Playing for Pizza

Not just a Grisham book anymore

For months I had no idea that the owner of the best pizza joint in town was a rock/blues lover with a selection of guitars and amps to boot. Having eaten there many times (during our Tortilla and Beans Acclimating Period TBAP), we knew Jim (see picture: man on the right) and his place pretty well and later caught wind that he liked to play guitar, but it wasn’t until February when I finally decided set a date to jam.

It was incredible, a true win-win. I went over to the shop around 10AM, a few hours before people started coming in. He had several really nice guitars (Gibson SG, Strats, Tele…), and he let me play whichever one I wanted. I played through a really high tech Line 6 amp(which made me sound pretty good). We then just strike up a jam track and go. I then started trying to play weekly, and sometimes a familiar Copaneco named Saul (see top picture: the person on the left) would jam with us. He played the keyboard and was more or less the rhythm section, playing chords while the piano track supplied the bass and drums, and Jim and I soloed over top. Sometimes we actually sounded pretty darn good if I say so myself. Well, I was getting my guitar fix big time, and to top it off, Jim gave me a pizza/dinner every time we played. Talk about a real deal.

I continued to jam with Jim regularly until we left, which came in handy towards the end because we got lazy and stopped wanting to cook, but it was OK because we could eat there for free!

Bottom Line: Jamming with Jim is just one of the many things I’m going to miss from such a unique and wonderful experience in Copan. Ahhh, what a life it was!

LDOC

2nd Grade A on the Last Day of Classes

4th Grade A on the Last Day of Classes

As a farewell present for the 4th graders (and us teachers too), we went to El Jaral, which is actually the name of a nearby town but has become synonymous with the only attraction there- the Aqua Park. It was great to be with my students outside of a school context like riding down the highway in the back of a pickup truck singing the popular jams. They had a blast and wanted Michael and me to be apart of everything. Some even bought us lunch. By the end, all the sliding, swimming, and paddling helped soften the goodbyes and will hopefully leave them with fond .memories of 4th grade.

Oh yeah, check out the lifeguard for the big slide.

Required uniform for employees of El Jaral:

• Cowboy hat (to protect skin from dangerous UV rays)
• Polo shirt (read: “better be careful cause I don’t want to get wet”)
• Blue jeans held up with a polished belt buckle (because only little boys and girls show their legs)
• Genuine leather boots (apparently appropriate for any and all situations)

They love me!…They really love me!

One day our disciplinarian asked me if I had seen the Copan kid’s paper yet. I told her I hadn’t, and she brought me this copy.

Translation:

Front page: Copan Newspaper- A children’s newspaper for the boys and girls of Copan Ruinas.

Page 3 (top left) Mayatan Bilingual School- My name is Maricruz. I study in Mayatan Bilingual School. I like it a lot because I am learning English. I am in 4th grade. My teacher is Mr. Allan. He is very fun and intelligent. He doesn’t like it when we speak in Spanish.

Picture Therapy!

Ask your 2nd grade students to draw you, and this is what you get. Some are encouraging, some are heartbreaking, and some are just straight up hilarious. Enjoy! There are a lot to see. I just could not chose!

Let the rainy season begin!

This is my outside of my front door during rainy season :) and by rainy season, I mean it rains every afternoon around 4pm. and by rain, I mean BUCKETS and BUCKETS of water from the sky. Its painful and scary to be outside!

and a still picture for your viewing pleasure :)

Kmart Kicks!

This could quite possibly be the best picture I have taken in Copan.

Remember Jimmy, the little boy at the rodeo who won 20 USD? Well, Jimmy’s 9th birthday was last month and thanks to my special friends, the Kiblers, I was able to give Jimmy a very special birthday present that left him smiling and strutting his new kicks.  I mean, just check out that pose. Hello America’s Next Top Model, I found your next contestant.

I was taking a shower and heard people singing “Happy Birthday” on my roof. Turns out that 2 of my friends were up there hanging out with Jimmy and singing because, well, it was his birthday! It was so fun to get to wrap up some presents (thanks to some clothing donations from friends in the USA!) and watch Jimmy unwrap what might have been his very firsts birthday presents. Socks, underwear, shorts, t-shirts and shoes!. Jimmy could not have been happier. What a sight it was! He proudly stuffed all of this new things into his school book bag and asked for help to zip it shut :)

I have been so touched by knowing Jimmy. He has nothing, yet, I have I never seen him without the world’s biggest smile spread across his face. It is the Spirit of the Lord in Jimmy’s life, whether he knows it yet or not. I am so thankful that the Lord loves the little children like Jimmy!

“Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like Jimmy….Then he took the children into his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.” Mark 10: 14-16

Dia del Arbol

What do you get when you combine Tree Day, 150 students (all with plants of some type), and 30 minutes?

CHAOS.

AKA Dia del Arbol at Mayatan.

 

To celebrate Dia Del Arbol, Mayatan asked that each student bring in some type of tree or plant to plant in the ground in Mayatan’s campus. We were allotted a 30 minute time slot to achieve this. Needless to say, it was quite a failure. I think we got 3 trees planted in my group (due to my lack of skills with the 5 foot long heavy iron rod that they gave me to use to dig holes. I don’t know about you, but I always had a personal hand held shovel to help my mom plant pansies and this iron rod thing was new for me.) But hey, three out of 25 isn’t that bad, right?

I like the idea behind it though. It helps get the kids excited about the Earth (at least for a day!). But then, I am afraid, it is back to throwing trash out of bus windows. Oh man.

 

Mixed Emotions

Llegamos al final. We made it to the end. We have reached the last day of school. Wow.

