The Exploits of a Honduran Teacher

Zeppelin and Life

2008-02-04T21:48:00.001-05:00

Well, it seems very anti-climatic to write about it now, but the Zeppelin show was amazing. It happened almost two months ago, but I am just now getting to write about it. I guess I have just been busy with lots of other things. Phil and I had the time of our lives in London. We got 3rd row at the show after waiting in line all day. We were so close that Jimmy Page almost drooled on us! It was simply amazing and trying to describe the events of that night is nearly impossible. It is one of those events that you just have to experience. We were blown away. It was a fairly expensive trip for me, but it was totally worth it.
I wrote an article for the Wichita paper about my experience, but it is no longer on their website. If you want to get a bit of a feel for the concert, check out some pics that I took:
http://wheatonil.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022217&l=42c5b&id=187702610
http://harvard.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022207&l=48b30&id=187702157

or some video I took:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AKAy7FpkaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhe8tQeNsbU

Since then, I have been back in Wichita working with Hospitals of Hope and substitute teaching at Trinity every now and then. I've started working on the bathroom in the house and I've been playing in a band with some of my friends. It's instrumental- kind of a mix between Sigur Ros, The Album Leaf and Envy. Hopefully things will come together well with that band.
Monday I leave for Bolivia for a week with HOH. I'm heading down there to get a feel for the ministry and to meet the staff from there. It will be good to get familiar with everything that they do there since I'm not completely aware of all the ins and outs of what goes on. Yet another trip. Good times are ahead.

Settling in and then heading to London

2007-11-27T21:54:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since my last update, so a lot has changed. I am still in Wichita and I recently took a job with Hospitals of Hope (www.hospitalsofhope.org), which is an organization that does medical missions to Bolivia- and some other places around the world. Officially, I am the International Missions Coordinator, but in reality I do just about everything for them- grant writing, volunteer coordination, journalism, website management, accounting, marketing, research, etc. It should be a challenging job with a lot of variety, so it is a pretty good fit (except for the fact that I work by myself much of the time). I'll deal with it though. In January I am probably going to head down to Bolivia for a couple of weeks to get a feel for the ministry. That will be a great part of the job! I am also moving into an older house in Riverside that I am going to fix up over the next year or two. It's already in pretty good shape, but there are a few changes I can make to really increase the value. I'll be living with Josh Wigdahl and one or two other guys.
But before I move in, I'm heading to London for a week! That's right, Led Zeppelin awaits. For those of you who haven't heard, I was lucky enough to get tickets to the once-in-a-lifetime show (only 10,000 people out of 25 million people who registered got tickets). My friend, Phil Johnston, is coming along with me for the ride. It is going to be amazing, but right now I am in a state of shock or disbelief. It is one of those things that is so big that it just doesn't seem real to you until the moment it happens. One week until I leave...

back home

2007-07-09T22:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back in Wichita now. It has been a crazy last few weeks. Brian's sister, Sarah, came down to visit our last week in Honduras, so we spent a lot of time traveling on top of getting everything packed up. Then Brian left and Jason and I went on a short trip up to the Caribbean with our friends Aurora and Quique and their whole family. We went to the beach, relaxed and generally had a good time. Then we came back, packed up, said our goodbyes and flew out the following day. It was a very bittersweet time because I was excited to be heading home, but I was pretty sad to be leaving Honduras and all of the people there.
When I got back to Chicago I spent some time looking for a car and I saw a lot of my family and friends who live there. I eventually bought a nice Nissan Pathfinder that I found for a really good price and I loaded it up with a bunch of my junk that I had left with friends while I was gone. Then I drove back to Wichita last Friday- and my long journey back home is complete. Now I'm spending my time unpacking and trying to figure out what I'm going to do next. I'm looking into different job opportunities and generally trying to decide what direction my life is going to take now. I'm probably not going to go back to school right away, but instead get some job experience and get a more specific sense of what I want to do. So that's where I'm at right now. It looks like I'll be in Wichita for the next month or two and after that, who knows...

done with school!

