"..it's beautiful all the same"

My mom and dad arrived Wednesday afternoon with Phil and Linda Hohler. We went to the super grocery store on the way home and they got to see my reaction to this amazing place. I was so overwhelmed I was shaking.

The next day, I had school but met up with the parents and Matt afterwards to go to Pulhapanzak waterfalls. We decided to do the waterfall tour. Matt, his parents, my dad and I all ventured down to a gate leading towards the falls. Linda was terrified the entire time and was trying to talk herself out of it, but we didn't let her. We were instructed to hold hands the entire way and Linda immediately attached herself to the tour guide.

We got to a little pool and Matt, Bogey and I all jumped right in and climbed out on the other side, eager for the adventure. Little did we know it would be like hurricane winds on the other side. We had to keep our heads down and hold tight to one another. We went under a small part of the falls and tucked behind it, some of us thinking this would be the extent of the whole thing. Nope. We kept going underneath the killer force of the water. It was soooo worth it. Being under the huge fall and being able to look up at the bottom of it was breathtaking. When we were done, we crawled into a tiny dark cave, turned back around and went back out. We were all so proud of Matt's mom for doing this while shaking uncontrollably and hugging the rocks.

We went to the D&D for dinner again and planned the rest of our weekend. Our parents decided to do a bird tour in the morning and come to school when they were finished. My parents got to meet my class and see what it was like to cram and study for 4 subjects in two hours with 19 seven-year- olds. Not easy.

We visited the orphanage in town after school and everyone fell in love with the smiling faces of those adorable children. I got out my stickers and we had a blast watching them pick their favorites and stick them all over each other. =)

Saturday morning we went to visit some of the girls from our school at their house. Their family consists of about 15 girls from ages 4-20 something's that have been brought in by a woman from Tennessee. These girls have been given a loving family and a safe place to call home. They are the most beautiful and wonderful little girls with the most heart wrenching backgrounds and stories.

We ate lunch with the girls and stopped by the archeological park on the way home. I snuck away from everyone afterwards to go home and make a surprise cake for my dad (his birthday was the following week). I came back to the D&D and after dinner we lit his #60 candles and sang Happy Birthday to him! :)

The next morning we hiked the coffee plantation. It was a bit strenuous but really nice to get out and be active in the morning before they packed up and went to San Pedro. We showed them the cafe in our town and we all got delicious frozen drinks.

It was sad to see them go but so thankful they came to see where I've been living since January! They spent all of this past week in Roatan, one of the Honduran Bay Islands. They got a nice tropical vacation while I had to go back to school for exam week.

After meeting so many children with such tragic backgrounds, my parents couldn't believe how happy they were to have food on their table, (although in most cases it was just rice and beans), and to have visitors (although they couldn't understand what the other was saying). Linda put it best when she pointed out that even though we cannot speak the same language, when we visited the children in the orphanage, there was an understanding of what they wanted or needed. There was no confusion that these children just wanted to be friendly with us and, in most cases, simply cuddle for the time being.


"She hasn't started to make sense of the world yet but thinks it's beautiful all the same." -StoryPeople, Making Sense



Yesterday, Matt, Thomas, Bobby, his brother Matt and Rose and I all got tubes and took the freezing river down to the lake. It was so much fun. As I'm doing activities like these, I always have to pinch myself and remind myself this is real life. Matt and I went first down the river and had to dodge branches and rocks to get out to the river. Once we got out to the lake, some of us jumped off a cliff. I didn't go to the highest height because by the time I got to a point, I saw Thomas and Matt letting all of our tubes and belongings float away into the middle of the lake and I had to save my Havianas!

Today I'm going to do some yoga, catch up on my grading and catch some rays. Have a nice week!

Fear: a manipulative emotion

Two Saturdays ago, Matt and I left early to fetch Shep at the airport! It was soooo nice to finally see him again. We caught a bus to Sambo Creek to meet up with the others, Bobby, Faye, Kristina, Phillip, Thomas and Rose.

We got to the hotel that night and immediately jumped into the warm Caribbean Sea, grabbed a few beers and watched the sunset. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a place called Paradise Found, run by an interesting couple originally from Ohio! (The lady lived a few doors down from one of Matt's family members, small world.)

The next day we took the ferry from La Ceiba to Utila. Arriving in Utila was like stepping into paradise. The water was as clear as could be and the Caribbean feel was phenomenal. We walked to our home for the week, Underwater Vision and were immediately welcomed by our dive instructor for the week, Els.

The Bucks were playing and I, instead of thinking to turn on the tv next to me at the bar, sat by myself trying to stream the audio for the game with weak wifi. It got down to the last minute when everyone came back and Shep turned on the tv just to see the winning three to get us into the Sweet 16.

This began one of the best weeks of my life. I had some of my favorite people around me, enjoying the weather and the beautiful water. The next day we started our PADI Open Water Diving course.

I swallowed my fears of the ocean and the animals living in it and suited up. A couple days and an underwater O-H-I-O that will probably never be seen later, I was comfortable underwater and certified to dive on my own (with my buddy, Shepard of course.)

It was so nice to get away and spend time with everyone outside of school and our town and especially for everyone to meet Shep :-). I never planned on going further into the ocean than right off the boat to snorkel. I am so grateful that Shep came for this week and pushed me to face a fear I never even considered facing.

My parents came into town yesterday and I surprised them at the airport! We got to hang out and have dinner together last night and we have some fun things planned for them while they're here!



“The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is 'Do not fear.' It's in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.”
― Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years