I don't really like all of the cliche phrases that everyone always says when someone you love passes away. Like "You don't know how much you love someone until they are gone." or "She's in a better place." But I guess they became cliche because of the large amount of truth that they hold.
The thought that Nana is in heaven right now was what immediately brought me comfort after my mom told me the news over Skype. However it wasn't until I was talking to Libby and she told me that Nana is not only with Jesus right now, but she's also with granddaddy again that I was able to smile about it. (Thanks Lib!)
It's been a rough few days being away from my family during this time, but I can't tell you all how much I appreciate all of the messages and emails saying that you are praying for me. I honestly don't know how people without the Joy of the Lord can handle circumstances like this. Especially being so far away from everyone that I love. However, I know the Lord is teaching me to rely solely on him Him during this time.
Nana was such a beautiful lady. Looking back and remembering how much she was a part of my life has been such a blessing. I am pretty sure that most grandkids aren't so lucky to live just a quarter of a mile down the road from their grandparents and get to spend so much time with them. However, growing up on "Pittman Road" allowed me to experience true family life to the fullest. I remember staying with Nana and Granddaddy as a little girl every time my brothers had a basketball game because I "hated" basketball (go figure). I'd take Mary Poppins and maybe some coloring books and would sit with Nana all evening.
One of the best memories, and I'm sure you all remember as well, was our weekly Sunday afternoon lunches with Nana. Not only did we have lunch every week, but Nana made sure that we had a GOOD lunch every week. And without fail, because I loved them so much, Nana would always make mashed potatoes. She would always tell me that she made them just for me!
Nana also always got all of her grandchildren candy and cards every holiday. When I was younger, I loved Peppermint Patties! However, as I got older my love for them became less and less, I mean, I never disliked them, but they wouldn't have been my choice candy. Nana never knew this, and even up until I left for Honduras, she would always get me Peppermint Patties as my special treat. I still smile just thinking about it, and even though it wasn't my favorite, I loved that she thought it was and that is what made it so special.
Nana was probably the most giving lady that I knew. She continuously was the one who was cooking or cleaning and making sure that everyone else was comfortable. I remember thinking, when I was younger, "I wish she would just sit down and enjoy this time with us instead of staying so busy." However, now I realize that that was her love language. She showed us all love by serving us. And what a servant she was. I am so thankful to have had such an example to follow.
There are so many more memories I have shared with Nana, and so many of the events in my life include her. Although I wasn't there when she passed away, I know that she still asked about me daily. When I was home, she loved knowing about my life. Where I was going (Honduras), who I was dating (Jeremy, who she liked), how my job was going (she always thought I stayed at the Schorsch's house way to late), and anything else that I did. I wish I could have been there to tell her all about my many stories of teaching, and traveling in Honduras. Still, I'm so thankful for the time I did have with her this summer, and throughout my entire life.
I love you, Nana.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thanksgiving Vaca
Oh so many things have happened since I last wrote so I'll catch you up quickly on a few and then tell you about my amazing weekend!
1. My weekend in Richmond for Leslie's wedding was amazing. It wasn't too weird being in the States, but being able to flush my toilet paper was hard a hard adjustment. Seeing my best friends was refreshing, seeing my family was hard, coming back wasn't too bad, being back has proven to be more difficult.
2. I got to go to a teacher's conference at the Marriott Hotel. This has been the only place in Honduras that I have been to where you can actually flush your toilet paper. (sorry for all of the toilet paper references) The conference was pretty good, and the fact that I didn't have to go to school on Friday was a bonus!
3. The school puts on a Thanksgiving Dinner for all of the teachers and staff. It was at the Humuya Inn (look it up online). This is the Inn that the Crook family owns. Mrs. Crook is an amazing interior decorator and the whole Inn looked beautiful with lights and Christmas decorations. The food was equally delicious. Turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and of course pumpkin pie! Mimi (Ms. Crook) told me later that all of the recipes were from the States. Her husband, Scott, is American so they have quite a bit of family in the States.
Now for my amazing weekend...
As you may remember, I ran in a 10K Race back in October and won a free, all-inclusive trip to La Ceiba. My original plan was to go with Jeremy in June, but I found out I had to use the trip within three months so I decided to go over our Thanksgiving Break.
As Wednesday rolled around, my roommate, Jess, and I thought to ourselves that we couldn't imagine not having the rest of the week off because we were so exhausted. Wednesday after school we came home, Andrea and I ran, and then we headed out of the city to the Crooks house for the night. We rented a couple movies and had pizza with the girls. It was a great start to our long weekend.
