What a weekend :)

We left for Guatemala Friday after school. I was so excited to get out of Peña Blanca and be away with everyone for the weekend. I feel like I've been pretty good with the cars and buses here but I still took my Bonine and put on my C-bands. Nothing worked. About 45 minutes into the trip. I was getting sick out the window. This proceeded to happen until we got to the border of Honduras and Guatemala.

When we got to the border, it was closed. Picture this: 12 of us walking across the border of Honduras, over barriers to get our passports stamped as we left the country. We followed a man that told us he would give us a ride to Rio Dulce, and hopped into his van.

I put my head down and slept for the next two hours, trying not to think about or feel the movement of the bus.

We finally arrived at Hotel Backpacker and grabbed a bite to eat.

The next morning we woke up to a chilly, cloudy day. We ate breakfast and decided that despite the clouds, we would take a boat to Livingston, Guatemala, a cute little Port town.

As we hopped into the boat, the clouds parted and the sun came out. I put on my sunscreen, opened my carton of white wine and enjoyed the ride.

We stopped at a hostel that had fresh coconut drinks and you just had to sip out enough coconut water/milk to make room for rum. These were fantastic.

After about 45 minutes of riding down this beautiful river, we arrived in Livingston. This town has a wonderful Caribbean feel with beautiful people. We grabbed some drinks and went down to the sea. Phillip and Rose waded in the water while Kristina, Faye and I grabbed a bite to eat.

On the way home, we stopped at hot springs and sat in the warm water for a bit. The simple things these countries have to offer amaze me every day.

When we got back home, the hallway floor was soaked. I noticed it was coming from my room and realized the sink pipe was leaking all weekend. Rose and I mopped up a couple buckets worth of water from the floor. And by mopped, I mean swept up and transferred the water from a dustpan into a bucket and poured it out. What a disaster.
What I would have done for a mop that worked correctly.

I took a nap today and woke up to a WONDERFUL surprise. Congratulations to my best friend, Jaimee Rister for getting engaged today to a phenomenal guy and father! Love you both!!!!



"He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time." -Brian Andreas, StoryPeople "Mr. Right"

Exciting things coming up!

I have been quiet these past few weeks..


When it rains here, there's not much for us to do but sit around and watch movies. It's hardly an option to do laundry unless its hot because your clothes will take a few days to dry and you end up having to wash the dewy smell out of them anyways!

Last night Matt and I cooked family dinner with his girlfriend, Kelly. We made fajitas, nachos and chocolate covered fruit. Afterwards we all played charades and hung out.

I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks. We are going to Guatemala for the weekend. I'm in need of a weekend away as we have pretty much been cooped up in our house on the weekends because of rain.
Next Thursday is the Science Fair. Each class has 3-5 groups working on different projects. Each project will be judged in English and in Spanish and the best project out of the whole school, kindergarten to 8th grade, wins. My class is still trying to get their boards together but their experiments are coming along pretty well. We have Magnets, a Solar System, Magma inside a volcano, and Tornadoes. I'm a bit nervous for my kiddos, but I'm proud of the work they've done!

After that, we will be leaving for Semana Santa to go to Utila. I will meet Shep in San Pedro and we will be off for a week of sun and diving!

I promise to keep you updated on my exciting adventures coming up!

the real reason

Friday was my 30th day straight of yoga. I woke up around 5 AM and did 50 minutes on my own. It was so peaceful and felt so amazing to stick with something for so long.

Along with being my thirtieth day of yoga, it was parent teacher day at school. All of the parents came in and got the kids' grade cards with their exams. I was so intimidated thinking about how I would talk to the parents about their behavior and grades and everything that was good or needed improvement. Turns out, I only needed help with two of the parents, and pretty much held my own speaking to the others in my Spanglish.

After parent teacher day, Matt and I hopped on a bus and headed to Omoa, Honduras.

