School Christmas Program #1

Today we had a Christmas program at the hospital here...it's really had to even imagine it's Christmas when it's scorching hot out!  Anyway...we've been practicing so hard the past few weeks to learn the songs and the kids did AWESOME!  Not a lot of the 4 and 5 year olds showed up, but the ones that did sang their little hearts out!

And now a few pictures from the day...

Ready to get the show on the road!

2nd grade singing...

BAKING in the sun...first time I've ever been sunburned in December!

Part of the 5th grade drama...

Kinder and Prepa singing!  :)

La Entrada

Today after school Lily, Carolina and I hopped a bus to La Entrada...I guess about half an hour on the bus...

Lily decided to take a little nap...until she saw my camera go off!

Not sure if you can tell what this is...it's the floor of the bus...but from my seat I could see the road...

 

The market place...

One of the more odd sightings of the day were these...

They say they're not painted...I don't believe them...

UPDATE:  I googled about these little chicks...and found out they are born this way...you don't believe me do you?  Well, before they are hatched a needle is stuck in the egg with harmless vegetable dye and then viola...colored chick!  (P.S.-- I really don't have a formed opinion on whether chicks should be dyed or not, I just had never seen colored chicks before and thought it was unusual so I took a picture!)

And just because I don't feel like devoting a whole post to bug bites...I'll throw this picture in from last night...

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I am FREEZING!  While I know all of you up north are in deed much colder, I am still freezing.  So, what's the temperature you ask?  Ohhhhhhhhh...in the 70's.  But it's damp so it feels much, much colder!

So in honor of this cold weather, we've put up a new bulletin board in the classroom!

And also a few pictures of the children...

I'm not the only one who is cold!

The boy in the red sweatshirt...Fernando...he can't sit still!

We've also been practicing for our Christmas program coming up this weekend.  We'll be going over to the hospital to put on a little show.  The Kinder and Prepa have been working together learning the songs...here are some pictures from our practice today...

here's a little video of our practice today...do you think we're ready?  HAHA  (UGH...I couldn't upload the video...I'll try again later...)

On the road...

This past week I've had to take two trips into the city all because I want nice teeth!  :)

Wednesday I had to miss school because the only time the dentist could put my spacers in was in the morning.  I wasn't happy about missing school, but I had to.  Also, because generally anyone who I would travel with to the city was also teaching I had to drag Lucy's mom along with me...I'm sure she had a million things to do around the house so I'm very thankful she agreed to go with me.  The thought of going to the city alone makes me nervous, mostly because of that bus terminal where I would most likely get lost.

So Wednesday...the longest day EVER!  My appointment was for 11:00, so we left the house at 8:15...you would think that would be enough time right?  Well, let me tell you about my day!  While we were walking to the bus stop one of her friends was driving down the road and offered a ride to the stop, so we got in the truck and were on our way...when we arrived at the bus stop we got out and SLAM my thumb was still in the door.  I don't know how it happened but my thumb got closed in the back door (I was in the front and Lucy's mom was in the back) and to make matters worse everyone keeps doors locked so it took a minute for him to unlock the non-automatic door...this was also after he started to drive away...thankfully there was traffic so he was just kind of rolling.  Well, don't worry I finally got my thumb out...it was just throbbing and bleeding like crazy.  But I couldn't focus on that since the bus was barreling down the street and we needed to hop on.

Now onto the bus ride...we got about 25 minutes away when WHACK!  We hit a cat...that poor little cat got all run over and stuck up in the wheel or something and we had to pull over (thankfully right infront of the llantera--tire shop).  We were held up there for about 45 minutes...it seemed like longer.  Then on the road again and it was smooth sailing until we got to the city limits were there was an insane amount of traffic of course!  Well...this post is getting long so I'll get to the point...it should take about an hour and a half to get to the city...it took us two and half and I was almost late for my dentist appointment.

