Día de San Valentín

I hope you felt very loved on Valentine's Day a few days ago!

Our school doesn't make a big thing out of Valentine's Day, but we still did some fun things in our classroom!  I made them all a Valentine with heart shaped suckers and heart wings to make a butterfly, they loved them!  Everything we did that day focused on hearts or love, and it was a great day!  We ended up having a GALentine dinner with some of us gals which was a lot of fun as well!  Before dinner, I had to make a special delivery for a friend!

Kiley and her boyfriend Sean were having a Valentine's Day Skype date.  She went to Guancascos to sit on the balcony and eat and talk with Sean.  Sean and I had talked the day before about him wanting to do something for her, but I would obviously need to help out.  We ended up with a bouquet of fruits and vegetables, and a frozen chocolate banana (her favorite).  With some help, a funny picture of Sean was printed out and put on a stick for his face, and I convinced him to also let me be a singing telegram, singing none other than "My Girl."  They both agreed, in the end, I had more fun with this than them!  Either way, it was a great surprise to Kiley!

We got a new teacher the other day for our kind of crash course inEnglish--it's for students who want to go to our  school but don't know English yet.  It goes until sometime in July or August I believe.  Anyways, Amy arrived the other day and our house decided it would be best for her to live with us, so she doesn't have to live alone or pay a ton of money for rent.  So Thursday after school our house looked like a tornado ran through it!  Kiley and I moved into Sarah's room, and Sarah moved into mine, freeing up one of the rooms.  Luckily Sarah had a really large room before, so it can easily fit the two of us.  So Kiley and I are now real roomies--hopefully it doesn't make for extra trouble with us two! 

In FOUR days, my friends Hannah and Holly and Kiley's boyfriend Sean will be flying to Honduras to visit! WOW!  I am SO excited!  We only have school Monday and Tuesday this week, then we have a short break.  We will be traveling to Roatan for the weekend, and then they will be able to come to my classroom on Monday and see what a normal day for me is like!  I cannot wait!

So please pray for safe travels for them to Honduras, and for safe travels on our vacation and getting back to Gracias, as I show them this beautiful place in the world God created!

I had to have a hard conversation with our principal the other day.  He is leaving soon to recruit teachers for next year, and he wanted us to let him know beforehand if we would be returning or not.  I know the beginning was VERY hard for me, and I cried a lot.  But WOW as to how I have grown to LOVE Honduras, and Gracias and Abundant Life Schools SO incredibly much.  I tear up now even thinking about the day I have to say goodbye.  I would love to come back and spend another beautiful year in Honduras, but after many prayers and thoughts about it, I just don't feel it is where I am supposed to be next year.  I don't have any idea where God wants me next, but I am excited to find out!  If you could also please be praying for our school in finding teachers for next year, those prayers would be greatly appreciated!  If you know of anyone interested in teaching abroad, or who would want more information from me, please have them contact me!  I would definitely recommend coming here to anyone!  I will definitely miss this place. 

Enjoy the Valentine pictures and video, and I will be in contact after my adventures with my other two gringas! :)

EnJOYing every moment here

Last night we had Parent-Teacher Conferences.  School was over at noon, and parents came from 2:30 until 6pm.  I had a 7th grade student translating for me this time, so it was nice to get to know her more.  I only had six parents come for conferences this time, so I had a lot of time to sit and practice my Spanish, and also play hangman and tic-tac-toe.  Overall, everything with the conferences went really well though.  This year is FLYING BY!  

My kids do the cutest things!

Making lemonade for the letter L

L is for lollipops!

 

The past two weeks we have worked on the letters K and L.  This coming week we continue on to the letter M.  I was working with my students individually on Friday and I had them sing me the alphabet (my curriculum says they should know how to say it) and it was adorable hearing the letters/words they came up with!  But a number of them did surprisingly well--it's one of the songs they love to sing in our class!

This past Thursday was 2 weeks until my high school friends Hannah and Holly come to visit.  I cannot believe they will be here to visit me in Honduras so soon.  We are going to have a blast!  They are also bringing all of the books I ordered for our school, which I am also SO excited to finally have here. 

Flying Kites

Kiley and I continued on with our pranks the other week.  Some of the teachers here have a continuous "Glee Night" at our house, and they project it onto our kitchen wall.  I have only watched one episode of Glee in the States a long time ago, and never really got into it.  So while some of them were sitting in the dark kitchen watching Glee, Kiley and I were scheming a new prank.  I found black nylon socks of mine and we fit them over our heads.  Then we crawled through my bedroom to the door of the kitchen and sat there laughing hysterically about the screams that were soon to come.  We busted through the door and everyone screamed (a number of times) and then music started on Glee and Kiley and I just started dancing with our black nylon masks on.  It was pretty funny!

Finding letters on the Keyboard for letter K

I am learning a lot about myself constantly out here.  It's a really great experience.  I didn't read a ton of Bible stories growing up, so I have challenged myself to know the Bible better this year, and gain a deeper understanding.  For me, seeing things in a chronological order always helps me understand better.  I decided to read the whole Bible in one year, in chronological order.  I found a plan online, and have been doing it since the New Year.  I have already read through Job, Genesis and Exodus.  Each day I read about 3-4 chapters in a book, and I make sure to actually study it and read slowly, so I am gaining understanding and not just doing it to say I did it.  It is amazing how much I have already learned, and I look forward to reading everyday.  God is good!

 We buy chocolate bananas (frozen bananas with a chocolate covering) almost daily from a friend down the road.  Her name is Camila, and she is one of the sweetest elderly ladies I have met here.  She is always a HUGE JOY to see.  She gets a huge smile on her face, claps her hands together every time she sees Kiley and I coming.  Her spirit is so gentle, kind, and humble.  We struggle communicating with her, because our Spanish is still developing slowly, but we do our best.  This morning we bought her cookies from the bakery to drink with coffee.  She saw us coming and got our chocolate bananas ready.  When we explained that we bought her some cookies she was so thankful and re-opened her freezer and INSISTED on us taking another banana--it was both funny and adorable at the same time.  We chatted for a bit and she asked us where we live, work, etc.  Maybe one day we will cook her dinner or something and spend more time with her--I would love to know her story more, as she is just the sweetest lady.