La Pintada visit

Two of my students, Kensy and Milton, live outside of Copan in a small village called La Pintada. They walk over an hour to catch a bus to bring them to school in the morning and then walk home, up hill, another hour in the afternoons. I just cannot imagine. They are brilliant students and just precious children.

(this is Kensy and her Brother, Jeremias. You can see their house in the background. Milton is in the picture with me below.)

    

Allan and I decided to go up to La Pintada one weekend for a visit. It was so much fun. We found Kensy first, playing outside her “house” with her brother. We invited her to come with us to find Milton. She took us to where Milton lives. It was quite a sight. Upon arriving, two of Milton’s younger siblings (who were naked and shoeless) began crying at the sight of us. Milton’s house is mud. He’s roof is sticks. That is where he sleeps. That is where he eats. That is where he lives. Him and his 10 siblings. Kensy is also very poor, but is from one of the richer families in La Pintada, meaning her house is made of mud, with a tin roof. Wow.

Milton was also eager to play, so we all walked to the “campo” (field), to start a game of soccer. We knew many more kids would join if they saw a glimpse of a soccer game or anything that looked similar.

Milton played the whole game in soccer shoes that were just ridiculous. But at least he had shoes. Many kids were playing barefoot.

(You may be able to see Milton’s toes sticking out of his shoes in this picture of him hanging onto the goal but we also tried to take a picture of just his feet below!)

I was just reminded how amazingly blessed I am and how much I have. How I have way too many shoes. I stop wearing shoes because I don’t like the way they look, but Milton wears ones that should have been thrown away about 3 years ago. They still have soles though, so he will wear them.  I had so much toys and balls growing up. and good ones. We played soccer with a dented plastic soccer ball.

It was so fun to be with those kids. They are just so joyful and content, but at the same time, I see something deeper in their eyes. I love it when I get the precious gift of seeing them smile. It is such a great thing to get to teach Milton and Kensy and get to go and visit them at  home.

We were talking about what we wanted to be when we grow up in class 2 weeks ago and Kensy told  me she wants to be a teacher so she can teach all the children that don’t know how to read, how to read. Wow.

more SPIDERS!

I walk to Allan’s house every morning to catch the bus. Normally I arrive, knock gently on the door, or wait until the boys come out of the house for the bus.

On this particular morning, I noticed as I was approaching the house that the door was already opened, and it looked like Allan was sweeping.

Well he was. He was sweeping the biggest spider ever out of his HOUSE. It was HUGE. and scary. and ugly. It still gives me the creeps.  Where did it come from? How did it get in? All frightful questions that remain unanswered.

Unexpected explosion!

It was a regular Friday night. One of my friends here in Copan, Judy, was over teaching me how to make pizza dough (she’s an amazing cook!). We had made the dough, the sauce, shredded the cheese, and cut up the vegetables for toppings. All we needed to do was turn on the oven to get it hot so we could cook the pizza after the dough rose.

That’s when it happened.

Praise the Lord for long-stemmed matches or else I might have lost a hand instead of a few arm hairs. I bent down to light our gas stove and BOOM. A huge explosion of fire, gas, loud noises, and screams. Pots fell off the wall. The oven moved about 3 inches from the wall. The stove toppers flew off. Crazyness. Allan was stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce on the stove, and somehow the pot stayed on the stove and Allan was unharmed!  

It was super scary and we all kind of shook of nervousness the next 10  minutes, but thank the Lord it was not worse. Seriously. Needless to say, we didn’t eat pizza that night. 

Learning how to read

One of the first people I remember seeing in Honduras was this little boy selling jewelry on the street. He looked to about 10-12 years old. I felt so bad telling him no. He looked poor. He was young. But I still didn’t want to buy anything from him.

Well, about 4 months later, this little boy, Jose, showed up at my house with my roommate Sierra and her boyfriend. Jose is really good friends with her boyfriend and lives at his house with him because Jose’s family lives in an aldea (village) about 30 minutes out of town. Jose works making and selling jewelry to tourists and send all the money back to his family. He is 14 years old.

Recently, Sierra found out the Jose does not know how to read. He asked me to read a text message to him the other day. I thought “that’s weird” but then quickly remember that he doesn’t know how to read. What a thing I take for granted…to know how to read! Sierra decided to teach Jose how to read…and it has been so cool for me to get to watch!

Just last week, he wrote it name for the first time. He was SO proud! Just thinking about it now gives me the goose-bumps! I almost cried when I saw it. He is learning his alphabet and is just loving it. He is eager to learn. I am so thankful for Sierra and her willingness to help Jose. Its so cool.

I would love for y’all to pray for Jose. He is at my house a lot and I want to be able to love this little boy like Jesus would. He is not completely an orphan, but almost and I want to be able to stand behind one of my favorite verses in the Bible in a literal way.  James 1:27 “ A religion that is pure and stainless according to God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Jose just told me today that he cannot sell jewelry on the streets anymore. They are starting to charge 600 lempiras (30 dollars) and he cannot afford that. He also told me that he would like to go to school. :) So cool.

End of the quarter trip!

One of my favorite things about the end of the quarter is the teacher work day that accompanies it! Last Friday, we had a teacher work day and got to leave school at 12…which means that we can make it down the hill to catch a bus and travel for the weekend!

So last weekend, 12 of us teachers piled on a bus, headed to 6 different locations! Allan and I, along with our friends Michael (the amazing Jazz drummer!) and Eileen set off for Tela, a tiny beach town here in Honduras.

There was not much to do there except eat some street food, hang out on the beach, play in the ocean (which was especially fun because Michael and Eileen are from in-land USA and have only seen the ocean 2 or 3 times!) drink coconut milk straight from a coconut, and eat some delicious seafood, but it was great to get away and relax with some friends. I just feel blessed to get to travel so cheaply to other parts of Honduras. Its such a cool perk of working/volunteering here!

The beaches in Tela were pretty run down, but also beautiful in a way. They used to export bananas from here so there was a long, run down pier with train tracks. It was pretty cool.

  This is our friend Mario that was selling coconuts on the beach. He told us that he is in the 2nd grade. It was crazy to think about my students selling coconuts on the beach to help their families. Also crazy to see a 2ng grader handle a machete. :) So we happened upon this car that appeared to be made completely out of junk parts from other old cars. It was totally bizarre…and also bizarre that it is probably completely legal to drive this car around town!  The hostel where we stayed had the highest roof in Tela and proved to be a great place to watch the sunset :)

Back to school on Monday….. :)

Grill Fail #2

We thought we had the problem solved.

After talking with the people who grill corn on the street corner for a living and the people who own the local “Asados (grilled) Copan” for grilling tips, I thought for sure we were going to have grilled chicken for dinner. Both people gave me pieces of this wood called “ocote” that they use to start their fires, which lead to delicious food.

We had also decided that it would be a good idea to drill holes in the grill for more air ventilation. So Allan carefully drilled 16 holes in the grill. He had to do it in his house, because outdoor plugs are hard to come by here. At least he wore eye-gear!

Well, the holes did seem to help, but sadly enough, we did not have enough ocote to catch on fire. The experts told me I needed a good heep of it, but the man who sells it in town had already closed down his store, so we were forced to use the small amount that the corn-man donated to us. Oh well! I think we are getting close!

Third times a charm…I hope!