Thursday morning we were awakened by the smell of bacon and eggs. We had to catch an 8:30AM flight so we left the Crooks house around 6:30AM. Carlos got us safely there, and we spoke (or tried to speak) Spanish the whole way. I think Carlos asked me if I would buy him some shoes from the States when I go home, but my Spanish is still a little shaky so I'll have to ask Andrea to translate next time we are all together.
Anyways, we hopped on our plane and got to La Ceiba around 9:45AM. The taxi ride to the Resort took about 40 minutes, but once we got there we knew it was going to be a good weekend. The place was beautiful and the staff (although not terribly fluent in English) were very accommodating. We were forced to speak Spanish to Marco, the older man who worked at the towel hut by the pool, he wouldn't help us otherwise:-) We spent most of our time laying out on the beach and by the pool reading. I am now reading through The Chronicles of Narnia books, which are amazing!
There was a restaurant that served three meals a day, buffet style, and also snacks and drinks available by the pool all day long. We were given a neon yellow wrist band when we got there and after that we were never asked to pay for anything. All of the food, drinks and activities we wanted to do were included.
Friday we decided to go kayaking out in the sea (Caribbean Sea) and boy what an adventure it was. We laughed about how there was no waiver to sign, or even a requirement that we wear life jackets. (actually they didn't even have them) As we made our way out to sea, Jess was trying to tell me how she had gotten soaked by a wave when another wave came up on her all of a sudden and...FLIP! No more Jess! I almost flipped my own kayak I was laughing so hard. I tried to hold her kayak and paddle while she attempted to get back in, however the first attempt was a failure. Not only did she not get back in, she nailed her leg on the side of the kayak and was now working with a bum leg. She seemed a little ticked at this point so I decided to paddle away and let her work it out on her own. But what happened next was hilarious. Apparently, since she didn't quite give it enough umf the first time, she decided to really jump into the kayak this time. However, I think she gave it a little too much, and up she went on one side, and over on the other. I did wait to start laughing this time, but as soon as Jess came up with a smile on her face, I burst! I couldn't contain myself and even now as I write this I can't stop laughing.
No worries, she made it back in the kayak on attempt #3 and all was well after that. We paddled down the beach about a quarter of a mile or so, and then went back. Overall, the experience was quite enjoyable (for me)!
We realized shortly after arriving at the resort that we were the ONLY gringas there...so we stuck out a bit. Talk about being stared at constantly! Apparently this time of year is not very busy for the resort and the majority of people that were staying were there for a conference. While they were all walking around in business attire, we were laying around in our bathing suits by the pool!
There was also entertainment at night, a Tropical Dance show at 9:30PM out by the pool. It's pretty sad when you have to go back to your room to take a nap so that you can stay up past 9:30, but I guess that's one of side affects of being a teacher. However, the show was a little less than mediocre. The performers changed outfits between every song and even tried to perform a western dance...to a song in Spanish. It was pretty funny, but we decided to leave after that one.
Overall, spending the weekend with Jess was really great. We had so much fun, and were able to just relax and not worry about anything!
I'll try to write more often until Christmas. There are several things going on (as I'm sure there are at home as well) here for the Christmas Season! I'll keep you posted so you can experience a Honduran Christmas with me!
2. I got to go to a teacher's conference at the Marriott Hotel. This has been the only place in Honduras that I have been to where you can actually flush your toilet paper. (sorry for all of the toilet paper references) The conference was pretty good, and the fact that I didn't have to go to school on Friday was a bonus!
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| Sofia Caceres (one of other math teachers) and I at the Thanksgiving Dinner |
3. The school puts on a Thanksgiving Dinner for all of the teachers and staff. It was at the Humuya Inn (look it up online). This is the Inn that the Crook family owns. Mrs. Crook is an amazing interior decorator and the whole Inn looked beautiful with lights and Christmas decorations. The food was equally delicious. Turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and of course pumpkin pie! Mimi (Ms. Crook) told me later that all of the recipes were from the States. Her husband, Scott, is American so they have quite a bit of family in the States.
Now for my amazing weekend...
As you may remember, I ran in a 10K Race back in October and won a free, all-inclusive trip to La Ceiba. My original plan was to go with Jeremy in June, but I found out I had to use the trip within three months so I decided to go over our Thanksgiving Break.
As Wednesday rolled around, my roommate, Jess, and I thought to ourselves that we couldn't imagine not having the rest of the week off because we were so exhausted. Wednesday after school we came home, Andrea and I ran, and then we headed out of the city to the Crooks house for the night. We rented a couple movies and had pizza with the girls. It was a great start to our long weekend.