We finally got there about two hours later than we expected, but were so excited to see the little town. We got to our hostel, Roli's Place and a guest there told us about a good place to eat near the beach. We had an amazing dinner, grabbed some drinks and headed to the pier.

The next morning we got up at 4:30 and grabbed the free kayaks from Roli's Place. With my headlamp on, pointed straight into the clear water, we pushed the kayaks out into the dark Caribbean Sea and paddled out. I was terrified. All I kept thinking was "why do I let myself watch sooooo much Shark Week?!" I just kept picturing a shark creeping up and bumping its head into the bottom of my kayak until I fell out. But, of course, that never happened.

I finally got comfortable enough to paddle out pretty far once the sky began to lighten. Then, the sun came up behind the mountains, it was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We just sat and watched the sky light up as fishermen came out onto the pier and everyone's day was beginning.

After kayaking, we rode around on bikes and had breakfast with a German lady that was staying at the hostel. We visited the Fort of San Fernando de Omoa and the weather began to get pretty crummy so we decided to head to Puerto Cortes to find one of my roommates.

We got there and had dinner with her, then headed back home Sunday morning.

On the bus back home, we picked up a lady with three young children and a baby that lacked nutrition and had no energy whatsoever. The lady kept staring straight into my eyes and spoke so quickly that all I picked up was that her child was sick and she was going to try to get to the doctor, but she had no money. I handed her the money that was left in my pocket from traveling as my heart broke. I finally understood why so many of the mothers in this country take their children to the orphanages for nutrition and pick them back up when they are healthy, because that was all I wanted her to do.

This weekend was an eye-opener to what is really surrounding us. The beautiful scenery can often mask the horrendous problems that are going on in this country. I know this is one of the most dangerous and broken countries in the world, but it doesn't seem that way most days in our little town.


"There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other...." Brian Andreas, StoryPeople: Real Reason

Galentine's, Valentine's, Smalentine's

Kristina decided to get all the girls together for her favorite holiday, Valentine's day!

She made us a yummy dinner and I contributed by making Oreo cream cheese cupcakes. We played some fun games dealing with movie stars and chick flicks. It was very nice to just hang out with the girls and get to know each other a bit better.

Later on, I finished my valentines for my kiddos and went to bed. The next day was Valentines day and I was really excite to get to school and hand out my lollipops to my second grade class. It was a really fun day at school because some of the kids got each other little gifts and candies for the holiday <3

When I got home, I began to miss Shep a bit. Valentines has never really been a big holiday for me but seeing everyone's posts on social media has brought me down a bit. Missing home, Shepard, Laney and my friends and family a whole lot. Really wishing I had mounds of chocolate to indulge in. :)

Two weeks in one

I've been slacking quite a bit lately...

Since my last post I have done a couple of things....

Celebrated one of our friends birthday at a beautiful spot overlooking the sunset on the lake. A lot of the backpackers staying at his hostel joined and we enjoyed the company of people from all over the place.

Visited Copán. Although I opted out of going to the ruins because I have already seen Lencan ruins (I know they are different) and I had decided ruins aren't really my thing. Faye and I spent the better part of the weekend visiting museums. We went to an adult museum about the Mayans and a children's museum. The children's museum was awesome. I don't really know why anyone decided to have museums geared toward adults. This museum was interactive and we learned so much more. We then ventured to a wine bar and had glasses of wine while enjoying a delicious cheese plate. I looked over at the mountains surrounding us and couldn't believe this was real. Afterwards, we waited for the other girls to get back and went to a nearby resort to practice Yoga. This was another one of those, "do we honestly live here?" kind of moments.

The next week at school was devoted to reviewing and retaking the exams if anyone did poorly. I had a few kiddos that needed to retake the exams, but for the most part I got to just start the new material. The weekend finally came and I think most of us were pretty worn out. Saturday morning, Kristina and I took a tuk tuk to the local resort and laid by the pool all day. And on Sunday, Matt and I laid out in his yard. It was hard to believe that it is only the middle of February.