2007-06-02T14:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the last day of classes for our school, so now I have completed my first year of teaching! We still have a year-end recuperation test next Saturday (where kids who failed can take a cumulative test to pass the year), but that shouldn't be too much work. After that I will have to stay around for another two weeks cleaning up and doing other odd jobs to finish out the year, but it should all be pretty easy. After work ends I am staying around for a few days to travel with some friends and I finally fly home on June 28th (back to Chicago for a few days, then to Wichita after that).
Right now I have a mixture of emotions- it was sad to see all of the kids go and to know that I won't see many of them again. I've invested a lot of emotional energy into them this year and now it's over. I hope that I touched their lives in some way. Now I'm looking to the future- excited to return to family and friends and also trying to figure out what I'll do next. I am pretty sure that I want to head back to graduate school and it looks like I might be able to start this fall. There are several programs in Chicago that I am looking into which deal with Nonprofit Management and there is one that has a dual degree with Christian Ministry as well. I think that studying something like that would be really useful in whatever direction I end up going- whether it be a NGO, a ministry or some kind of nonprofit (and either in the States or overseas). So I'm going to keep checking into my options and we will see what comes together.
But for now, I'm going to continue to make the best of the time I have remaining in Honduras. I continue to improve my Spanish everyday and I am still playing a lot of music. This weekend I'm playing in church again and next weekend I'll probably be playing in a local club with another band that I'm in. Hopefully we can squeeze out a few more shows before we all leave...

the decision

2007-05-05T14:49:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday I talked with the director of the school about the possibility of coming back to work next year- I was trying to get all of the info I could in order to make a good decision- and she ended up telling me that I needed to decide by Monday (four days from then). So I went home and began to mull the decision over in my mind. I went back and forth, but by the time the weekend was over, I had decided not to stay another year. There are a variety of factors that influenced my decision and taken all together, I really felt like it was best for me to go. Most of my friends are leaving, teaching is not what I want to do as a career (and it has been difficult), things at the church are not going so well, and I want to be closer to my family and friends in the States- all of which are fairly good reasons in and of themselves.
So, as of right now, I don't know what I'm going to be doing this next year, but I trust that God will open something up, because He closed this door down here. It is possible that I will be back in either Wheaton, Wichita, or Tulsa... but it all depends on what job opportunites open up. My hope is that I will be able to go back to grad school the following year (although I don't know exactly what I will study yet).
In other news, last week was fairly busy as well. We had Tuesday off, so we went to a national park near Tegus, called La Tigra, which is actually a cloud forest (kind of like a jungle). We hiked to a waterfall and had a picnic lunch- the waterfall was a little disappointing, but it was still worth it. Aurora and Quique and their whole family came, so that was fun. Wednesday was my birthday and so we had a "suprise" party at our house. There were probably about 15 people there and we had lots of pizza, cake and even a pinata! It was my first pinata ever- Eyore, the donkey from Winnie the Pooh- and it was a tough little sucker! I really had to beat the crap out of it to open it up.
Thursday our band had practice and I gave Joel, the drummer, a ride home afterwards- which ended up being a long ways and I was low on gas. I got within half a mile of the gas station (there aren't as many here as there are in the States) and the car died on me. I pulled off the road and started to run to the gas station to get some gas (I was running because it was dark, on a lonely highway, and I am a gringo), but the problem was that I was still in my dress shoes... needless to say, I stepped in a pothole and twisted my ankle. I eventually called some friends for help and everything turned out fine... but it was a little bit of an embarassing night.