Thursday morning we were awakened by the smell of bacon and eggs. We had to catch an 8:30AM flight so we left the Crooks house around 6:30AM. Carlos got us safely there, and we spoke (or tried to speak) Spanish the whole way. I think Carlos asked me if I would buy him some shoes from the States when I go home, but my Spanish is still a little shaky so I'll have to ask Andrea to translate next time we are all together.
Anyways, we hopped on our plane and got to La Ceiba around 9:45AM. The taxi ride to the Resort took about 40 minutes, but once we got there we knew it was going to be a good weekend. The place was beautiful and the staff (although not terribly fluent in English) were very accommodating. We were forced to speak Spanish to Marco, the older man who worked at the towel hut by the pool, he wouldn't help us otherwise:-) We spent most of our time laying out on the beach and by the pool reading. I am now reading through The Chronicles of Narnia books, which are amazing!
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| View from our balcony |
There was a restaurant that served three meals a day, buffet style, and also snacks and drinks available by the pool all day long. We were given a neon yellow wrist band when we got there and after that we were never asked to pay for anything. All of the food, drinks and activities we wanted to do were included.
Friday we decided to go kayaking out in the sea (Caribbean Sea) and boy what an adventure it was. We laughed about how there was no waiver to sign, or even a requirement that we wear life jackets. (actually they didn't even have them) As we made our way out to sea, Jess was trying to tell me how she had gotten soaked by a wave when another wave came up on her all of a sudden and...FLIP! No more Jess! I almost flipped my own kayak I was laughing so hard. I tried to hold her kayak and paddle while she attempted to get back in, however the first attempt was a failure. Not only did she not get back in, she nailed her leg on the side of the kayak and was now working with a bum leg. She seemed a little ticked at this point so I decided to paddle away and let her work it out on her own. But what happened next was hilarious. Apparently, since she didn't quite give it enough umf the first time, she decided to really jump into the kayak this time. However, I think she gave it a little too much, and up she went on one side, and over on the other. I did wait to start laughing this time, but as soon as Jess came up with a smile on her face, I burst! I couldn't contain myself and even now as I write this I can't stop laughing.
No worries, she made it back in the kayak on attempt #3 and all was well after that. We paddled down the beach about a quarter of a mile or so, and then went back. Overall, the experience was quite enjoyable (for me)!
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| One night we climbed trees:-) |
We realized shortly after arriving at the resort that we were the ONLY gringas there...so we stuck out a bit. Talk about being stared at constantly! Apparently this time of year is not very busy for the resort and the majority of people that were staying were there for a conference. While they were all walking around in business attire, we were laying around in our bathing suits by the pool!
There was also entertainment at night, a Tropical Dance show at 9:30PM out by the pool. It's pretty sad when you have to go back to your room to take a nap so that you can stay up past 9:30, but I guess that's one of side affects of being a teacher. However, the show was a little less than mediocre. The performers changed outfits between every song and even tried to perform a western dance...to a song in Spanish. It was pretty funny, but we decided to leave after that one.
Overall, spending the weekend with Jess was really great. We had so much fun, and were able to just relax and not worry about anything!
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| There was a dock just a little walk down the beach |
I'll try to write more often until Christmas. There are several things going on (as I'm sure there are at home as well) here for the Christmas Season! I'll keep you posted so you can experience a Honduran Christmas with me!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Busy Busy
Mom tells me that I need to write, even though I don't really have anything too exciting to write about, but Mom is usually right so here goes.
It's been a while and I am having a hard time remembering what all I have done since I last wrote. We started the second partial, which I thought would be easier and less work, but as it turns out, I feel like I have been on overload since it started. It could be because of the extra things that I have added to my weekly schedule over the past few weeks. I train Andrea, one of my tenth grade students, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after school. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (as of this week) I have started tutoring a 7th grader in Pre-Algebra, which makes everyday just a bit longer. However, the running I really enjoy, especially with Andrea.
A few funny classroom comments...
1) "Mees, On behalf of the entire class....You look absolutely beautiful today!", says Diego right before his class had to take a quiz. I'm pretty sure he was trying to butter me up so I'd go easy on the grading!
2) Today we had a short mourning period after one of my senior girls came into class very somber and told me "She died." I was puzzled, and then she explained that her lucky pen had finally run out of ink and the funeral was today.
3) After asking my students to guess what color shoes I was going to wear in my roommate's wedding, I laughed when some of them wrote "red high hills!" (this was of course after I told them the correct answer. Although a few of them did guess correctly before I told them.)
I laugh everyday at/with my students. Of course, I do get pretty frustrated quite often too, but for the most part they always put a smile on my face!