I’m not sure that it has completely sank in with me yet. I have spent almost every day with my little 2nd grade friends for the past year and then at 11:30 tomorrow, it will end. My interaction with them is over. I won’t greet them every morning with a high five anymore. We won’t read the morning message and have morning meeting. I won’t have to tell Gandhi to stay in his seat anymore or Ritzy to raise her hand if she has a question. I won’t get to watch them laugh and play during recess or get really excited when they know an answer to a question and earn a point for their table. I won’t have to break up any fights or take away their mangos during reading because they are eating in class. I won’t get to dismiss them at the end of the day and receive hugs and goodbyes from some of the sweetest Hondurans I know (granted I don’t know all that many!) and then remind them not to run to the bus!.

I truly will miss them. I feel like they have become my actual children. I tell them this a lot and I think they think I am crazy!

I think one reason I am really sad is because I want to see my kids grow up. I want to see their English improve even more.  I want to see them going to high school. I want to see some of them break the cycle of poverty in their families because they can get better jobs than harvesting crops in the hot sun because they can speak English. I want to see Kensy and Milton live in a house made of cinderblock one day instead of mud.

I was making a memory album for each of them this afternoon to give them as a present. In it I have a picture I took of them on the first day of school and a picture that I took of them on Monday. I seriously cannot believe how much they have changed and matured in 9 months! It just seems like life goes so quickly.

I am so thankful for this time I have had in Honduras and I am so thankful that I still have about a week and a half to close up my time here. I am also thankful that I can come back and visit in a few years. :)

It is so funny how the Lord works through EVERY situation and how He led me and Allan to this place. Its so great how the Lord created relationships and enables us to build them with people of all ages. Its neat how I feel like I have learned just as much from my students as (I hope!) they have learned from me.

My mom made me a shirt with a picture of Honduras on it and a little heart where Copan is. I think it is a great representation of how I am feeling right now.

An afternoon stroll

Even a cow needs to get out every once and a while for some fresh air.

A Thief’s Checklist

By following this blog, I'm sure you've learned that Copan is a very unique place. Seeing ludicrous, inexplicable things day in and day out has greatly reduced the number of things that surprise me. Every once in a while though, I let my guard down, and the utter ridiculousness of this place wins out. For example, last week Abby and I were walking down the mountain after school, and as I heard a vehicle slowly approaching us from behind, I instinctively glanced back. There was a small pickup sputtering and scraping the ground because it was packed with the BIGGEST garbage bags I had ever seen. You literally could fit a small 4-wheeler in each one. They also hadn't stopped loading up the truck when the bed was full, for these monstrous bags were piled on top of each other reaching over 15 feet in the air (no lie). Abby raced to get her camera out, but the truck rounded the next corner, albeit slowly, before we could capture a photo for the next edition of "You Might Be A Redneck If..." I've seen some pretty slammed trucks, but this was too much.

Another thing that surprised me (the reason for this post) happened over Semana Santa (Spring Break) when Doug and Linda Hill were in town. I was robbed. I had a much more substantial robbery last year in Chapel Hill, but still, it gave me that post-theft unsettling feeling. First though, let’s back up, so you can see how the realization unfolded.

Unable to resist the sumptuousness of the Marina hotel, I was staying in Abby's parents' room for the week but periodically went go home to get some new clothes. One such time, Doug and I entered my house and found all the bedroom, kitchen, and apartment doors open. The front door to the street was shut, so I just figured my roommates had returned and I had just left my door open (something I never do). I did check to make sure my passport, money, and computer were still there, and when I found them, I thought nothing more of it...until my roommates returned 3 days later. dum dUM DUM. Chris told me he was missing money that he had had lying on his desk, so I went to reinvestigate. We found out that they had entered through the kitchen door, which wasn't double locked (roommates' fault since I never use that door), by punching their hand through the window screen and pulling the door lever. Then we played the "what did I do with my ____?" game for the next few days with the delightful twist of a break-in actually being a possibility. Just tell me what you took, thief!

Figuring out what they stole proved rather difficult. Let's start with what they left behind:

1. computers (These just complicate life.)
2. cameras (Everyone and their baby already has one on their cell phone.)
3. radios (Too old school)
4. passports (hmmm?)
5. cell phones (Already got 3.)
6. printer (What would you ever use this for?)

So what DID they take?

1. Money from Chris (OK this was normal. This is what tipped us off. I wised up after the Merritt Mill Massacre of 2008 and have mine in a super secret hiding spot.
2. Kitchen knives (naturally)
3. My night light/mini tripod (Who wouldn't want one of these?...I only discovered this when I wanted to read a little before falling asleep.)
4. My cowboy hat (Absolute necessity to prove manhood in Honduras...This loss dawned on me about a week later when we were going on a hike. )
5. Headphones (PURE EVIL...Oh this was the worst. I was so pumped to enjoy some new CDs I had just purchased when I found that my beloved, over-ear headphones had been stolen- from under my shorts in a drawer!)

So they had the time to pick and choose, knowing what we had to offer. This means their booty was all specifically chosen...Not the most "valuable" goods to steal I must say, but now we know what sorts of things motivate Copanecos to break in.

OH YEAH and they weren't the only visitors...these guys were hanging out in my kitchen. I hadn't cooked at my house in several months when we found them and definitely will not cook there ever again. Thank you, Doug, for smashing all of them with a glass jar- I guess that's why you still have your cowboy hat and I do not.

 

Are those 5 cockroaches hanging out, sucking up water, and spreading filth? Yes. Is that the kitchen sink? Yes. Are there at least 5 other ones scurrying around trying to scale the brushed aluminum? Yes. Were they continuing to come up through the drain, pushing up the stopper on their way out? Oh yeah. SICK!