Ricky Martin... Mas, Mas, Mas a La Vida!

Oh Ricky...

We were so ready for the concert to start. The concert was suppose to start at 8:00, typical Honduras, Ricky didn't go on until 9:30. During this time we tried to upgrade our "seats" (we stood the whole time) by going to the guards and seeing if they wouldn't let a couple of gringas into the area with seats. It didn't work. Oh well, we had a blast anyways!

He is so good looking...and he can sing! What a combo!

Diana was super in to it!

(Danielle, Diana, Me, Abby)
It was so wet. Luckily it didn't start raining until the last couple of songs. We were given ponchos to keep us dry. For not really being a huge "Ricky" fan, until recently, I really enjoyed this Latin hunk of a singer.

PTM: The inevitable happened today, one of my kids yelled out " Mami, I don't understand." I told him that I could help him but I'm NOT your mom. He laughed and said, "ok meese!"

Fiesta Catracha 2011

Honduran party is what the title of this post translates to. This year I was apart of a group that part took in this fiesta in a special way. About 18 North American teachers learned and danced two

traditional Honduran dances! Oh did I mention that it was in front of the entire student body (pre-school - 12th grade) Boy did they scream when they saw their teachers walk out in traditional costumes ready to dance!

It was really fun! We had been practicing about 3 times a week for 3 weeks. So we had the dances down. I don't want to say that we were "awesome" or anything but...we rocked it. The 1st dance was called "El suenito" meaning the dream. The second one was called "sucar", and I'm not sure what it means.

I would definitely do this again!

My girls dressed up in their traditional outfits...they are so cute.

PTM: While the dancing was definitely a highlight for me the rest of the day proved a bit more difficult and unorganized (to say the least) The Spanish teachers were in charge of setting up booths or display tables for each class. The students were supposed to stand by the table and present the traditional items that were brought in. As I approach my student's table I see one of the items brought being misused. And my misused I mean one of my boys had an antique garden hoe in his hands chasing the girls pretending to attack them!

Livin' the vida loca!

Yep! I am going to a Ricky Martin concert next Sunday! I'm pretty excited.

Until recently I've had more of an apathetic view of Ricky Martin. But now I'm starting to appreciate Latin music and how much gusto and emotion is compressed into every song. So in an effort to embrace the Latin culture I'm gonna throw caution to the wind and listen to a man sing about livin' a crazy life. Bring it on!

El Salvador Vacation...

We had an amazing 41/2 days in El Salvador. We rented a house with a view, as you can see from the picture. Time was spent swimming, reading, eating amazing El Salvadorian pupusas and seafood.

We also cooked for ourselves a couple nights. While I can't take props for too much of the actual making of the food, I'm thankful to be friends with great chefs!! :) We made carne asada, chismol, platanos, and a fried potato medly. Que rico!!!

One of the mornings, we pried ourselves away from the pool and our books to venture into the capital city San Salvador about 40 minutes away from out beach house. We visited the museum of Oscar Romero, a Catholic priest who was martyred 31 years ago for preaching social justice. I've heard him referred to as an El Salvadorian Martin Luther King. After the museum we ate the BEST hotdogs ever! Now I would normally not rave about hotdogs but these were phenom. They had caramelized onions and were fried in grease that was probably 5 days old but was exploding with flavor. Ya they were that good. During our day trip we made a special stop at STARBUCKS! This was my 1st Starbucks experience in Central America. I felt like we were back in the States. I had an iced caramel macchiato!

.

Great friends, great food, great country, great times :)

This last week at school has been a refreshed week! So thankful for the break.

PTM: I was walking my kiddos back from PE and before we entered the classroom I stopped them and told them that everything needed to cleared off their desk, nothing could be on top of the desk. We were working with small math pieces. So they all clear off their desks and I pass out the base 10 block packets and we start working with them. I look over at a boy name Angel and he is crouched underneath his desk. I give him the "what do you think you are doing look" and he looks back at me and says all sincerity, "Meese you say nothing on top of the desk...I am below the desk!"

Sicky, sick, sick....

I'm sure by the title of this post you can gather that I have been sick. The last seven days have been less than enjoyable for me. Two Thursdays ago there was a huge semi-truck accident including an electrical pole, rendering half of Tegucigalpa powerless ALL DAY. I would have thought that there would be no school...no power=no school....right???? Wrong, we had school. Well school went on just fine, it was hot and I had to use a chalk board instead of a smart board but I survived....or so I thought.

At IST no power means no functioning bathrooms, so these kids were bring into my classroom all of this bacteria...and as a result, this past Thursday I ended up in hospital with a Dr. telling me I have an intestinal infection. SUPER! They gave me an IV of drugs with instructions of lots of water, rest and more drugs. I'm thankfully feeling a lot better and hoping for more enjoyable, productive weeks to come.

*On a positive note, Honduras is celebrating its independence we get a 5 day weekend because of it!! We (Danielle, Eric, Ben, Diana, Abby and myself) are going to El Salvador, we rented a house next to the beach. I am SO excited!

Quirks...

So my kids are pretty cute!! We were lining up go to the flag day assembly. September is the month were Honduras celebrates its independence/children's day/and teacher appreciation!

I am getting to know my new students and learning their strengths, weaknesses and quirks. I have learned that one of the quirks about my class is that they need to microwave their food or it is simply not edible. Last Thursday the power was out ALL day and so the classroom microwave was obviously not working. I told them that it's OK to eat cold food, they looked at me with a bewildered/are you kidding look.