I got my spacers put in (which I found out today they were put on the wrong teeth...they were supposed to be put in my top molars...not my bottom...which means my orthodontist couldn't do what he needed today and I have to make more trips to the city before I go home to the states....) and then off to get x-rays!  I needed some x-rays done before my appointment today (of course I couldn't get them done at the same place...so it meant wandering around to a few different places), a lateral cranial (i.e.-profile shot!) and then a panoramic shot of my teeth...and here they are!  Sorry the quality isn't that great, but you get the gist...I have a big mouth!  haha

Today was much less dramatic, praise the Lord!  I was a little stressed last night not knowing who was going to go with me...I'm still not comfortable traveling around the city alone, and thankfully one of the girls from the church was able to go with me.  We got into the city in good timing (no cats slowed us down today!), it was just from the bus terminal to the dentist it took quite a while, but we got there right on time!  I got a new wire put on and changed my elastic colors, they're now a pretty Carolina Blue!  That was all he could do because of the issue with my spacers...so I have to go back to get my spacers put in (in the correct location!) on the 9th and then my normal check up on the 17th.  Then I fly home on the 18th...yep...that's right...I'll be home in 3 weeks from right now!  :)

And...last but not least...my Thanksgiving Feast!  Potatoes, beans and noodles...

Puddle jumping...or falling in puddles...

It rained for 2 days straight.  It's not exactly a dream land here in Honduras when it rains you see, just about every road is dirt and I know my blog readers are smart and know that water and dirt make....MUD!  So the past few days I've been dodging puddles, getting my flip flops stuck in mud and just being in a state of wetness.

Thursday night I was heading up to the camp ground for a ladies get together...first of all it was raining cats and dogs and I think it's a 10 minute walk there (it seemed much longer than that...) and when we got there, Karla remembered that we were supposed to bring the soda...that was back at the house.  Thankfully she knew someone close by with a truck...so he graciously gave us a ride back and forth.  Well, when we got up to the campground, we were meeting at the pavilion...just a cement slab with a roof over it.  I noticed the puddles on the cement (and I think you know where this is going...) and in my head I was thinking, "ok Jen, be careful!"...no sooner do I step on the cement and go gliding across this puddle, which resulted in me sitting in a puddle.  I was soaked...and sat in my wet clothes for 3 hours during our little reunion.  Ok, I'm done complaining about the rain because...

If there wasn't rain, I wouldn't have gotten these cute pictures...

Two of the boys from Kinder were having fun walking around with our umbrellas after school.

Lily (Kinder teacher) and Carolina (My assistant) with the boys

My classroom...

I think its been a while since I've put up pictures from my classroom...I've changed the bulletin boards a few times and as you know I'm terrible about updating my blog so there are some old bulletin board pictures and some new!  :)

No...they don't celebrate Thanksgiving...but I wanted to celebrate anyway!  :)

A close up of the corn cobs!

Just call me Chef Hen!

On Sunday afternoon I learned how to cook!  (For those of you who may have fallen off your chairs...you can get back up!)  :)

Carolina (my teaching assistant) picked me up (ok, stopped by to walk with me...) and headed over to Lily's (the kinder teacher) for a cooking lesson!  Our mission...to make pupusas, baleadas, and chimol...now let me define what those things are.  Pupusas are corn tortiallas stuffed with an assortment of things, traditionally either cheese, beans, meat or loroco (loroco is some sort of flower bud that people eat).  Baleadas are flour tortillas with refried beans, cheese and crema...at least that's what a traditional baleada is...our baleadas were just beans and avacado (why the non traditional route?...because I prefer just the beans and avacado).  Last but not least...the chimol...pretty much the salsa of Honduras, finely chopped tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cilantro, lime juice and seasoning if you choose...

I should also mention that I ruined the first batch of dough for the flour tortillas...Lily's mom said my hands are too hot and I cooked the dough while mixing it.  Now, I assure you my hands are not that hot!  I think I was sabotaged by the warm butter Lily put in!  So Lily's mom mixed up a new batch...my hands stayed far away from it...and then we were in the tortilla making business!