Semana Santa and beyond

2007-04-21T11:49:00.000-05:00

So Jason and I headed over to Guatemala for Holy Week to visit my cousin and his family. It was our first time visiting a neighboring country to Honduras (although we have been to pretty much every part of Honduras), so it was interesting noticing the differences between the two cultures. We spent the week just hanging out with Brian and Jenny, and their two daughters- Ellie (4) and Lena (9 weeks). They are in the process of adopting Lena, which is why they are in Guatemala now. They live in Antigua, which is a small, touristy town outside of Guatemala City, and it is a huge destination for Semana Santa. Tons of people from all over Central America go there as sort of a Catholic pilgrimage and participate in Processions of icons around the city. It was fun just to participate in the general atmosphere of the place and to see the processions and the carpets (alfombras) that they make out of sawdust. One day we went on a day trip and hiked an active volcano that is close by. We got within 10 meters of a river of lava! It was amazing. We got up to the top when it was getting dark, so everything was glowing! If you want to see pictures from the trip, click here (I'll put up pictures from the volcano soon).

Recently, I've been playing a lot of guitar at church, which takes a lot of time, but I've had some great experiences. A couple of weeks ago, our church worship band opened up for a really well know Latin Christian singer in front of over 4000 people. We just put out a CD of original worship songs that our music pastor wrote, so we played songs from that. People really enjoyed it and we even got an encore as the opening band! Besides that, I've been playing at the church for regular services and I'm starting to play in another rock band with some teachers from another school. Right now we're working on getting some shows set up at different clubs around before summer comes.

Thursday I got another haircut- the first since my students shaved my head last fall. I decided to go with something distinctively Latin, so I got a faux-hawk/mullet type haircut. I think it turned out fairly well. Check out the pics:

The major thing that is on my mind right now, though, is the decsion about next year. I have several options that I'm thinking through and several doors that have been closed recently. I might move back to the States and do some sort of construction while I continue to figure out what direction to head in life (maybe Wheaton, Wichita or Tulsa). Or I might stay here and teach another year. People would really like for me to stay here, but I have kind of decided that teaching isn't what I want to do with the rest of my life... so I'm not sure whether it would be the best career move. But it is a great ministry (that i get paid to do) and I could continue to learn Spanish and enjoy living in another country. So I would really appreciate all of your prayers while I try to decide where God would have me next.
God's peace to all of you.

Off on another trip

2007-04-01T15:27:00.000-05:00

I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to update you guys a little bit. I have been REALLY busy recently- we had the teacher's retreat, then Nathan came, then we went on a three day field trip around the country, then grades were due, we parent teacher conferences and now we have the whole week off! It is for Semana Santa(Holy Week) and so Jason and I are leaving tonight on another trip. My cousin, Brian White, is living in Antigua,Guatemala for the next six months and so we are going to visit him for the week. We're taking an overnight bus tonight- it leaves at 10PM and gets in at 11AM the next morning. So it could be interesting. Right now we are going to watch a futbol (soccer) game at the National Stadium. One of the local teams from Tegus is playing (Olympia), so we're going with some friends. I'll keep you updated...

Teacher Retreat and Nathan...

2007-03-14T16:44:00.000-05:00

Well, tomorrow morning at 6 we leave for the teacher's retreat- two days at a hotel on a big lake in Central Honduras. I'm not exactly sure what we are going to be doing, but there is a pool and we get paid for it, so I can't really complain. I think it will be part motivational, part instructional and part spiritual retreat- but I'm just excited that we don't have to teach for two days! :)
We are supposedly getting back Friday afternoon, and then Nathan (my twin brother) is flying in at five that night! He decided to come down here over his spring break, and so we are going to hang out for about ten days. I think that he is going to substitute teach a little bit at our school during the week, and then we are going on a field trip with the 10th grade that next weekend. Brian, Nathan and I along with 3 other teachers are going to be the chaperones for 50 sixteen and seventeen year olds for the entire weekend, which includes two nights at hotels and many long bus rides. It should be interesting to say the least. Our goal is to not have anyone get pregnant or drunk... so with these kids, we might not be getting much sleep. We are going to Western Honduras to see Mayan ruins and several of the older colonial towns, plus some hot springs and other cool stuff. I think Nathan will enjoy seeing all of that stuff, so I'm glad he gets to come along.
Recently, I have been pretty busy. School hasn't been too bad, but all of my time has been eaten up by church stuff. I've been playing at church for the last couple of weeks, and that takes up most of Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I have really enjoyed it recently, but it still is a big time commitment. I've been playing a lot more electric guitar (instead of acoustic), which is really fun. And I got asked last night to go "on tour" with the worship team up to the north coast for a weekend (something that they do about once a year). So it has been fun to be a part of that and to make some good relationships with Hondurans- plus good practice for my Spanish.
There is more stuff coming up on the horizon, but I don't have time to write about it now, so I will save it for another day. Continue to pray for me as I decide what to do next year. Thanks so much.

