I never thought I be on a boat!

Allan's expression says it all. We somehow got invited on the most amazing "break from school" trip ever. After the parade, we had 3 days off of school and decided to go to Roatan with some friends because we had been offered a FREE place to stay. We had NO idea that the FREE place to stay would be like a Caribbean heaven. It was absolutely gorgeous.

It was really fun to go with some friends and just have some days to swim in the pool, in the crystal clear ocean where I could see my feet even when I was in the water up to my shoulders, go scuba-driving!, ride on a boat, eat at the swim in restaurant/bar, snorkel, and jump off 15 foot docks into the water.

Check on the photo album to the right for more photos! :) It was awesome. And praise the Lord we had a free place to stay! It was incredible :) WOW.



A view of the pool...which lead to the ocean!


A group shot on the first day! We were all in amazement!


After our boat ride, there was such a beautiful sunset! This is Miguel (who's dad had the condo and let us stay for free!), Sierra, Allan, me, and Beth! (Carolyn missed the picture :( )


The boat ride. So much fun and so gorgeous. We tried to catch fish (unsuccessful) but got to go snorkeling and ride all afternoon. Super fun.

the hottest parade EVER!

I have never quite seen an Independence Day parade like the one in Copan. Wow. It was so hot. There were so many people. It was so chaotic! We met at 8 near the park to line up as a school so we could march in the parade...or so we thought. It turns out that we met at 8am to line up (which takes so much time/yelling/moving kids) to march about 1/2 a block to the park so all of the kids could get out of line again and hide in the shade with their parents to "listen" (and by listen, I mean NO one, not parents/kids/participants on the stage, listened) to different speakers. Again, it was chaos! and did I mention it was so hot and there were very few trees to hide under?! and did I mention that the kids were scattered everywhere again?

It was funny though...different acts performed, different speakers spoke, and my favorite performance is in the video below.


After all of the acts and speeches, and after we also had wandered away from the stage to find some icecream ($0.25 cent cones!), we figured out that Mayatan students were starting to line up again for the actual parade. So we helped get our children back in line and proceeded to walk with them in a huge circle around town. Everyone was pouring sweat and sharing water. The parents are also hilarious on this day. They hire people to walk with their children holding an umbrella to help shade their child. They followed their children, pouring water into their mouths and wiping sweat off of them with a rag. I am thankful there is only one parade. :)





These are some of my students in my class. They got to wear their fancy dresses and represent the different "states" of Honduras. Aren't they cute?


Allan and I in front of the stage, with our "bag of water." Seriously, they sell bags of water here for really cheap, so we bought it and drank up!


A picture of what the video is about. The ladies in the back are teachers at the public school and dressed in traditional attire to do a dance. The horses and men...just hilarious.


Beth, Carolyn, Allan, Nash and myself trying to hide from the sun under an unbrella. It was a little small for 5 grown people! :)

Little did we know that after the parade, we would leave for the most gorgeous place ever!! :)

the biggest spider I have EVER seen!

After the Dia del Nino celebrations, we went to the bird park to go swimming. I went into the changing rooms to change and there I met the largest spider I have EVER seen. I couldn't change in the same room with it. It was sooooooo big. Just look at that. Half the size of a pencil. and hairy. grossssss!

Dia del Nino

Friday was Dia del Nino celebration day at Mayatan and boy, did the kids love it! We all got to arrive at school an hour late and we couldn't even get the kids to come inside the classrooms to take attendance. It was pure crazy excitement all day. Starting at 8:30, the kids had an hour and a half to go to 12 different game stations and play! At 9:45, we were all supposed to go back into our classrooms for a fiesta. A fiesta complete with food, pinatas, candy, goody bags, and gifts. The kids LOVE this day so much!



Allan and I were in charge of the Limbo game station. We didn't keep the Limbo stick this short the whole day :) The kids just wanted a challenge and none of them minded getting on the floor to crawl under :)


Kensy, Paolo, and Milton (abby's students) with the pinata!

Here's a little bit of pinata hitting in action...


The pinata busted and the kids went crazy! AHH
Check out the video too....


Each of the kids gets a gift at the end of the day. The boys in my class got "tow-mater" trucks from the movie cars. They were PUMPED.


The girls got princess sets, with a crown and wand. Also, PUMPED. and so cute!


Below are pictures and video's of Allan's class! :)

Marching!

Next Tuesday is Dia del Indepencia and the Mayatan students are participating in the parade that happens around the town. This week we had marching practice on Tuesday and Thursday morning. It was so funny to watch all the kids (grade k-10th) marching up and down the road to beating drums. They did really well with it though! I can't wait to see the parade! I have heard it is hilarious!

Futbol or die.

We got to go to the Trinidad and Tobago vs. Honduras soccer game in San Pedro Sula last weekend. What a crazy experience!

Our ride was an hour and a half late (on time for Honduran standards). I think 6 of the 10 passengers got a little bit motion sick from the speed at which we were going around the mountainous curves.

When we finally made it and started walking towards our entry gate, until we saw tear gas being shot out at the crowd of people I guess because everyone was out of control and pushing to get in. There was absolutely NO order to this madness. None. It was actually the opposite of order. For futbol to be so important to everyone in this country, the stadium sure did not reflect that. When I think of a stadium, I think of a nice building, easy accessible steps, lots of entry and exit ways in case of a fire, lots of seats, and aisle-ways. Not this stadium. Food vendors cooking on open fire and blocking the stairways. No aisle-ways because people are standing in them. No where to go in case of a fire. and the bathrooms...lets not talk about those.

We were waiting in line and our Honduran friend, Luis, who was with us kept telling us to "stay close, I mean like touching!" and when we were going through the one yard wide doorway, I understand more why it was so important to hold on. People were PUSHING so hard to get in and only one person fit through the door at a time. See the pictures below.

