Less than two weeks!

I'm getting antsy. Then, I'm close to tears.

I've taught more than what is on the exams and I'm starting to just want to play with them every last second we have together. I really don't want to leave my kids. But I do want to be back home... Wish I could pack some of them away in my suitcase!

Today, after a period of silent reading, then drawing the body parts and naming their functions, we decided to go outside. By that, I mean I surprised my kiddos by telling them to pack up early, find their soccer ball and run as fast as they could to meet Kristina's second grade class.

Some of the boys played futbol, others kicked another ball around or chased the girls and the girls played Duck Duck Goose and some weird version of musical chairs.

One of my kiddos was found laying on a fluffy patch of grass so I went over a chatted with him. I cherish these moments so much.

Kristina justified this time as "It will be pouring by the time they get home so we might as well get their energy out now... We're doing their parents a favor." (We are back into the rainy season where it starts a downpour around 3 every day and doesn't stop until late into the night)

While I justified it as "These are some of the last moments we get with these gremlins." We were doing everyone a favor.

I'm going to miss this so incredibly much.

Ratatouille Jr.

While I do miss Shep, Laney, my friends, my room, and nobody eating my food (aka our pet mice), what I want most is a reliable water source. Last night, I ran out of water mid-shower, and let me tell you, it isn't much fun.
...I just went to brush my teeth and wash my face, and nothing came out of the sink.
So I said to my roommate "what I would do to wash my face".. And she replied with "I showered with a bucket and the pila".
All I can do is laugh.



Btw, there was another mouse siting this morning...that little punk chewed holes in each of my four bananas Sunday night.

So as for tonight, my new bananas are safely locked away in our fridge and I'm watching Gossip Girl. Maybe Blair can show me how to get revenge on that rascal before he ruins anymore of my breakfasts.

XOXO

Three weeks left.

I get on a plane to go back to the states in 21 days. I cannot believe it. Honduras has turned into my home: even though my roommates and I may complain about a couple of things around here, we do call it home. Leaving here will be incredibly bittersweet for me, I have made some amazing friends and fallen in love with my 19 second graders. I will be leaving a part of my heart in this country. Everything from the amazing mountains that we look up to daily to the cat calls on the street, that we try hard to ignore, will surely be missed.

Friday was "Dia de la Familia" at our school and each of our classes prepared a song each in English and Spanish. It would only make sense with the performances to have the first grade classes, then the second grade, then third and so on. Nope. My poor second graders were 19th out of about 20 something performances. They were miserable. We had to keep them contained "backstage", which meant only allowing them to run in a small area and try not to get too sweaty or dirty for about 3.5 hours. I ended up sitting the bench trying to console some teary-eyed children that were hot, tired and just wanted to go home. So I finally talked the teachers in charge into allowing my kids to go onstage halfway through the program and they unenthusiastically sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and "Amigo".
After our kids performed, we travelled back to Teguc to meet up with our friends from last weekend. I didn't know it would be possible to have just as much fun as the weekend before. We went to a birthday party with a Suit and Tie theme, had fabulous appetizers and drinks and spent the night dancing and having great conversation. The next day we laid around the pool and had delicious Bloody Mary's and burgers. Later on, we went to a bar with over 100 beers and sat around a table, ordering some of our favorites from around the world. :) I was in heaven. Once again it was hard to leave the city this morning but we had to do it.
On the bus ride home, I sat looking out the window thinking of everything I am going to miss so much about this country when I leave. The list is too long, but if I've learned anything from this country, it is not to listen to the horrible rumors that are flying around about it. The friends I have made in these five months, especially the past two weekends, are people I will never forget and hope not to lose touch with when I move away.




"A year from now we'll all be gone, all our friends will move away. And they're going to better places, but our friends will be gone away. Nothing is as it has been and I miss your face like hell. And I guess it's just as well, but I miss your face like hell. " -Rivers and Roads, The Head and the Heart

Weekend in Tegucigalpa

Faye, Kristina and I woke up early Saturday morning and hopped on the bus to Tegucigalpa, apparently the third most dangerous city in the world. And I have to admit, I was a bit nervous.

After a four hour bus ride, our friend Fernando picked us up where the bus dropped us off. He told us he had a couple things planned for our day.
It was obvious we needed a little cocktail after that bus ride, so he took us to a little place called Tito Aguacate for a drink that translated to the word "cramps". He described them as a mixture of gin, some wine liqueur, sugar and lime being poured into mayonnaise jars (sin mayo), shaken up and served in a glass. They were phenomenal. After our drinks we went for a walk around the center of Teguc, and my only impression of this city was how gorgeous it was.
We went to Valle de Los Angeles for lunch, we had papusas, an El Salvadorian dish, a tortilla with cheese and pork baked into the center. After lunch, we walked around this little colonial town, bought a few too many souvenirs and had wine overlooking the mountains.

