Christmas is on the Way!!!

It's so weird celebrating Christmas while sweating and swatting at mosquitoes in the 80 degree weather. But it's Christmas time here just the same. Classes end for me the 18th of December, and this last week is going to be a bit crazy. All of the kids have papers and a presentation due.

These pictures were suppose to go up a long time ago, but I forgot. So let me present to you some of my friends from the Children Center. We play soccer with the older kids almost every afternoon, but these are my adventures inside the house.

(Daron & Juan Cito) (Michelle) (Kevin Jose)

Setting up for Chirstmas in Honduras

Well I'm sick....I've had a cold for a week now and a fever yesterday. Think I'm on the upward swing though, at least I hope so. It's been really great having a week off from school, but I think I'm ready to go back. All this partying is wearing me out!!! I haven't cooked for the last 2 weeks, so all my food is going bad. Such a weird concept. Food never goes bad in my family's house.

Now that Thanksgiving is over we are putting up Christmas decorations. Check out our sweet Christmas tree we made out of palm fronds. :)

Well tomorrow all the Honduran churches will be closed as a result of the elections. Please pray that elections will go well, and that they will recognized and upheld by the rest of the world.

I should be sleeping

Well these last few weeks have been crazy busy; Teaching, house sitting, going to the beach, grading tests, playing soccer, cooking, creating lesson plans, swimming at waterfalls, etc have all taken part. To the left is a picture of my staff housing family. We have lots of fun together, playing games, helping each other out with different projects, sharing meals, and of course hanging out with the MKs here. The hospital/missions staff had a picture day. Lots of family photos were taken, and we all thought that we should snap a photo of our "family."

Teaching is going pretty well. It is difficult sometimes trying to keep everyone on task at

once, especial with the more than occasional snake (see left), puppies, unknown bugs, tarantulas, scorpions, etc. But life at the school is always fun and rewarding. There is never a dull moment. I think I'm getting a little better at actually lecturing. But I will find out tomorrow as I am lecturing on Greek Mythology and Geography. I love my students, and they always have something new to surprise me with. They definitely make my day.

I made it out to beach last weekend. The water is very warm and we had a lot of fun riding

waves. We even got some coconuts and drank the milk with bamboo shoots. (see right) Pretty tasty.

The weather here as been relatively nice. It is usually rainy/floody one or two days a week. The rest of the time the temperature is around 85 degrees. The mosquitoes and no see-ums (which you can totally see) are always around. Some what annoying, but you get use to it. I'm getting rather good at killing them using several different methods: the two handed clap, the one handed grab, the chin squish (this method comes in when your hands are full) , flicking them on the wall, mosquito traps, and RAID killing spray... Yeah it's pretty much an all out war.

This past Sunday, I rode around with Dr. Don to two different local Honduran churches in Balfate. Tons of fun. He lead worship for the kids, teaching them songs that he has created, each with it's own hand motions. The kids helped teach me... pretty much awesome. In the afternoon I learned, in Spanish, how to play guitar. Kinda hard, and I'm not really that great, but I think I will try and keep it up.

This weekend I will be spending in Roatan (the biggest of the Honduran islands). Going be a blast. Going with a missionary family and the other people from staff housing. Hopefully we will be able to do a lot of snorkeling and swimming. It is after all the 3rd largest reef in the world. Some say the absolute best for snorkeling and scuba diving.

Well off to see the meteorite shower.... hopefully we will be able to see something. We certainly don't have a lot of light pollution around here :)

New Pet

Well it's not really a pet, but right now it is in a jar in my room. :) My friend Gabe found it in his shoe this morning...

Life now and such..

So one problem with cooking here is the HEAT. When your room's average temperature is 90 degrees already, turning on a burner or oven is almost absurd. But all and all my cookies turned out great. :) And no I don't just make junk food.

Actually starting to figure out what I'm suppose to be doing at school. I teach bible in the morning and then 3 days a week I oversee things, the other 2 days I help in the mornings and then stay in the afternoon to finish things up. Trying to get 6 kids, all at different levels of learning, all organized and working is rather a feat. But what really make my job a whole lot easier is that fact that the kids want to learn and are hard working.

We have marble game breaks and topos (sp?) (a Honduran Popsicle) to help us "focus." :)

The only medical stuff I have been able to do is stitching my knee up after a soccer game. And let me tell you stitching with a medical needle is so much better than a sewing needle.

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to learn how to run IVs. But we shall see...

We play soccer everyday after school. It's a great ministry and a lot of fun. They made a nick name for me, "Chino."

Mosquitoes are pretty bad down here. For some reason my room seems to be the worst in the building I'm in. I go around my room every night before I go to bed and kill as many as I can find. This is usually around 6-15... I made a trap for them and it seems to have helped some.

The power goes out often and the internet is somewhat sketchy. Thankfully the Hospital has a generator that the Staff Housing is connected to, but at least half of the other buildings (missionary houses) go without power for long periods of time.

All in all I'm having a lot of fun and feeling very blessed.

oh... I got see a few Basilisks lizards (they run on water) very cool.

Arrival in Honduras

After 16 hours of travel I found myself unpacking in the room that I will be living in for the next 9 months. The two flights and bus ride went very smoothly and I found myself sleeping most of the time. I have arrived during the rainy season, so everything was flooded here for the first few days. Thankfully my room doesn't leak...

My room is very nice. Just the right size for one person, and I am settling in nicely. I am learning how to cook different things, which is rather fun. :)

I went to the bilingual school everyday this week except Tuesday to try and figure out what I will be doing for the rest of the time. The 6 kids are a lot of fun and full of energy. I can tell that I am going to have a blast here.

Although my Spanish is not so good, I am understanding more and more each day. Of course speaking is a lot harder, but I hope that will improve too while I'm here.

Thank you all for your prayers