lessons on the 15^th, and I cannot wait!  I am so excited to continue to learn more and more of the language so I can have deeper relationships with friends here.  

I’ve started to have my students make the letters we are learning with their bodies for a fun interactive activity to get them moving.  They seem to enjoy it a lot.  Let’s see…what else..we started doing “No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” everyday too.  I made monkeys and put contact paper over a picture of a bed I drew, and we sing the song and move the monkeys and they really enjoy it.  They’ve even picked up on a few of the lines and say them with me when they can.  This makes me really excited because a LOT of the time, my students don’t repeat things after me.  I have to constantly remind myself that these kids are learning English, so it makes it that much harder.  When I start to feel myself becoming impatient, I stop for a second and remind myself how frustrated I feel when I can’t understand anything someone here is speaking to me…I’ll just say it’s been a learning process and I continue to grow more and more patient, which is a huge blessing and much needed! 

I have a puppet in my room, and his name is Bubba Bear.  The kids LOVE him.  As soon as they see me go reach for our friend, they burst out laughing.  You’d think their laughter at the same thing would get old, but I can assure you that it doesn’t.  It just makes me laugh and smile right along with them!  I used to have them only say “good morning” or “good bye” to me, but they have that down pat now.  So we’ve added in my name as well, and it turns out “Miss Kendall” is easier for them to say.  So most of them say “good morning/good bye Miss Kendall” but there are a few that say Miss Ross.  It’s pretty cute to hear them say (more so try to say) my name though.  And now that they know “good morning” it’s the first thing almost all of them say to me with a smile on their face when they walk into my room.  God has blessed me with 13 amazing children who I am blessed by every day.

 

 

I've been trying to figure out what to purchase for the school with the money many of you helped me raise.  It's been challenging for me to decide because our school has a number of things, they just don't utilize them in the best way.  For example, our school has a really good amount of books, but the library was just recently cleaned up and books were put on the shelves, but it is not user friendly at all, and students cannot go into it.  But after a lot of thought, I've decided to purchase more classroom sets of books for the students and teachers.  Many of the classes don't have these, and the kids need to read much more than they do now.  I plan to purchase as many books as I can, for all the grades, and hopefully our school can work together to get the library up and running in a very user friendly way.  It's essential for their learning that they have the opportunity to read books that fit their reading level.  So it's taken awhile, and still might take a bit to figure out what books to buy for each grade, but it's a work in progress and I hope to have the books here when we all return after the New Year!