We then decided it was time to get to our hotel and get cleaned up for dinner and a friend of Fernando's birthday party. We were planning on staying in a hostel, until we decided to see if we could stay in a really nice "Classic Honduran" hotel for about the same price. This place was absolutely gorgeous.

We got ready and headed to a local restaurant, Había Una Ves, for dinner. We had fantastic salads and bruschetta and were ready for the night.
We went to a birthday party of one of his friends and could not have been more impressed. Not only was the house gorgeous, the people were amazing and so great and welcoming.
We woke up the next morning to our breakfast buffet and the pool overlooking the mountains. It was one of the best weekends I'd had in a long time.

Solamente un poquito, por favor

So for the past couple weeks, I've looked at the ends of my hair thinking maybe I could just take some scissors and chop off the crazy broken ends myself.... Maybe I should have.

My roommate walked through the front door tonight looking as you should when you get your haircut. So refreshed, with fresh ends and a big smile on her face. I asked her where and how much and ran out the door. My first thought as the door slammed behind me was "maybe Faye should turn around and come with you, as you know no words from the hair stylist world in Spanish." But I told myself that I could handle it, "necesito cortas mi pelo, solamente poquito", while gesturing just a little bit, showing about an inch with my fingers.

One girl sets me up in the chair. She hands another girl scissors. (Mind you, I like to be clear with my hairdressers, only a little bit, less than an inch if you can, it's been about six months since I last...) nope. Not here. The girl takes my hair and ziiiiippp! Cuts layers around my face. I gasped. Um no, solamente poquito!!!!!! But, she has already done my left side so I may as well let her do the other side. She hands the scissors to someone else and she clip, clip, clips my right side and I'm almost in tears. I have never cried at the hair salon before but these girls were testing me.
Then she hands me a mirror and voila! Chops the back off.
Welp, when in... Honduras. At least it feels fresh. Buena suerte to the next person that gets this job, you're going to have some evening out to do :-/
After my tragic experience, we had family dinner. A bit of a twist as we had the principal of the younger grades of our school over, and we decided to speak completely in Spanish. I practiced speaking spanish probably more tonight than I have in the months that I've been here. But we had a great time, and too many laughs, pulling our vocabularies together between those of us who are not fluent to hold conversations.

Faye, Kristina and I are headed off to Tegucigalpa in the morning for a quick weekend trip! Hasta en el futuro! ( as my roommate Kristina tells people around town) :)

"I like nonsense"

As always, it's been awhile since I've posted. Since my last post, Kristina's mom and Faye's friend Kate have visited. Two weekends ago, Kristina, Matt and I went away to Tela for the weekend.

It was soooo nice to see the beach. We got there on Friday night, just in time to see the sunset. We had an amazing dinner at the hostel we were staying at and hung out on the beach for the rest of the night. We spent all day Saturday on the beach. And Sunday afternoon we took our time leaving.. It was so relaxing and fun to just get away, just the three of us.

Last weekend, we celebrated The Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo! We actually had a Tres de Mayo celebration as our family dinner was Mexican themed, we drank margaritas and had a piñata. Saturday morning we started off with an egg casserole and mimosas as we picked our favorite horses. As soon as the casserole was out of the oven, the power went out, which of course meant no Internet, resulting in no way to watch the races. We packed all of our stuff up and went over to the boys house to carry on with our celebration. I ended up picking the winner of the last two races, Wise Dan and Orb! Which resulted in the losers taking shots of whiskey and me getting a Monday afternoon off school. Hurray for me!! (My roomies don't seem too pleased with this, but a bet is a bet) ;-)
I think I'll choose the last Monday of classes. Which is now two weeks away.

You know that "two weeks notice" feeling? Well, I like to call it the "two weeks notice" feeling. It's that feeling you get and the way you act once you put your two weeks notice in at a job. It goes something like this: you start to notice and think about all the things you're going to miss, but you cannot help but think of all the things you're looking forward to.

You'd think I'd be looking forward to an abundance of things; air conditioning, a haircut, REAL FOOD (pizza, sushi, Sassys BBQ, anything Budweiser), a reliable-non-electrocuting shower, etc. All I really really want is my bed. And snuggles with my puppy and to be in the same place as Shep again. But I am going to miss these kids of mine so so much.

It started out as a good day, turned into an "I can't even hear myself think so I'm going to scream over all of you" kinda day, which slowly turned into "if you're all going to bang on your desk, I'm going to bang on mine even harder". Wish I knew how to post this video of my Omarito (as everyone likes to call him) banging on my desk and singing to me, but a picture will just have to do for now.

It felt REALLY nice to join in on their craziness. I think I'll be doing it more these next few weeks. :)


"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells" -Dr. Seuss

"..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!