Roatan!

2007-03-01T16:27:00.000-06:00

Spring break was great! On Saturday we drove up to the port city of La Ceiba, which turned out to be kind of interesting- it was pouring down rain and the windshield wipers on our car would randomly stop working, but we got there okay anyway. We were planning on taking the ferry that afternoon, but all the boats were shut down because of the weather. So we ended up staying the night in Ceiba, but then the ferry still wasn't running the next day and it was questionable for the following day too (because of the rough seas). After spending some time with a shady American named "Tom" who was on the run from the law, we all decided that it would be best to fly (although it was more expensive). However, the only flights that day were to the island of Roatan so we decided to take one. We had originally planned on going to the neighboring island of Utila, which is smaller and a little more boring (and cheaper), but we decided Roatan was the best option.
So we took a really short flight over to the island and found a great hotel overlooking the ocean (for only $10 per person). We ended up staying on part of the island called West End where most of the "traveler" type people stay because the only other places to stay are resorts. And right after settling in to our room we headed out to find a place to go SCUBA diving- the main focus of our trip. There were about ten different shops that all cost about the same, but some did the course in 3 days and others in 4. We ended up choosing the 4 day option and started the following morning. There were a total of six people in our class and we had a cute Austrailian chick as our instructor, and in the end we were fairly pleased with the dive shop we chose.
We spent most of the days divided between watching instructional videos and doing stuff in the water (like clearing your mask, switching regulators and becoming neutrally buoyant). The third and fourth day we did a total of 4 open water dives at different spots along the reef. We saw tons of amazing stuff! There were all sorts of tropical fish, barracudas, turtles, squid, shrimp, and we even saw a seahorse. I really loved it. It was like being in a fantasy world. The water was so clear that you felt like you were flying around a new world. It is an amazing experience. And now I am lifetime certified to dive to 60 feet!
The last day on the island we rented a jeep and drove to the opposite side of the island where it is completely undeveloped. We heard that the island had been used by pirates and English privateers, so we wanted to check it out. We went to the spot where Port Royal used to be (yes, the Port Royal in "Pirates of the Caribbean") and searched for buried treasure... but we didn't find any. There was only an abandoned house on an empty bay. It is the perfect island for pirates though- it is pretty small, there are lots of bays, mountains, exotic plants and a mangrove swamp (which the pirates cut a canal through and it is still there!). And even though we didn't find anything, we still had a really exciting time exploring.
On the way back to Tegucigalpa we stopped at a cathedral to see the oldest clock in the New World- it is 800 years old and was built by the Moors in Spain before it was brought over to the capital of the colony, Comyagua. All in all, it was a great trip. Phil got a little sick and there was some bad weather in the beginning, but things couldn't have been much better.

I posted pictures on another site, so check them out: http://wheatonil.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013619&l=4ad51&id=187702610

one more week!

2007-02-11T14:19:00.000-06:00

There is only one more week until our first Spring Break! I am really excited! Brian, Jason, Phil Johnston (from Wheaton) and I are heading up to the north coast of Honduras. Phil (who is Brian's best friend) flew into Guatemala last week from Paris and he is going to be coming over to Tegus later this week. Then we're going to drive up to one of the islands off of the coast named Utila. It is the cheapest place in the world to get SCUBA certified- we are going to spend four days diving and then end up with a lifetime Open Water Certification- all for $230. Plus it is diving paradise- Utila is located on the second largest barrier reef in the world (right behind the Great Barrier Reef in Australia). And supposedly Utila is just a really chill place- it isn't touristy yet and a lot of Europeans vacation there. And on top of all that, I get a week off of school! It will be great.