Later that day, Jason ( a guy who works for the D&D )and I made family dinner.
He made these amazingggggg chicken sandwiches and I made Gouda mashed potatoes and my aunt's Black Bottom Cupcakes (Devils food with cream cheese and chocolate chips inside). It was fun to make dinner for the whole family and afterwards play charades games with everyone. (Matt is amazing at acting things out)

It's so nice to have such amazing people to spend time with and "come home to".

"...no matter how small"

Today was the first day of exams. I was so worried about my kiddos because I have some that can hardly understand English, let alone read and comprehend passages in stories.
I have not been with these kids all year so I'm still learning where each child is educationally. This is so hard for me because they have been following along in class so I think we're on the same page and then time for reviews comes along and about four of my kiddos cannot understand so they just rewrite the questions for each answer.
So we had my science and reading exams in my second grade class and I had to walk the kids through every question and my third grade reading exam went really well. :)
I need to keep reminding myself to have patience and take more time to help the ones that need me. These kiddos cannot move forward if they don't even know that negra is black and blanca is white. :-/

After school, a few of us went over to the orphanage. Immediately we walk onto their playground and all of the kids are out running around and playing. Some of the little ones were on the swings the others swinging on the jungle gym. I passed out some stickers to the kiddos and walked over to cuddle with the babies.

I lost my heart to one of the little boys, whom I understood to be named Flaco, which can be translated to skinny boy in Spanish, which made sense because he was the tiniest little boy I've ever seen. I didn't even think his tiny little legs would allow him to walk but it was his favorite thing! For the hour or so that we were there, he held onto my hands and we walked around the yard. It was then that I decided I may need to take him back home with me in June.

We will definitely be going back there weekly so I can watch him (and the others) grow up, even if I can't take them home with me.


"Even though you can't see or hear them at all, a person's a person, no matter how small" -Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!

Looong week, short weekend

I was hoping for some sun last weekend, so much for that thought!
We ventured up to Taulabe caves near Siguatepeque.
It was nice to see and had some gorgeous stalagmite and stalactite formations.
Afterwards, we made a quick stop for mini blueberry pies, Ice cream and cafe at Chalet del Lago. The owner invited us to get a group together to go sailing next Saturday.
This week at school was a bit crazy, we made study guides and you would think we would be able to give them to our kids on Monday. Nope. We were told on Wednesday they ran out of ink and thankfully by Thursday we had them to give to our kids.

This was the most thankful I have been for a Friday in a long time.
Phillip and Faye cooked for English Night. They decorated the place so wonderfully and had delicious food.
Saturday morning I woke up ready for coffee. Our coffee machine broke earlier this week so we've been having to use a reusable cloth coffee filter. Well, we had no coffee so I had to venture out around 7:30. They're all a little late to do things around here so I walked into a mini super as a lady was setting up shop. I grabbed some coffee and went on my way!
We have to boil water to make coffee with this filter, so I put some water on the stove... As I was picking up the pot to pour the water into the filter, the handle broke off and boiling water went everywhere. An hour after waking up, I finally had my cup of coffee.
Kristina and I went to the D&D later to do yoga and eat, and we met some wonderful people. It's so nice to be able to hear stories about their travels and where they are coming from and headed to. Everyone seems to be so laid back and happy about what they were doing and where they were going.
Sunday morning, Kristina and I went over to the D&D to grab Bobby's kayak and go to the lake. We kayaked down a canal out to the lake and floated for about two hours while working on a six pack.
I waited a bit too long to put sunscreen on and got the sunburn of my life from my forehead to my ankles!
When we got home, we had to do yoga to keep up with our thirty days straight.. This was the longest 20 minutes of yoga I have ever done.
Monday starts our week of exams! Wish me and my kiddos luck!

We have been planning Semana Santa for awhile now and finally booked our rooms in Utila, one of the Bay Islands. Shepard is going to join us and some of us are definitely getting dive certified! I cannot wait to see him and be there for a whole week!