First Bus Adventure

The kids at the hogar. Camera = excitement.

          As stated in the title, I rode the public bus for the first time this weekend. Destination: Santa Barbara. Sarah and I went to visit the hogar del ninos and the other SMs posted there. Last week, we missed the bus by about 4 minutes and were very sad. This week, as we were headed out the door one of the parents from the school pulled up to turn in a project and then offered us a ride. It was like a little sign from God saying "hey, I know you missed the bus last week so I'm giving you some extra help to catch it today". We arrived in darkness and were greeted by our friend Logan straight off the bus.
               At the hogar, we spent our first evening swinging kids around, being pulled around the compound, and attempting to demonstrate duck duck goose. This was only moderately successful as the kids definitely grasped the entire run when you get goosed concept but they never figured out that they were supposed to come back to the circle after a single turn. Then we had about 3 kids trying to tag people at a time. It was pretty cute.

I took a whole walk in this scenery. 

              On Saturday we went to church ...... and it had a piano. It was drastically out of tune and I got to play it for 3 minutes but I didn't even care. It was wonderful. I haven't gone so long without a keyboard since the age of four. I felt complete. In the afternoon we went on a walk. It's also been a long time since I took a walk out in nature. There were galloping cowboys, nature sounds, herds of cows, and rivers to cross. It was a blessing. We walked out to a river which was brown but hey nature is nature.

Photo Credit: Logan. Notice this picture is the best.

              On the way back the bus broke down. No big deal. Everybody just hopped off on the side of the road and waited for the next one. I was impressed. It only took about 20 minutes to get another bus out there. Score. I lost that bet. I expected an hour. There were not enough seats so I ended up standing for about 3/4 of the trip. Then, this guy's luggage fell on my head so he gave me his seat. Not a bad deal. All in all, it was nice to have a trip right after the stress of preparing for finals. We most definitely will be going back.

Nose to the Grindstone

My Hair After China Bumps. 

                So I haven't posted in awhile because I have been super busy. Last weekend I went to the first all-Honduras adventist youth retreat. Or something de Jovenes. It was at this point that I realized my Spanish really has improved in this month. I can now get the main idea of a talk without consulting my handy-dandy dictionary. I also learned that it's better to just get the cheaper ticket and sleep on the floor rather than signing up for a bed at the last minute as you will probably end up on the floor anyways. (true story) Honduran time means you can be late for just about everything without being rude, but you had better be on time for youth meetings because the seats fill up when it is actually supposed to start. Also, to be on time girls will get up at 4:30 in the morning to shower and they are not quiet. Investigate your 3rd level bunk bed before you climb up on it. If it is supported with plywood, it just might crack if you put all of your weight in one place. Finally, there are other adventist white girls in Honduras. We found 2 of them.
                 I also had my first parent-meeting experience. The other girls told me to stick to my guide teacher. I thought it would be okay if I was ten feet from her. When she finished talking, I could join her and she could translate for me with the parents. Incorrect assumption. They really meant: you must be no more than three feet away from the Spanish-Speaking teacher at all times. The parents came to me and I ended up fumbling on my own in Spanish. I guess it's a good thing I know the important school words like tareas, cuaderno, escuchar, estudiar, correr, prueba, and compartamente. They also can't be really upset with you if you don't know what they are saying.
                 Other than that, I've just been pretty busy keeping up. I can now whip out lesson plans in a short amount of time, I have cooked my first meal for the rest of the house and they actually ate it, and I have begun working out. Running on the street is inadvisable but I can do exercises in the privacy of my own home. Some of my kids have started eating with me at lunch and telling me about the relatives they never see in the states and the missionaries who have promised to come back but haven't. I'm starting to care about them, especially when they aren't all feeding off each other's energy in my classroom. Things are becoming easier, but I could still use your prayers every day.