This past week went pretty well. School wasn't very busy and I didn't have too many problems with students. I played today and yesterday at church, which went really well. The music pastor picked some pretty rocking songs and then we had two electric guitarists (plus me on acoustic), so it was pretty loud. You guys should check out the song "Take It All" by Hillsong United (or "Tomalo" en espanol), it is pretty catchy. I was also asked to produce a cd of worship songs that the worship team has written, which should be pretty fun to do, but it will take a lot of time too! So there are a lot of cool things on the horizon... and in the midst of it all, I have to decide what I'm going to do next year. I would appreciate your prayers. Thanks so much.

An interesting week

2007-02-04T14:54:00.000-06:00

This past week was long. I had lots of school work to do and tests to write, so that is pretty much what I did every night. However, we made did set aside some time to make a few really great meals. My favorite was a spicy satay stir fry with fresh green beans, peppers, onions and jalapenos.

Anyway, this morning we took a trip out to Picachu- which is a huge statue of Jesus overlooking all of Tegus on a mountainside. It was really beautiful. Maybe I will post some pictures later. Tonight we are having lots of Hondurans over for a Super Bowl party. It should be lots of fun. There are two other Americans coming over and probably 10-15 Hondurans, some of whom haven't ever watched futbol americano. And most of them don't speak English either. Hopefully there are subtitles on tv.

This past week at school was interesting... one of the students ran away from home, so she isn't going to be coming back. One of the teachers (who isn't married) announced that she is pregnant, but our principal can't fire her because we are short on teachers as it is. And several of my students tried to convince me to smoke pot with them. (?!) We have a section on drug use coming up in Psychology, so I am going to be sure and lecture them on that. I was just kinda shocked that they would even think about asking a teacher to do that...

Cultural Night

2007-01-27T10:03:00.000-06:00

Last night we had the annual "Cultural Night" fundraiser for the school. Each grade is assigned a country and then they set up a booth in the courtyard of the school, which they have to decorate with things from that culture. Then each booth sells food from their specific country, and tons of people come to eat and listen to live music (we had a mariachi band, the army marching band and a marimba band). Brian and I were recently made co-homeroom teacher of a 7th grade class, so we were in charge of a lot of things last night. Our grade was given Italy, which, I must say, I was very pleased about. We made a big Italian flag and made various posters with Italian phrases, pictures and random facts to decorate the booth (plus we had a replica of the "David" statue). For food, we had one of the mothers (who is from Italy) make the lasagne, and we ordered out pizza. The pizza was a pretty big hit and we ended up making a lot of money (more than most of the other classes). I spent my night divided between keeping track of the money, waiting for pizza to be delivered, and being locked away in the "jail" (people could pay to have you locked up for a certain amount of time- I was there A LOT). I don't know if that means I am loved or hated, but at least I got some attention. :)

For the past few weeks we have been pretty busy- we finished up the 2nd quarter and I have been playing guitar at church 4 days a week for the past two weeks. This weekend I am not playing, so I look forward to just relaxing. In three weeks we are heading up to the Bay Islands to go SCUBA diving for Spring Break... I can't wait!

2007-01-12T14:25:00.000-06:00

I'm back in Honduras now, and I've just finished another week of school. Grades for the second quarter are due on Monday so I have been pretty busy, but I already have a lot of the grading done. Hopefully it won't take too long to finish because I am playing in church this weekend, and I am trying to get over being sick. I wasn't feeling very good at the beginning of the week and then I have lost my voice for the past two days. It makes teaching a lot harder. :) Yesterday I couldn't talk at all, but today it has been better.
After coming back to Honduras, we have made some changes and have decided to be more purposeful in our lives here. So we decorated our house, made a list of things we need to do this year, and today we are going downtown to a market to buy fresh produce. Things are already busy here, so hopefully I don't get worn out too quickly. There is a little over a month until our first spring break (yes, the first), so if I can make it until then I will be fine.