And now for the fun part...pictures!  :)

Mixing the masa (for corn tortillas...)

Perfect consistency!

Loroco...the flower buds used in cooking

Where the cooking took place...I want one!

Carolina filling up the first pupusa...

Cooking away...

Lily making a pupusa (she cheated and didn't make them by hand...)

Pupusas hot off the stove!

Me attempting to make a flour tortilla...

Our mountain of flour tortillas!

The delicious finished product!

Love/Hate

I have a love/hate relationship with technology...

My e-mail was compromised the other day...meaning my account decided to send junk mail to everyone on my contact list.  So, while I love technology and the fact that I can communicate with people (especially while I'm in another country!), I also hate that people go and mess up other peoples e-mails and the hassle that it is to make everything right again...

So, if you got any junk mail from me...I'M SORRY!!!  :(

Am I living in a jungle?

The answer to that question would be no...however...there has been an awful lot of wildlife in my house lately.

*Birds
*Geckos
*Spiders
*Butterflies
*Flies
*Mosquitos

I'm just waiting for the chickens to start making themselves at home!  :)

Brace Yourself!

On Friday I took a trip into the city and started to process of getting braces!

Yep...BRACES!  I only have them on my top teeth as of right now, and my next appointment is November 27th and I'll get the rest of them put on.  I really can't imagine how much pain I would be in if I have all of the braces put on at the same time...are you tired of my complaining yet?

I didn't think they would actually put them on that day, I thought it would be more of just a consult.  Well they took the molds of my mouth and I gagged only about a million times and it tasted disgusting, then he was all, ok, well...let me get the things (yes, he said things...I don't think he could think of the word in English...) and we'll get started.  Oh!  And he spoke English (well...maybe I should say he studied English...) which was quite helpful since I'm not current with my orthodontic Spanish phrases!  Haha

I'll upload a picture soon of the braces I have so far...I want to make sure my teeth are nice and clean and free of debris before I take a nice close up for you!  HAHA

Darwin and Jayson

I know, I know...its been a few days since my last update.  I've been keeping busy this past week with the crew from Cristo Salva.  In the mornings I've been working at the school and then after school joining with Cristo Salva in whatever ministry they're doing.  

Probably my highlight of the week was just this past Sunday with a routine stop at Cafe Rey...

On Sunday we stopped by Cafe Rey for our usual cup of coffee and snacks.  When we arrived there were two boys selling hammocks, just kind of hanging around the restaurant.  We went up to them and asked if they wanted anything to eat...and of course they did!  :)  So we brought them up to the counter to order and Johnny, the restaurant owner served them up two big plates of food.  Since it's a normal stop for us, I know the normal size of the servings of food...there must have been at least three times the amount of food on each plate.  Their eyes just glimmered when they saw the big plates of food in front of them!  And I'm thankful for Johnny and his generosity as well!  The boys ate their fill and then them wrap up their leftovers to bring home.  We talked with the boys as they enjoyed their yucca and chicharron (fried pig skin) and we enjoyed our coffee.  They told us about their lives, their grandmother makes the hammocks and they go out and sell them for her...they need to sell two a day.  Two people from our group bought hammocks from them, it was a good day at work for them!  :)  Their names were Darwin and Jayson, Darwin is 12 and Jayson 13 and they are cousins.  Jayson is still in school, he's in the 5th grade, Darwin stopped going when he got up to the 4th grade.

Carol had me translate for her and she wanted me to tell them that God sent us to the coffee shop that day so we would meet them.  Darwin smiled big and said he knew that God sent us, they were just about the leave when we asked if they wanted something to eat.  Before we parted ways we asked if we could pray for them and with that same big smile Darwin said he would love that and we gathered around those two boys and prayed for them. 