In an effort to not stick out too much I dyed my hair dark!

PTM (precious teaching moment) I was teaching ordinal numbers and to demonstrate when you would use ordinal numbers I told them to imagine that the class was running a race. Then I asked, "who is the fastest kid?" One boy was very set on making sure that I knew that he thought he was the fastest. (He name is Werner and he is a hilarious/confident young boy) So then I said imagine that all 20 of us ran a race and Werner was last, what place did he get? After the laughter died down they replied "Werner got 20th place." Lesson learned.

Back in Hondo land...

Yes, I am back in Honduras for a 2nd year. This summer has been a rejuvenating time of great experiences combined with much needed rest.

A few goals for the 2011-2012 school year:

-blog once a week (please get on my case if this doesn't happen)

-pray more... I am daily convinced of the power and importance of prayer

-eat less/exercise more (yes I am one of 3 billion Americans that would like to shed a few pounds)

-be a teacher that cares

-experience as many new things as possible

A few photos to highlight my summer...

PTM (Precious Teaching Moment) : While I don't normally speak Spanish in class every once in a while I'll throw out a phrase or two just to get their attention. Yesterday I said "Que barbaridad" with a lot of gusto and one of my students stopped and with a surprised look said, "Meese, you said that correctly!"

Livin the "Pura Vida'

During Easter break "Semana Santa" I was able to travel to Costa Rica for a week! I had an amazing time resting on the beach, riding bikes, ziplining through a rain forest, searching the trees for howler monkeys and spending time with great friends.

The life of a teacher is always GO,GO,GO so it was nice to be able to go, go, go SLOW for a week!

The trip started off with a 23 hours/2day bus ride. I don't recommend it, especially in a 3rd world country where roads are unrelyable (at best) with pointless border patrols (one delayed our trip by 3 hours)were I never had a bag checked....because I'm white. One of the memories that sticks out to me from our travels is one of the hotels we stayed in before reaching our final destination. The Galileo.....with brighly colored walls and decorations that ranged from tennis shoes hanging from light fixtures to nudity drawn on the walls. I knew I was out of my comfort zone when I saw a sign that said, "Marijuana is prohibited, but we'll hold your drugs until your departure." But we had a private room, so I felt as safe as I could.

Despite the lengthy travels....it was worth it when we reached paradise! Simply wonderful! The first day in Puerto Viejo we jumped into our suits and headed down to the
beach called "Punta Uva" we played frisbee and just relaxed. This picture is taken at dusk.

The next day we woke up and went to a "Jaguar" rescue center (where wasn't a Jaguar there) we were able to see a variety of indigenous snakes, sloths, howler monkey, Margay (sp?) its in the cheetah family. It is the only animal that can turn its paws completely around so it can run down a tree just as fast and it can run up a tree.
The next couple of days were spent roaming from beach to beach. One day we rented bikes and rode out 7 km to a really nice beach. We snorkeled and saw vibrant, colorful fish. This was the day I got fried! NO BUENO!!! The sun is a tad bit more powerful than in the states and even Honduras. I had a lot of fun regardless...probably the funnest day of the entire trip. Not that we did anything super extravagant it was just so refreshing to be surrounded by the beautiful beach, trees, fish and fresh air!Oh and the food that night was uh maz ing! Rice and beans with King Crab. The waitress lured us in with "Its the best Rice and Beans you'll have"...she was right!

We also went to a National Park where we were able to see soooo many animals.

One the last day we went ziplining through th rain forest. This was a 1st for me, so I was especially excited.(This picture was totally Dan's idea!)

Multiplication Party!!!

We have been learning our multiplication facts. Once a week the students are quizzed on multiplication facts. Every time they pass with 100% they not only move on to the next number but also earn their way to an ice cream party, they LOVE it!!!

Good thing this day was a half day....

Precious teaching moment:

Me: "What is 6x10?"

Student: "Oh, I know...its sexy!"

p.s. Thanks for all the prayers and notes of encouragement!!!

Life is rough, but God is good!

A thousand apologies for the lack of updates. Once you get out of the habit of updating a blog it's hard to start up again. But I've been gently reminded by a few key people in my life to get back on the bandwagon....so here I am!

The last couple of months I have faced challenges both spiritual and physical that have been surpassed by none! I'm not sure how "deep" I want to get on this blog but in an effort to share what's going on in my life I feel that I cannot completely block this out. I have been apart of two incidences where my sense of security has been stripped from me. In the beginning of the year I was mugged by a man on a bike in the middle of the day. The incident lasted no more than a minute. But, I am a changed woman because of that minute. For about a month I lived in a state of constant fear, a fear of man that paralyzed me from everyday activities. It wasn't until I became completely broken and useless that God used my bad situation to turn the change that was happening to me into a good change. I was able to talk with a pastor about some things I could do to greatly reduce the risk of being a victim again. I learned that where I put my fear in is so important. My fear was not in the correct place, I was fearing man more that I was fearing God! Also, I have been learning to accept and take comfort in the fact that God is in control and knows how much I can handle. What a wonderful thing to reflect on! I continue to struggle with safety issues and feel like I walk around with "I will bite you" stamped on my forehead, but I no longer am consumed with paralyzing fear. God has saved me from a life of fearing what man can do to me. For that I am thankful. God is good...all the time!

My kids are great at taking pictures....NOT! I think I'm the only one looking at the camera! Oh well they're so cute and I love them!