Home Sweet Home

2006-12-28T21:47:00.000-06:00

After flying from Tegucigalpa to Chicago, I met up with my immediate family and we spent a few days with my mom's side of the family in Naperville. Christmas was nice and I really enjoyed just being with my family (I have a big extended family). Then the day after Christmas we drove down to Lawrence, KS and spent a few days with my dad's side of the family- the gathering was a little smaller than normal, but we had lots of fun anyway.
And this morning I finally arrived home in Wichita. I don't know if I consider this place my "home" completely, but it is close enough. We don't have much planned for the next week, so I am looking forward to relaxing a little bit- however, I will have to start studying for the GRE... I just registered today and I am taking it on Tuesday, hopefully I will do okay. I realized that I probably need to take it while I am in the U.S. so that I have the option of applying to grad schools for the fall. We will see how it goes.

Second Place!

2006-12-07T13:27:00.000-06:00

We had our last basketball game yesterday and we ended up with second place! Our school has never really won anything, so this is a big accomplishment for everyone. On Tuesday we played in the "Championship" against the best team who had beaten every other team by at least 20 points. We gave them a good run, but ended up losing by five points. If we had beat them, we would have been the champions. Then we played again yesterday to finalize our second place spot... We were killing them for the majority of the game, but they made a run in the fourth quarter to get within a few points of us. During this run, one of the opposing players got a fastbreak and several other players ran back to try and defend... one of our players tripped, causing the whole pack to fall down (including the opposing player with the ball). The other team got mad, thinking that he had tripped on purpose, and there were words exchanged along with some pushes. The referees ended calling a technical on us and ejecting one player from each team. But we were able to regain control of the game and come out with the win.
It was a really fun season and I think the guys learned a lot too. We ended up with a record of 6-2, which isn't too bad. We're going to have a party this weekend and then we will hopefully have a teacher vs. student game sometime before Christmas.

baldness

2006-12-02T09:56:00.000-06:00

Heading into the last day of fundraising, the seniors still had quite a bit of money to raise in order to reach the goal... so I felt like my hair was pretty safe. But the Seniors decided to make one last push and they were able to raise more than enough money (about $350 which is a lot of money here). So yesterday during lunchtime the entire school gathered in the courtyard and they shaved both Brian and I completely bald.
This is the shortest that my hair has been in a long time and I was sad to see it go, but now I am not feeling too bad about the lack of hair. It is definitely a big change but I am glad that we could help out the seniors and have some fun while we did it...
Here are the pics (you can see more here):

Thanksgiving

2006-11-27T15:19:00.000-06:00

We just got done with a very nice four day weekend of rest and relaxation. Some missionaries from church invited us to go with them to La Mosquitia (basically like the Amazon rainforest) for the weekend, but we decided to stay and rest instead. For Thanksgiving dinner we went over to Erin Sheehy´s and had a big get together with 30 other people- some Hondurans and some Americans. It was really fun and the food wasn´t bad either. I made two pumpkin cheesecakes that were great.

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed, watched some movies and some football, and cooked. I got this Italian recipe book that really inspired me to try out some new things like risotto and different salads- the only problem is getting the correct ingredients here in Honduras.

Friday night we went to a small, local Cuban restaurant and did some salsa dancing with a few friends. It was great- the place was packed out and there were some of the best dancers I have ever seen! It was seriously amazing. I tried dancing and I was alright at it, but I had fun anyway. We are going to start practicing, so hopefully I will get better...

Basketball has been going well. Our boys have won the last two games, so they are 2-1 now, with the loss being a forfeit. The last team that we beat supposedly was coached by the coach for the national Honduran team... so we aren´t doing too bad. The girls continue to be excited to practice and to learn, but they don´t have any games until the spring, so I´m trying to concentrate on the boys right now.