Darwin had a little red string that he had the hammocks strung together with...after playing with the rope for a while he broke it into a few little pieces.  He tied one of the pieces to my watch...I still have it tied there.  It will serve as a reminder to pray for them, and those around the country who will struggle to sell hammocks, struggle to find food and struggle to live.

Maybe I'll never see them again, but they've made an impact on my life.

Lazy Saturday

Today is a lazy Saturday.  Lucy went off to San Marco to teach English and I have the house to myself...well...kind of to myself.  The door is open so I have different visitors that stop by to say hello.

For some reason this weekend seems to be going by very slowly, which you would think would be a good thing, but you see, I can't wait for Monday to come!  There's a team coming down from the States and I can't wait to see them!  It's been over a year and  a half since I've seen most of them!!!  Thankfully Monday is a holiday so we don't have school, which means I can head to the city and greet them at the airport!  :)  It's going to be like Christmas in October...seeing some of my favorite people, getting a new laptop (yes...my computer is still freaking out from when I dropped it on the floor...so someone is bringing a replacement...), and other random stuff being brought from the states!  :)

And just because I think pictures add a little color to my blog...here's my lunch!

Rice, beans and...bananas (green boiled ones of course)!

Oh!  I thought I'd tell you a funny little thing...or at least I think you'll think it's funny!  The other day someone shook my hand and commented on how soft my hands were.  Then they concluded that my hands are so soft because I don't work.  I do work...just not frequent manual labor!  :)

 Ok, I know you were probably hoping for a more interesting blog after my week long hiatus...sorry!

Bad news...

I dropped my laptop on the lovely tile floor today.  The end result...I think I messed up my hard drive and my computer isn't functioning.  What this all means...I don't have the world wide web at my finger tips...and I can't update my blog frequently.  I actually probably wont get it fixed until I get back to the States for my Christmas break...December all of a sudden seems pretty far away.  My sweet roommate is kind enough to let me use her computer to check my e-mail and whatnot, but I don't want to be a pain, so I'll be limiting my time online.  I will hopefully have a solution in the next few weeks, but until then...sorry in advance for the lack of blogging.

Is it Friday yet?

Its been a slow week.  Yesterday I thought it was Wednesday and today I was thinking there was only one more day until the weekend.  No such luck.

When I left my house this morning there was power…after my 10 minute walk to school I was looking forward to hitting the button on the fan and cooling off a little before classes started.  I hit the power button…and then any other button I could find on the fan until I realized the power was out.  That was the start to my day.  When the power is out at school it makes for a long day, especially if it’s a non gym day.  At least when there’s gym we get to go outside and run around for half an hour or so…but today we were in the dark classroom all day (other than snack and recess time).  I guess you get accustomed to being in the dark, the kids kept asking if we could turn the fan on…I had to remind them there was no power…Fernando wanted his baleada (flour tortilla with refried beans, cheese and crema) warmed up for snack…after I was confused why none of the buttons on the micro were working…I remembered there was no power…and when I needed to make copies for homework…Carolina reminded me there was no power…

The power did finally come back on at about 4:00PM, enough time to charge up my phone and computer and then the brownouts started.  Right now I’m typing up the post in Microsoft Word…there’s not enough power coming through the wires to keep my wireless router powered.  Next time there’s a burst of power I’ll post this.  Also, when there are brown outs the fan moves a little slower, the light is very dim and the TV turns off every few minutes (the remote doesn’t work so I tend to not get too comfy on the couch!  haha)

Ok…enough ranting about poor me with no power.  It’s really not that bad…just puts crinkles in the day.

Since I haven’t really blogged in the past few days here’s what I did…

Monday was laundry day…and drum roll please……………I took my first shower since I’ve been here!!!  Now, at this point you’re probably disgusted and thinking maybe I should just stay in Honduras forever…but in my house here there isn’t a functioning shower, there’s a bucket of water.  Which is fine.  However, Darla said while I was doing laundry I could use her shower…a real shower with water squirting from the shower head!  It wasn’t warm water, but I didn’t care.  I could have waited and used the other shower, but I was just excited about a shower and didn’t care if it was warm of cold!  So that was the highlight of my day!

