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