I have become very good friends with another family at School. Andrea Crook, the girl I train, and her family have become my home away from home. I love their family so much and have been able to spend time with them, just watching movies, playing soccer and having Sunday breakfast out on the deck and talking for over an hour. It's been so wonderful to see how God has blessed me with the people here in Honduras. Andrea is like the little sister I never had. We have so much in common, I practically see myself when I look at her. It's been really good for me to be able to invest so much into someone else.
Christmas is soon approaching. Or should I say....has been here for about a month now. For some reason, Hondurans begin decorating and listening to Christmas music around the middle of October. Now, I am one of Christmas' biggest fans, but even I think that might be a little early. However, once November arrived, I started to crank up the tunes! ...When in Honduras, do as the Hondurans!
I'm sure there is a ton more that I have forgotten, but it's getting late and I'm leaving tomorrow to head back to Virginia! I can't wait to see my best friends and my family! I've realized since I've been away from Libby, Sarah, Lindsay and Leslie that friends like that don't just come around everyday. What a special place they all have in my heart. J.E.L.L.S. or should I say "The Fab Five" :-)
Off to bed....if I can fall asleep.
It's been a while and I am having a hard time remembering what all I have done since I last wrote. We started the second partial, which I thought would be easier and less work, but as it turns out, I feel like I have been on overload since it started. It could be because of the extra things that I have added to my weekly schedule over the past few weeks. I train Andrea, one of my tenth grade students, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after school. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (as of this week) I have started tutoring a 7th grader in Pre-Algebra, which makes everyday just a bit longer. However, the running I really enjoy, especially with Andrea.
A few funny classroom comments...
1) "Mees, On behalf of the entire class....You look absolutely beautiful today!", says Diego right before his class had to take a quiz. I'm pretty sure he was trying to butter me up so I'd go easy on the grading!
2) Today we had a short mourning period after one of my senior girls came into class very somber and told me "She died." I was puzzled, and then she explained that her lucky pen had finally run out of ink and the funeral was today.
3) After asking my students to guess what color shoes I was going to wear in my roommate's wedding, I laughed when some of them wrote "red high hills!" (this was of course after I told them the correct answer. Although a few of them did guess correctly before I told them.)
I laugh everyday at/with my students. Of course, I do get pretty frustrated quite often too, but for the most part they always put a smile on my face!
I have become very good friends with another family at School. Andrea Crook, the girl I train, and her family have become my home away from home. I love their family so much and have been able to spend time with them, just watching movies, playing soccer and having Sunday breakfast out on the deck and talking for over an hour. It's been so wonderful to see how God has blessed me with the people here in Honduras. Andrea is like the little sister I never had. We have so much in common, I practically see myself when I look at her. It's been really good for me to be able to invest so much into someone else.
Christmas is soon approaching. Or should I say....has been here for about a month now. For some reason, Hondurans begin decorating and listening to Christmas music around the middle of October. Now, I am one of Christmas' biggest fans, but even I think that might be a little early. However, once November arrived, I started to crank up the tunes! ...When in Honduras, do as the Hondurans!
I'm sure there is a ton more that I have forgotten, but it's getting late and I'm leaving tomorrow to head back to Virginia! I can't wait to see my best friends and my family! I've realized since I've been away from Libby, Sarah, Lindsay and Leslie that friends like that don't just come around everyday. What a special place they all have in my heart. J.E.L.L.S. or should I say "The Fab Five" :-)
Off to bed....if I can fall asleep.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Lago De Yojoa
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| The powerful waterfall. How can you see this and not give glory to God? |
We left bright and early on Saturday morning and started on our way to Lago De Yojoa, a beautiful lake outside of the city. This was the perfect weekend for a get-a-way because Friday was the end of the 1st Partial and we were all in need of a break.
The trip there wasn't too bad. Leaving at 8:00AM means that everyone is much more awake than leaving after school when every teacher is exhausted! The only problem was that I had already had a whole cup of water to drink that morning and if you know me, you know I am a frequent bathroom stopper. Of course about 15 minutes into the drive, I could tell that I was going to need a bathroom break. I was actually able to make it about an hour and a half before I even mentioned that I needed to stop. I tried occupying my mind and was able to learn a new card game called Uker (Landon I'm gonna have to teach you because I think you'd really like it). It worked for a little while, but I was really starting to be in pain, so about 2 hours into the trip we made a pit stop at a Burger King! I'm pretty sure we were planning on stopping anyways, but I'm not completely sure. The second half of the trip was much more enjoyable:-)
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| It was a little to chilly to go swimming for me. |
We arrived at the lake around 1:30pm and unpacked our things in our quaint little cabins. The place was pretty nice, and each cabin had a porch with chairs and a hammock. Our cabin had a great view that looked out over the lake. It was so peaceful and quiet, which was a nice change from the constant motorcycles and dogs barking on my street in Tegus. (Jeremy can testify to the random, loud noises that often occur while we are skyping!)
