and here we are ladies and gentlemen...

The official 2009-2010 Mayatan faculty and staff picture (taken by a mother 5 minutes after we were supposed to have been in class!). Good looking group!

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Rudy, Cathy, Pedro, Theo, Allan, Sierra, Michael, Nash, John, Tammi, Mario, Lorena, Suly, Eva, Viki, Farrah, Helen,

Ada, Abby, Beth, Marisol, Megan,

Sarah, Norma, Keyla, Eileen, Christopher, Carolyn, Diana, Gabriela, Alexis,

Norma, Marisol, Carla

Thanksgiving travels!

Since Allan had an interview in the good ole USofA during Thanksgiving, I decided to go with some of the other teachers to Guatemala again, but this time to Antigua and Lake Atilan. It was a pretty sweet trip and we saw some cool things (like always). Below are some pictures and short stories of my travels :)


This is the famous arch of Antigua...and it really was beautiful! There used to be a convent there and the arch helped to mark where the convent was for people!



We spent 2 nights in Antigua and then headed to Lake Atilan. A group of us signed up for a hike starting at 4 am...thats right...4 in the morning. It was dark. and scary. We had 2 flashlights. I only fell once. But it was totally worth it. Check out the photos below. God is so creative. The sunrise was gorgeous! and it was nice to have a workout done before 630am.


This is Beth and me when we first arrived to the top! :)


Andddd we got to see a Volcano spurt some smoke :)


After the hike, we walked to a little village on the side of the mountain because it was market day there. And boy was it market day. Wow. It was really fun to see though. They were even selling the little chickens below :) How cute.



And....probably my favorite thing about the whole trip was finding these in the supermarket in Antigua. In the USA we sell frozen pizzas. In Honduras, they sell frozen pupusas, which are one of the most commonly made food here (pupusas are cheese, or bean, or chicken, or other type of food or a combination of all of the above-filled tortillas) .

A little trip to Esquipulas

Close by in the country of Guatemala is a city called Esquipulas (S-key-pull-us for those non-Spanish speakers). About 3 weeks ago Allan and I made the trek because we had heard there was a great Basilica that we should check out. We also heard there was zoo! The Basilica was pretty cool. It is the home of "black Jesus" shrine. This is quite the tourist attraction. Luckily Allan and I waited in line on Saturday to see the black Jesus because the line was SOOOO long on Sunday to just walk past the shrine in the front of this Basilica. It was interesting to see this kind of devotion and how important just walking by this shrine of Jesus was for people.

We also enjoyed the zoo a lot. It was a zoo like I had never seen before. Allan and I paid at the "entrance" and then were told we had to walk or take a moto-taxi up a huge hill (the picture above with the Basilica in the background is taken from about half-way up!) and back down it to reach the actual zoo. Since we are cheap, we decided to walk! It was further than we thought and funny. The zoo, which turned out to be like a family fun park, was even funnier. There was one ostrich, stuck in a small cage, 2 emu's, monkeys (in 3-4 different cages AND an island in the middle of a lake full of monkeys... I guess monkeys can't swim, because they couldn't escape!), birds, goats, ducks, deer (a little taste of the homeland), baby cows, and lions! It was crazy funny and worth the hike.

Another cool siting of the trip was the futbol field (pictured above) that we happened upon. I have NEVER seen a futbol field like this. There was no grass and lots of dust, but the children were playing in an organized soccer league on this field. I was atleast happy to see organized soccer, but I couldn't believe this field. They seemed so content though! And the fans were cheering them on! :)


One of my favorite things about Esquipulas, however, was the market. They had such a crazy intense market. The streets were filled with food vendors (pictured!), artisans, and tiny stores all selling the same things. Inside the market was even crazier though. Tons of fruits and vegetables and MEAT! In Copan, our market sells meat on Sundays (a man just plobs the cow meat down on a small table near the entrance of our market...last week he had the cows nose sitting with the meat. Yummy!) In Esquipulas, the market walls were lined with mini-stores selling meat. They just had it hanging in the back of the stores and would cut it up right there for you. Allan even got some coke in a bag :) What more could you ask for?

Look what I found in Copan!