We finally made it to some standing room and it was so exciting. I really could feel the excitement for the game just radiating from the crowd. and then the announcer started saying the names of the players and people were going crazy! It was so cool. They LOVE futbol. I mean LOVE it! Below is a video I took when we first got to the game!



The entire stadium also sang the Honduran national anthem together in a capella.



Honduras won 4-1 and when they scored, the place went crazy! So excited. Check out the video




We tried to go out of the stadium at half-time to sit on the stairs because we were tired of standing (there was literally NO place around us to sit down) and WOW. The people kept saying "no hay paso, no hay paso (no passing)" but we were going to get out. The vendors were pushing their way through and we were going to also, even if we weren't Honduran. I have never been so close to so many people in my life. At one point, my arm was about 2 feet from my body stuck in between other people. People were pushing and I had no control over where my body was going. Our friend, Sierra, even lost her SHOES in the pushing! Crazy! "Its Central America" one guy said to us. We finally made it out though and did not attempt to go back in!


The south entrance of the stadium where we pushed in!


The stadium from afar.


The teams being introduced. Honduras in white.


The crowd of people squished together. :)


It was an experience that I am glad we had, but I like watching the games in Copan :)

ESPELLYN

Espellyn (Spelling). One thing we have tried to do as teachers is to teach our students about organization. To do this, one day Allan helped each of his student label each notebook with the subject titles. Math, English, Science, Reading, and Espellyn. That's right, the student misspelled"spelling" on his spelling notebook...and even better, he spelled it with an "e" at the beginning because it is really hard for Spanish speakers to say words that start with a "s." Hilarious.

Below is a picture of one of my students first "e"spelling tests. Also hilarious. Number 7 and number 9 are my favorite. She spelled man like I said it (with a southern accent!). The kids did better this week on their spelling tests :). I was proud!

classes, cows, y cumpleanos

Happy birthday Allan!
Allan turned 23 yesterday and we got to semi-celebrate with all the Mayatan teachers. The restaurant even brought him a brownie with ice-cream (best in Copan!), candles in the shapes of 23 and a Carolina blue balloon!



We are almost done with our first FULL week of classes! WHOA. After having school canceled for 3 days straight last week, we didn't really know what to expect from the kids again this Monday. It has been a tough week. I am really struggling getting my kids to understand what I am saying. Right now, they do not understand a lot of English, which makes it really hard to communicate anything (lessons, rules, requests, etc.) I am having to use a lot of Spanish, which is good for me cause I want to learn Spanish, but also frustrating because I do not know that much Spanish so I cannot completely convey what I am trying to say.

I know the kids must be frustrated too. I know it is hard to go to school and not understand what your teacher is saying. I remember being really annoyed in Spain because I couldn't understand my teacher and I was in college. I am trying to cut them some slack, but it is hard.

There are good times though and the kids are really cute. They make me laugh a lot because they continue to talk to me in Spanish and I always say "No entiendo (I don't understand)" and they give me the saddest, end-of-the-world-must-be-near face, and then try to say something is English, which I also cannot understand. Reminds me of how my Spanish must sound to them! Also, they always have to go to the bathroom. My favorite part of teaching, though, is that each and every single kid wants to show me their work. They want to tell me the instant they finish their work that they are done with their work and they want to show me! Its so cute. They are so proud of what they have accomplished and want their teacher to notice it! I have some really talented artists and intelligent kids in my class. I am excited to be able to look back on the year and see how they progress (hopefully!!)

Below is a picture of my class (minus 2 students) in front of our classroom. They love having their picture taken and were all ready to offer their best smiles. In our picasa photostream to the left you can find picture of my individual students :)




Below is a picture of Allan's students and he is going to write about his class later! :)


This past weekend we went with the other Mayatan teachers to a "black tie" event in Santa Rosa, Honduras (about a 3 hour bus ride from Copan Ruinas). and by black tie I mean jeans and a button up shirt. It was called "Noche de los Fumadores" (night of the smokers) and upon arriving, each guest recieved a small goody bag with a bag of coffee and box of cigars. The night was just hilarious because it was a black tie event for Honduras, but the band was terrible, the power kept going out on the sound system, and the room was ridiculously full of cigar smoke, but it was a big deal! The president of one of the largest banks in Honduras spoke at it and all of the Peace Corps volunteers from Honduras were there. Below is a picture of Allan and me with our box of cigars.



There was a semi-stationary parade the next day in Santa Rosa. and by parade I mean 6 different marching bands and a couple different trucks and 18-wheelers with people sitting in the back. and by semi-stationary I mean that this parade would move forward and then stop so the marching band could play for 15-20 minutes in the SAME place. Thats right, the marching bands only marched when they were not playing their instruments. Muy interasante.




This is one of the "floats" in the parade. This float made the mistake of giving away free purses/bag type things. People were going crazy! Chasing this "float" and trying to climb on and get a free bag. Wow!


On Sunday we had a night of music at one of the other teacher's homes who lives on the road pictured in a previous blog where they are doing all of the road work that caused us to be out of school for 3 days. (AKA MUDDY!)Well, it rained while we were there. We wore our flip-flops. Bad idea. So she suggested we tie plastic bags on our feet. Good idea. and it looked cool. :)


Some cows broke into the school grounds last week. We caught them in the front eating some grass. Our good friend Jose (4th grader, who helped with the mice) helped get them out by throwing rocks at them. It worked! Below is a picture of them leaving Mayatan. I think they just wanted to learn how to say Moo in English. :)



Well, I think that kinda catches up the blog for the past week. We so much cherish your prayers. I know this is where the Lord wants me but it is hard at times. Keep praying! Also, thank you to any teachers out there. I didn't realize how hard of a job you have! We love y'all!