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| Our porch and view of the lake. |
We all met back for dinner at the hotel restaurant. They had prepared fish (yes the whole fish, eyes and all) and rice and beans for us. After lunch we wondered around the area for a little bit and then headed back to the cabin and played Phase 10 for a couple hours out on the deck. It was a pretty cloudy afternoon, so Phase 10 just seemed to be the perfect game to play. We followed that up by dinner together and then a time of worship and sharing our "how we came to Honduras" stories. It was a really nice day and was perfect for unwinding.
Saturday Jen V. and I went out on a paddle boat on the lake after breakfast. It was pretty cloudy when we left, but the sun peeked out as we paddled our way out onto the lake and we enjoyed just sitting and talking for a while in the warm sunshine. I had forgotten how great paddle boating is for chatting with a good friend!
Now begins the real adventure. Around 11:00am we packed up and headed out to the waterfall, which was about 30 minutes away from where we stayed. We were told that we could take a tour of the waterfall, which consisted of walking under the waterfall and going into a cave behind it. When we got there, it had gotten cloudy again and I was a little unsure as to whether or not I really wanted to do the tour. Of course, it only took a second, when I saw the beautiful waterfall to decided that I DID want to do the tour. Some of the girls who had done the tour last year when they visited, decided not to go again and told us that it was pretty intense. I usually like intense and thrilling, so I was getting pretty excited as we headed down the mountain towards the fall.
The excitement lasted until we got to the first big rock where we had to jump into a rushing pool of water from about 10 feet up. Still, I was enjoying it, but I began to think "What have I gotten myself into?" The waterfall, at this point, is really close and we are getting sprayed by the water pouring over the edge of the mountain, but still we aren't directly underneath of the waterfall....yet.
As we continued on single file behind the tour guide, the power of the water got stronger and it was like walking inside of a tornado. I could barely open my eyes to see where I should step next. As we hopped from rock to rock underneath of the pouring water, my heart began to beat overtime. I wanted more than anything to turn back, but since that wasn't an option I plowed on. When we hopped down off a rock and were waist deep in the water, I turned back and saw Jen V. standing up against the side of the rock looking petrified. She said she couldn't go on, and I believed her for a second, and then just grabbed her hand and told her that we HAD to keep going. As I encouraged Jen and kept talking to her, I completely forgot about how scared I was. At this point, the guide told us to form a chain with each other (so that we didn't get washed away). I just kept moving as fast as possible because I wanted to get out from underneath of that pounding water as soon as possible.
We finally reached a crevice in the side of the mountain, where the water was not hitting us directly. A Honduran lady who was also on the tour must have seen how scared I looked, because she pulled me in as close as possible and we just held each other. We stayed there for a minute, but then we had to keep going. I really didn't want to, but still I knew there was no other option. After a couple of more minutes of climbing on rocks and wading through water we made it to the cave. However, the cave was less than I'd expected, because the entrance was just big enough for one person to fit through (barely) and it was dark and pretty tight inside. As I sat there, waiting for everyone else to come in, I could not stop my body from shaking. This was the first time I had ever experienced such an adrenaline rush in my life. I was terrified, but there was no way to safety except to head back out into the waterfall just the way we had come in.
I'm not sure I would have gone back out except that again Jen told me that she wasn't going back. That's when my courage decided to come out again, and I told her that we could do it together. (Seriously this may sound stupid, but we really were petrified) We went back as quickly as we could and when we finally made it out from underneath of the waterfall my emotions finally let loose. I wanted to cry more than anything, but I held it together because I was still super excited and the adrenaline was still pumping. It took the whole walk back to the bus for me to finally calm my nerves. I will say that I am glad I did it, but I will NEVER do it again.
After that experience, I don't need to do anything thrilling for quite a while!
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| Before we took the tour. (I'm still smiling) |
Monday, October 18, 2010
Vamos
Since I got to Honduras, I found it really difficult to go running as often as I would like. Over the past few weeks, however, several of the male teachers and I have started running for about an hour every Wednesday after school. It's been really nice to have other people who like to run around, because there really is no way that I could go by myself.