Of course this would be here in Copan...cause North Carolina is da bomb. :)

I can't wait to be there soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is having an amazing Thanksgiving. Abby and the rest of the foreign teachers left for Antigua, Guatemala yesterday, but I'm still in Copan because I don't leave until tomorrow afternoon for the great U.S. of A. It's strange to be here basically by myself, but it has also been good because I have quite a few things to prepare before departing.

Last night, after tutoring Miguelito in English, his family and I went over to Elisa's (the girl who Abby usually tutors) house because she was having her birthday party. It was a lot of fun. I talked the most with the grandfather of the family mainly about fruit and politics as we were continually brought Cokes and plate after plate of food.

After the presents but before the cake, we all sang "Feliz Cumpleaños". Well, we sang several birthday songs in several languages including the emergent creole they call Spanglish; one of which was "Sapo Verde to You". This literally means "green toad to you", but they sing it to the tune of "Happy Birthday" because that's apparently what the English words sound like to Hondurans. Then, Miguelito's dad, Miguel (there are at least 5 Miguels in their immediate family), and I took on the boys in a little game of futbol, the All-Honduran pastime. We played until about 10PM, but we fell defeated to the youngsters because we were badly outnumbered, 'm not the goalie that I once was, and these people live for the sport.

Today, the missionaries Bill and Mary have invited me and a few other people to have a Thanksgiving lunch at their house, so I'm headed off to that. These people are so amazing. Because of them, I won't be eating celebrating Thanksgiving in a comedor by myself. This day has been great to reflect on all the blessings that surround me daily, such as Abby, absence of loneliness, support from my family, and the means to accomplish anything I've been called to do.

I'm sorry I'm not able to post any new pictures from our recent adventures including a trip to Esquipulas, Guatemala because Abby left with her camera that has them all. However, I promise we'll make a media-rich post next week though. I appreciate all of you. Thanks for your prayers and support.

butt buddies

We've all heard of butt buddies...but today we actually saw some butt buddies.


Never know what you'll see in Copan.



and yes....they were really stuck like that.

more of the cutest baby in Copan

Diana should be on a commercial or advertisement or something. She is so beautiful and so happy. Her brother is a student of Allan's and her mother, Eva, is a house-keeper at Mayatan. I have fallen in love with this family. Eva is such a sweet, hard-working, joyful woman. I have never seen her without a smile on her face and that smile has transferred to her children! This past week, Eva cleaned Allan and the other boy's house and I got to hang out with Diana and Jose. Allan broke out his camera and took some amazing shots of these beautiful children :)






I think Crest should use this to sell floss. I would buy it!

Every week, we take Spanish classes at a local Spanish school here. Through Allan's teacher, we were introduced to two families that were interested in their children learning English. We now teach 2 children English every Wednesday night in exchange for a home-cooked meal complete with dinner conversation in Spanish! (so its good practice for us!) Little did we know that these families (the mothers are sisters!) happen to be the nicest, most-inviting families in all of Copan. Seriously. We love hanging out with them and they really treat us with good ole southern hospitality.

The first week, Allan and I tutored separately at different houses, but the next week, they wanted us to tutor together so my family could meet Allan, and Allan's family could meet me. They have been so nice to us. They invited us to hang out at their church one Sunday afternoon and watch the inter-church futbol games. Then they invited us to celebrate a birthday with them the next night. This was so fun. One of their siblings own a local bakery in town so we met at their house (because the bakery is in the basment of the house, see picture below!) and hung out, ate pizza (some of the biggest pizza I have ever seen!), sang happy birthday, and just talked for a while. We both are really excited that we have had the chance to meet families like this is Copan. We were thanking them at the end of the night and said that we always felt so invited by them and that meant a lot to us, and one of the fathers replied "You are always invited." That is so nice! :)

Happy (belated) Halloween!

So this post is a little late, but that's ok :)

My kids wanted to wish all of you a.......




Nothing like a 48 cent costume :) We should have spent a little more money and bought a few more balloons. I think we would have looked more like the grapes we were trying to be :)

Where the Wild Things Are

My class is so cute. We read Where the Wild Things Are and made our own wild things that day for art! The kids loved it and I was so happy with how the monsters turned out :) One monster even had high heels and a purse :) So scary!