Thursday is the last day for the seniors to raise money for our hair cuts... right now all of the money for Brian has been raised, but I am missing a little money. They think that they can raise it by Thursday, but I´m not sure. When I agreed to shave my hair and beard off I didn´t think that it would be a big deal, but now with it being so close... I think that I would be pretty sad to shave it all off. I have had longer hair for the past six years and I have kind of gotten used to it. But if they raise all of the money, I will do it anyway... and I will probably Bic it too just to do it once in my life.

basketball

2006-11-15T15:03:00.000-06:00

School has been going pretty well recently. I haven´t had too much school work to do, but I have started to have more extracurricular things going on. Brian and I have been coaching the men´s basketball team for the last two weeks and we had our first game yesterday. We ended up having to forfeit because we didn´t have all matching uniforms (the uniforms didn´t arrive in time), so the guys were pretty disappointed. We have a couple of good players on the team and the rest aren´t so good- they haven´t played organized basketball before and they all have short attention spans. Hopefully they will learn more as the year goes on. I also agreed to be the girl´s basketball coach and tomorrow is our first practice. I will probably have to stop doing as much with the boy´s team and just work with the girls, but I am not sure how long the girl´s team will be around. They only have six girls and they are not very experienced. So it should be interesting coaching them...

Tonight I am playing guitar in the mid-week service and then tomorrow I am in charge of our weekly chapel. I am having some guys from a local ministry, called the Micah Project, come and talk. It is a ministry that pulls guys from the streets and then disciples them as they live in a house together and are homeschooled. They also have formed a Christian reggaeton group (a type of music that blends rap with a latin beat) and they are going to play tomorrow too.

The Seniors have started raising money for our haircuts now. They have two big jugs with our pictures on them that they carry around and solicit donations from the rest of the school. They raised a good amount of money so far, so it looks like they might reach their goal. Brian will probably be the first to have to cut his hair because they are focusing on him first (most of the kids would rather see him cut his hair than me for whatever reason).

Not much else has really been going on... we went to the movies last week- Tuesday is half-price day and so you can see 1st-run movies for a $1, a pretty good deal. We are looking forward to next week and Thanksgiving. We have school for two and a half days and then we haven´t quite decided what we are going to be doing after that- either cooking ourselves or going over to Erin Sheehy´s for a big get together.

Grades...

2006-10-30T16:30:00.000-06:00

It seems that I haven't written for a little while. This is mainly because there hasn't been too much going on besides school work. Grades for the first quarter were due today, so I have been working like crazy to get them done. The schools down here divide the school year into quarters and each one is completely separate from the other- so I had to calculate final grades for each one of my 175 students. In order to do that, though, I had to finish grading all of their papers and stories, which took quite a long time to do as well. So I literally worked all weekend long with just a few breaks. I was pretty disappointed with the grades of my students... in most of my classes I had anywhere from 5 to 11 students that didn't pass (out of 25 students)- they just don't do the work and so they get zeros on everything. Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for them.

Two weekends ago we went with Cleo to see her new grandson that had just been born the day before. That was an interesting experience because we went to one of the public hospitals where all the women and their new-born babies were in one big room together. I felt really out of place because here I was in another culture surrounded by lots of women who were all breastfeeding their babies. Needless to say, childbirth and pregnant women are not things that I am used to...