Also, I have started training one of my students, Andrea, to run a mile in under 7 minutes. We now go three times a week after school to a track here in Tegucigalpa and run. I love training Andrea, it's like a side hobby I never knew I could do. After we train, she has tennis practice, so her mom lets me stay and run around the track for as long as I like and then gives me a ride home.
All that to say that Eduardo, another teacher at IST, told us all about a 10K race here in Tegucigalpa. The race was this past Sunday morning, and since there were several of us from school running, we all got matching t-shirts and had our names put on them. It was pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie.
So here's what happened, the race started around 9:00AM, and my goal was to run the race in about 48 minutes. There were a couple other guys who wanted to run it at about the same pace, so I decided if I could just keep up with them than I would be good. We started off pretty well, moved to the front of the pack pretty quickly. Those hills really tend to weed out people pretty fast. On the way up the first hill, I almost tripped and fell on my face because "someone" got really close to me and our feet got tangled. I was about to get really mad at whoever thought they could get so close to me, when I looked back and saw a dog running with a number around his collar. Only in Honduras can a dog enter a 10K race. I was a little less upset to know that the K-9 had run between my legs and not another person though.
The race was going well, and I was feeling pretty good, when I spotted the #1 female runner up ahead. So I decided to stick pretty closely behind her and make my way to the end. I like to run behind people, instead of trying to stay ahead because that is always more difficult. I accidentally got a little to close to her at one point and she spotted me coming up behind her. From that point on, she started bookin' and I was just trying to keep up. With about a Kilometer to go, a guy came running from the opposite direction and starting running with her. They started running really fast, and I just kept telling myself "Just keep up with them!" I managed to give it everything I had and kept within a pretty close distance, when a guy came up from behind me and started encouraging me, "Vamos!", but at that point I realized that there was a huge crowd standing right at the top of the hill.
I wish this could be one of those "come from behind" stories, but it wasn't. I ended up coming in 2nd place, but I was very happy with that. I felt like I did my best and honestly I don't think I could have beaten the lady who came in first. She was good.
After the race, everyone started talking about there being prizes for the winners. I figured that there wouldn't be any since the race was free in the first place. However, I was told to come back at 1 o'clock for the award ceremony, and rumor had it that I was going to win L.5000 ($250)!
The Martinez family picked Tim and I up and took us out for breakfast at a really nice restaurant while we waited for the ceremony. Marco and Rosela were so excited and proud of me! (Made me feel like my own mom and dad were there with me to celebrate!) After breakfast we walked around the mall, just waiting time until 1 o'clock. Finally, we headed back out to where the tents were set up, only to find that everyone was gone and they had actually gone ahead and done the ceremony at noon.
Good news though, the people in charge were still there, and very glad to see that I had come back. They said that they didn't know what they were going to do because it was such a great prize, but they had no one to give it to. I was expecting a check or cash or something like that, but then the lady told me my actual prize....
A round-trip flight to La Ceiba and a 3 nights stay at an all-inclusive resort on the beach for 2! I could hardly believe it. I was to call the lady and let her know when I wanted the trip so that they could make the reservations for me. Rosela (being like my mom) could read my mind, and immediately asked if they could hold the trip until June. At first the lady hesistated, but then said that it would be okay.
You see, I had already told Rosela that Jeremy was planning on coming to visit in June and that we were going to go to Roatan (which is the Island off of La Ceiba). What a perfect prize to receive! Now we get to enjoy a great resort and a beautiful beach all for FREE! I am still pretty shocked at how great of a prize that I got. Things like this just don't happen to me, so I'm still trying to soak it in.
Only in Honduras!
Also, I have started training one of my students, Andrea, to run a mile in under 7 minutes. We now go three times a week after school to a track here in Tegucigalpa and run. I love training Andrea, it's like a side hobby I never knew I could do. After we train, she has tennis practice, so her mom lets me stay and run around the track for as long as I like and then gives me a ride home.
All that to say that Eduardo, another teacher at IST, told us all about a 10K race here in Tegucigalpa. The race was this past Sunday morning, and since there were several of us from school running, we all got matching t-shirts and had our names put on them. It was pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie.
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| IST Teachers and Staff |
So here's what happened, the race started around 9:00AM, and my goal was to run the race in about 48 minutes. There were a couple other guys who wanted to run it at about the same pace, so I decided if I could just keep up with them than I would be good. We started off pretty well, moved to the front of the pack pretty quickly. Those hills really tend to weed out people pretty fast. On the way up the first hill, I almost tripped and fell on my face because "someone" got really close to me and our feet got tangled. I was about to get really mad at whoever thought they could get so close to me, when I looked back and saw a dog running with a number around his collar. Only in Honduras can a dog enter a 10K race. I was a little less upset to know that the K-9 had run between my legs and not another person though.