Tuesday, Carlos, Lucy and I went to Casa Quemada to visit some people.  Carlos and Lucy have been visiting a few different families every Tuesday for a while now and I’ve recently joined them.  The purpose of the visits is to build relationships with people in the town and to disciple new Christians.

And today we had our small group meeting with some of the kids from the youth group.  We met for about an hour and a half today.  Luis led a devotional from Colossians 3:12…”Therefore, as God’s chosen people, hold and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience”.  After the devotional we played some games and then headed home…in the rain.  I’m glad I had my busted umbrella with me…it’s still functional…kind of!  :)

Tomorrow Wendi, a girl from the small group, is coming over.  I’m going to try to teach her some conversational English and she’s going to help me with my Spanish.  Hopefully the power comes back on soon so I can search for some help in teaching conversational English…

I'm alive :)

I was just realizing I haven't updated the blog in a few days...more specifically since T.S. Matthew.  Don't worry...I'm alive!  :)

Saturday, the day we were supposed to get hit with the most rain it actually turned out to be a nice sunny day with a little breeze!  And since the storm it's been a little cooler...down to the high 80's!  While the high 80's are still quite warm, it's a welcome break from the mid to upper 90's!

I do have some sad news...my umbrella broke!  My umbrella serves two purposes...to keep me dry when it's raining and to provide shade from the scorching sun.  A little background info on my umbrella:  it's only 2 weeks old and I paid 40 Lempiras (the Lempira is the currency for Honduras) for it, which is about $2.25.  I suppose you get what you pay for!  I am thankful however that there is a team coming down to Honduras in two weeks and will be bringing me an umbrella (or two!)...that should get me through til at least December.  :)

Rain, rain and more rain!

It rained all through the night...it got so loud at time it woke me up and I had to turn on my iPod to fall back asleep.  I know people say sleeping with the sound of rain on a tin roof makes them sleep well...I guess it's different with the sound of a tropical storm on your tine roof.  :)

Right now the rain has let up a bit, just a little sprinkle currently.  However I know the forecast is for rain the next two days at least so the already waterlogged country will be even more waterlogged.

Calm before the storm...

Right now I just hear the crickets chirping and that's it...(and the usual sounds of Honduras...roosters crowing...fire crackers going off...gun shots...and extremely loud televisions...)  They say the rain will come...I guess it's the calm before the storm. 

Honduras is in a High Flood Threat level...the National Hurricane Center says portions of Nicaragua and Honduras will have 6-10 inches of rain and isolated areas will have up to 15.  I guess it just depends on where the rain bands hit...

Currently I have electricity (obviously!)...however during normal rain storms it often goes out...I'm assuming with tropical storm rains it will go out as well.  As I have internet I'll update about the conditions.

T.S. Matthew

This is the current satellite image of the Caribbean...

Thankfully I live on the western side of the country, but still there should be a good amount of rain dumped on us in the next few days

Hiking...

First, let me apologize for my lack of blogging lately.  There hasn't been anything overly exciting and don't want to bore you!  :)

However, yesterday was full of excitement...I went for a hike!  Yep...a hike in Honduras where it's 95 degrees and feels like 110.  Let me tell you, if you like to sweat, that's the activity for you!

The small group from the youth group decided a few weeks ago on meeting up at the three crosses in Sula...they're up behind the old Sula hospital.  From the ground it really doesn't seem like it would be that bad of a hike...well...looks are deceiving!  haha  But, it was fun and maybe I would even do it again...probably not when it's 95 degrees out!

The hiking crew...

Fernando brought his American Style Cooler...

Fernando y Yessenia

Baby size jell-o?

A view of the valley

Emerging from the jungle...

Such a happy hiker!

Lucy

Taking a rest at the top

Yessenia and Lucy took a tumble...

Making a chain to get down the mountain