Oh How I EnJOYed My Friends Visit!

I've decided to have this blog entry to be mostly through pictures.  My friends visit here was very short but even more sweet! We enjoyed Roatan and Gracias together--From ferry rides, zip lining, swimming with dolphins, bus rides, chocolate bananas, spending time in my classroom with my students, hot springs, castle tours and more, both Hannah and Holly love Honduras just as much as I do! 

I also have exciting news--Kiley and her boyfriend got engaged in Roatan!!!!! I was very excited to be able to share that weekend in Roatan with the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Coon!

Enjoy the pictures from our time together :)

I cried I was so happy

Kiley, Sean...and Dupree!

The happily engaged couple! :)

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. 

Zoo Fun!

Things in the classroom are going well, although things are a bit different now.  My one assistant has left my classroom for a practicum she needs to complete for her education, so she will be gone until sometime in March.  I have been blessed with another new assistant to fill her place until she returns.  It is definitely a challenge though, because she does not understand what I am saying at all.  It’s like starting all over again and learning how to express what I need to say and have her do in a creative enough way for her to understand.  So it is a bit stressful, but I am very thankful to still have my other assistant Sonia in my room still.  And as for Sonia, she is expecting a baby!  She will be leaving my classroom sometime towards the end of the year too because her baby is due in June sometime.  I pray that I will be able to meet her third child before I leave Honduras.  I keep reflecting on how much my relationship with my assistants has grown since the beginning of the year.  It definitely took time to develop, but I truly appreciate my assistants and can easily call them friends.  We have fun together in our classroom, and I give thanks to God for them often!

Our decorations are in the process of being changed again, and this time it is for Valentine’s Day, yay!  I definitely have enjoyed making these decorations, I really love this holiday!  Our music teacher left before Christmas break to continue on with his education in Costa Rica, so we haven’t had music in my class since being back.  I feel as though music is important for young kids, so I have brought my guitar back into my classroom and we have been enjoying it.  They really enjoy “The Wheels on the Bus.”  I might be the only one singing the right words, but at least they enjoy doing the hand motions!

We continue to learn new verses for our morning devotion time.  So far we have been memorizing these verses: Genesis 1:1, Psalm 18:30, 1 John 3:23, Psalm 18:30, John 1:3, Psalm 23:1, Genesis 26:24, and James 1:17.  We say them every morning, and I used to not say the last word in the verse and they would remember it on their own.  They have gotten so good at saying these verses! Some of them know most of them all (with a few made up words because they can’t say the real English word, it’s super cute).  But it’s definitely been a joy seeing them remember these verses!

This weekend some of us went to Lago de Yajoa again, but this time we went to go see the zoo.  One of the high school classes gets to go on a fieldtrip later in the year to the zoo, so we went to check it out before hand.  It was a blast!  The zoo was a Christian zoo—how cool!! They had worship music playing throughout the whole zoo and the staff was very friendly!  It was awesome.  The zoo was very hands on, clean, and there were a ton of animals!  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Now for a fun story.  So I started doing this “dinosaur” act a few years ago to my friends and younger brother.  He always hated when I did it to him, but he laughed every single time.  So naturally, I have continued to do it J.  I recently showed my roommates the dinosaur, and they loved it as well.  Well, it just so happens we got to the zoo and saw three huge fake dinosaur statutes in the park.  I JUST HAD TO GET A VIDEO being baby dinosaur.   Kind of weird, I know, but I hope you get laugh!

Pranksters

 

 

This past week of school has been really good.  There are definitely still challenges everyday, but God has given me such peace about all these frustrations.  We are continuing to work on the letters I and J and the number 7 in my classroom.  Last week was filled with activities involving Igloos, Inchworms, Insects, Jello Jigglers, of Jets, playing Jacks, races putting our Jackets on and off, and more.  My kids just melt my hearts everyday.  I love watching them learn and discover new things.  They bless me everyday, and I do my best not to take it for granted.  Some days I have less patience, and I feel like I do not love on them enough, so it continues to be a learning process.  I do my best daily though, and continue to ask for God to grant me with the patience, love, encouragement, and more that I need from Him daily. 

Saturday a few of us girls went to Santa Rosa for the day.  We ate at a restaurant we really like there called Zots.  It's a lot like an Applebee's.  I enjoyed a huge salad and I also tried Mondongo Soup (cows intestines or stomach  lining). It's a big delicacy here, and it wouldnt be my first soup choice to eat, but at least I can say that I tried it.  

Saturday night Kiley and I found ourselves home alone.  I provided some entertainment for Kiley for a bit, including putting my computer on my shoulder like a boom box and singing and dancing to "Will You Be There" by Michael Jackson.  It's one of my favorites.  I had been thinking in my head of some pranks we could pull on Jen and Jaime when they got home, when Kiley said we should do pranks on them.  Great minds think alike.  We drew a picture of a huge cockroach to put in their food cupboards--we have at least one large cockroach somewhere in our house each day.  So this was just the perfect thing to do.  We drew it extra big, and very realistic, and were cracking up the whole time, waiting for them to find it.  We were sitting in the kitchen when they got home with the video camera ready.  I about lost it a number of times, and almost gave it away.  Right before they opened the cupboard we had our keyboard playing the song, La Cucaracha.  Just watch the video for yourself, and I hope you get a good laugh too!  We also taped things down to the tables with clear tape so they couldn't be picked up when needed, and we hung an open umbrella from the door that hit them when they walked in.  Easy and somewhat dumb pranks give the best laughs, especially to me!  

This morning we went to the house church and I helped Kristi with the children.  It was such a humbling morning.  There were 6 children, ranging from Kindergarten to 4th grade.  They live on the mountain where the house church is, and they are not wealthy like most of the students at our school.  They have very little, but they are always smiling and playing.  The oldest boy was the only one who could read or write--the others didn't even know the letters in their names.  Kristi gave those who memorized last weeks verse (Genesis 1:1) a piece of Trident Splash gum.  It was so humbling watching them debate whether or not to eat it now, and then once it was in their mouths, whether or not to bite down on it.  Once they did, they tried hard to keep their giggles and smiles inside them, but they didn't succeed.  They were all smiles, as was I.  We started to make part of our book for creation--we will continue to make it next week.  After we finished our reading and craft, we went outside to play with the kids.  It was just a morning of pure JOY with those kids.  I went up on a hill with them all, and it was just a beautiful view.  We excitedly rolled tires down the hill, slid down the hill on a wood platform as a sled, and then went to a tree further away on the hill and hung on to branches and swung all around.  This was my kind of morning with some of God's beautiful children :)

 This view NEVER gets old!

Gracias a Dios para Gracias :) 

 

It's good to be back!

It's great to be back in Gracias.  All week I have been reminded of how happy I truly am here.  I am continuously filled with JOY here.  The first week back has been really great.  I can't explain how excited I was Monday morning to see my little one's!  They had huge smiles on their faces, and I was hugged upon right away.  It was wonderful.  Monday was a great day--the kids were excited about being back and they behaved so well.  We definitely enjoyed being together again!  We started off the week reviewing, and I discovered my students remembered almost all of their letters and numbers that we have learned so far.  So great to see!  I feel so refreshed as a teacher and I am fully ready to continue having a beautiful year in the Nursery.  

We began learning about the letter "I" later in the week, and we have been having a lot of fun learning together.  Enjoy the pictures and videos of us making insects out of sticks, looking for insects outside, and making and playing our maraca instruments!

Videos: 
Singing our goodbye song and playing our maraca instruments!
Outside looking for insects-chasing a butterfly!

Looking for Insects!

Looking for Insects!

Blissfully Belizean

Safe back in Gracias!