The race was going well, and I was feeling pretty good, when I spotted the #1 female runner up ahead. So I decided to stick pretty closely behind her and make my way to the end. I like to run behind people, instead of trying to stay ahead because that is always more difficult. I accidentally got a little to close to her at one point and she spotted me coming up behind her. From that point on, she started bookin' and I was just trying to keep up. With about a Kilometer to go, a guy came running from the opposite direction and starting running with her. They started running really fast, and I just kept telling myself "Just keep up with them!" I managed to give it everything I had and kept within a pretty close distance, when a guy came up from behind me and started encouraging me, "Vamos!", but at that point I realized that there was a huge crowd standing right at the top of the hill.
I wish this could be one of those "come from behind" stories, but it wasn't. I ended up coming in 2nd place, but I was very happy with that. I felt like I did my best and honestly I don't think I could have beaten the lady who came in first. She was good.
After the race, everyone started talking about there being prizes for the winners. I figured that there wouldn't be any since the race was free in the first place. However, I was told to come back at 1 o'clock for the award ceremony, and rumor had it that I was going to win L.5000 ($250)!
The Martinez family picked Tim and I up and took us out for breakfast at a really nice restaurant while we waited for the ceremony. Marco and Rosela were so excited and proud of me! (Made me feel like my own mom and dad were there with me to celebrate!) After breakfast we walked around the mall, just waiting time until 1 o'clock. Finally, we headed back out to where the tents were set up, only to find that everyone was gone and they had actually gone ahead and done the ceremony at noon.
Good news though, the people in charge were still there, and very glad to see that I had come back. They said that they didn't know what they were going to do because it was such a great prize, but they had no one to give it to. I was expecting a check or cash or something like that, but then the lady told me my actual prize....
A round-trip flight to La Ceiba and a 3 nights stay at an all-inclusive resort on the beach for 2! I could hardly believe it. I was to call the lady and let her know when I wanted the trip so that they could make the reservations for me. Rosela (being like my mom) could read my mind, and immediately asked if they could hold the trip until June. At first the lady hesistated, but then said that it would be okay.
You see, I had already told Rosela that Jeremy was planning on coming to visit in June and that we were going to go to Roatan (which is the Island off of La Ceiba). What a perfect prize to receive! Now we get to enjoy a great resort and a beautiful beach all for FREE! I am still pretty shocked at how great of a prize that I got. Things like this just don't happen to me, so I'm still trying to soak it in.
Only in Honduras!
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| Tim and I with the Martinez kid's, Marco, Maria Jose and Marianna |
Friday, October 8, 2010
It's been a while since I've written, but for good reason. I have been swamped this week with writing final exams and study guides. Everything was due today, 4 final exams (3 versions of each) and 4 study guides. I can't believe how much time it took to make those tests! Shew...its good to have a large chunk done. Now for revising and correcting all of my mistakes on the tests.
Anyways, so now I have a little time to write. We just got home from school, and are waiting to leave to go on the Teachers Spiritual Retreat. It's just an overnight thing, but I think it should be fun. I hear (suggested) that there may be some kickball in the schedule!
Last weekend was my birthday weekend, and I wasn't sure exactly how I would handle it. I figured I'd get pretty homesick but I had such a great birthday here in Honduras. Saturday was the Fiesta Cantracha (Honduran Party) at school, so all of the North American teachers went and enjoyed a big Honduran Celebration! There were beautiful outfits, delicious food and informative booths of all of the major cities of Honduras. I had a really good time watching all of the students perform and experiencing some of the Honduran culture. After that, I went to a big mall to go grocery shopping with several other girls. This mall is not what you would think a mall would be like in Honduras. Just picture this, Lacoste, Apple Store, Nine West and so many more expensive stores. It's weird how there are such extremes here. As we walked in the mall, we strolled past TGI Friday's and one of the other girls remembered that you get a free meal on your birthday, so we definitely hit that up. I felt like I was back in the States as we sat in Friday's and enjoyed free refills of soda, and watched the, get this, Clemson football game on ESPN. It was really fun (even though the food took 45 minutes to come out and the waiter brought me the wrong food, and he didn't actually take my meal off of the bill) and I had a great time. When we got home, my roomates had planned a dinner at a new Chinese Restaurant that just opened, so we went there and had dinner with most of the North American teachers. Then we all came back to our house and had brownies and icecream and played my favorite game, Catch Phrase!
It was such a great birthday! One I won't soon forget!
The weekend only got better, when I got to go to church with the Martinez family and then play frisbee on Sunday. For dinner, the girls at La Vista (one of the other houses) had us over. We had such a good homemade meal; Lasagna, bread and peaches. Yummy! I think my favorite part though was that Paula used to be a barista at a coffee shop and is AMAZING at making delicious coffee. She made us peppermint mocha's and Cinnamon-vanilla drinks. Quite wonderful! We had a great time and enjoyed telling stories and spending some time together. It's amazing how enjoyable Sunday can be when you don't have to go to school on Monday.
That's right, we had Monday off from school, so we planned a trip to Valle de Angleles. (Valley of Angels) It's a little town about an hour away that is a complete tourist trap. We caught a taxi and then a busito to get all the way there. The little town was so pleasant and I actually felt safe walking around and taking pictures. If anyone ever comes to visit, I'll take you there. They had so many little Honduran knick-knacks, and I got most of my Christmas shopping done!
4 day work weeks are great, especially when I got another break on Thursday. I was able to go on the 10th grade Spiritual Retreat yesterday, which was during the school day. We went up to a place in the mountain where camps are held. We had a great time with all the students. I got to know some of my students even better and really start to build relationships.
I feel like I am leaving so much out, but this would be 10 pages long if I told every detail. So much has happened over the past week and now its Friday again.
Good times in Honduras!
Anyways, so now I have a little time to write. We just got home from school, and are waiting to leave to go on the Teachers Spiritual Retreat. It's just an overnight thing, but I think it should be fun. I hear (suggested) that there may be some kickball in the schedule!
Last weekend was my birthday weekend, and I wasn't sure exactly how I would handle it. I figured I'd get pretty homesick but I had such a great birthday here in Honduras. Saturday was the Fiesta Cantracha (Honduran Party) at school, so all of the North American teachers went and enjoyed a big Honduran Celebration! There were beautiful outfits, delicious food and informative booths of all of the major cities of Honduras. I had a really good time watching all of the students perform and experiencing some of the Honduran culture. After that, I went to a big mall to go grocery shopping with several other girls. This mall is not what you would think a mall would be like in Honduras. Just picture this, Lacoste, Apple Store, Nine West and so many more expensive stores. It's weird how there are such extremes here. As we walked in the mall, we strolled past TGI Friday's and one of the other girls remembered that you get a free meal on your birthday, so we definitely hit that up. I felt like I was back in the States as we sat in Friday's and enjoyed free refills of soda, and watched the, get this, Clemson football game on ESPN. It was really fun (even though the food took 45 minutes to come out and the waiter brought me the wrong food, and he didn't actually take my meal off of the bill) and I had a great time. When we got home, my roomates had planned a dinner at a new Chinese Restaurant that just opened, so we went there and had dinner with most of the North American teachers. Then we all came back to our house and had brownies and icecream and played my favorite game, Catch Phrase!
It was such a great birthday! One I won't soon forget!
The weekend only got better, when I got to go to church with the Martinez family and then play frisbee on Sunday. For dinner, the girls at La Vista (one of the other houses) had us over. We had such a good homemade meal; Lasagna, bread and peaches. Yummy! I think my favorite part though was that Paula used to be a barista at a coffee shop and is AMAZING at making delicious coffee. She made us peppermint mocha's and Cinnamon-vanilla drinks. Quite wonderful! We had a great time and enjoyed telling stories and spending some time together. It's amazing how enjoyable Sunday can be when you don't have to go to school on Monday.
That's right, we had Monday off from school, so we planned a trip to Valle de Angleles. (Valley of Angels) It's a little town about an hour away that is a complete tourist trap. We caught a taxi and then a busito to get all the way there. The little town was so pleasant and I actually felt safe walking around and taking pictures. If anyone ever comes to visit, I'll take you there. They had so many little Honduran knick-knacks, and I got most of my Christmas shopping done!
4 day work weeks are great, especially when I got another break on Thursday. I was able to go on the 10th grade Spiritual Retreat yesterday, which was during the school day. We went up to a place in the mountain where camps are held. We had a great time with all the students. I got to know some of my students even better and really start to build relationships.
I feel like I am leaving so much out, but this would be 10 pages long if I told every detail. So much has happened over the past week and now its Friday again.
Good times in Honduras!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Foot Washing
Today I was able to wash the feet of several Honduran men and boys from the streets. It was quite a humbling experience and I was suddenly able to realize how unusual it would have been for Jesus to wash the feet of his disciples. It's not a fun job, but it does show just how much Jesus sacrificed to come and live on earth, not only as a human, but as a human who was willing to do the lowest jobs possible.
So grateful for His sacrifice.
So grateful for His sacrifice.
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