This past weekend we took a break on Friday night and went to out to Pizza Hut for one of our coworker's birthdays. It was fun and we got to practice our Spanish a lot. Saturday we worked all day and then went to a costume party that some of our American friends were throwing that night. The party itself was alright, but it was really fun to dress up. Brian dressed up as a lumberjack/hick, Anna was a Japanese woman, Jason was a ghost (with a few sheets) and I was a European hitman. I found this really great toy gun at the "Everything" store that looks really real (plus it shoots darts really well). Then I slicked back my hair with a little pony-tail and dressed in tight all black clothes. Here are some pictures (I will put more up, but am not able to transfer them now):

Cleo and her grandson

Miss Godoy (our principal) and Lucia (it was her birthday)

notice the pony-tail and the gun

Brian and his sweet cut-off flannel shirt

the whole gang

Copan Ruinas

2006-10-16T16:38:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we had a four day weekend because of some national holidays, so we decided to take a short trip. We ended going to the town of Copan Ruinas in the far west of Honduras- three miles from Guatemala. We left at five in the morning and took an upscale bus on the seven and a half hour long trip. Copan Ruinas is a small, quaint Spainish town with cobblestone streets and quite a bit of tourism- mostly because of the Mayan ruins that are close to it. We stayed in a really nice hostel run by two Belgium couples for $6 a night each- two rooms with a private bathroom. Friday we saw the ruins, which were absolutely amazing! It had been a city of 25,000, but it suddenly died out in 900 AD and the city was lost in the jungle until the 1800's when people became interested in it again. There are huge piles of rubble everywhere, which used to be buildings and temples, but there are also buildings that have been restored (cleared the dirt away and put the fallen blocks back into place). There are lots of carvings and different pieces of art- most of which are in pretty good condition. The Mayans were a very interesting race- a mix of asian and middle eastern culture, religion and language, but also distinctive in their own way. Anyway, I won't bore you with more history, but it was really interesting to see all that stuff.
That night (Friday), Brian started to feel sick so he went to bed early and I followed shortly after. Both of us hardly slept at all that night- we both came down with fevers and my stomach was really hurting. I spent the whole night trying not to throw up, and it worked until I got in the shower the next morning... I just barely made it to the toilet when everything came up. We were scheduled to go horseback riding that morning and at breakfast I obviously wasn't feeling too good, but we ended up going anyway. I am sure that my mother would have disapproved, but it ended up going fine. We went on a four hour ride through the mountains to an old hacienda that grows coffee and tobacco and then back down along a river. I was light-headed some of the time, but the adrenaline helped me out some when we got to canter on the horses. Then I came back, threw up after lunch and slept the rest of the afternoon. The next morning we got up at four and made the trek back to Tegucigalpa. I didn't end up eating anything else until lunch that day and then rested.
The trip was good, but very tiring. I am still not feeling very good but I haven't thrown up in a few days. It might have been the food, the change in water or maybe just a virus- but whatever it is, it is different than what Brian has- and it is the sickest that I have been in a while.
Here are some pictures:

pics

2006-10-09T12:19:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures that I promised.

This is Cleo posing with Brian and Jason.

Our fellow teachers, Antonio and Lucia at the school

Me grading papers in the teacher's lounge

Brian went on a field trip with the 10th grade to see some pre-historic caves

Villa Nueva

2006-10-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Jason, Brian and I went to visit our friend Cleo's house. She is an older lady who works as a cleaning lady at the church and school, and she is one of the most joyful people that I have ever met. She comes over to our house and cleans twice a week too, so we have gotten to know her really well (I know, we are really spoiled- but everyone down here has someone help clean). She has taught us how to cook traditional Honduran food, and she stays for dinner sometimes too.

Two weeks ago she invited us to come to her house and we were finally able to make it yesterday. Her house is about 15 minutes away in a colonia (neighborhood) called Villa Nueva that is built on the side of a pretty steep mountain. The whole colonia is really poor. There isn't any running water so a water truck comes every couple of days to give people water, which they store in big 30 gallon barrels. Cleo's house is two rooms- a small kitchen and a living room/bedroom, both of which are fairly small. She lives there with her daughter, Karen, who is 9 months pregnant right now and her son, David, who is 13. Someone left David on her doorstep when he was 5 months old, so she took him in and is raising him as her own.

They made us tortillas con quesillo (two corn tortillas with cheese and bologna in between that is fried) and banana soda (people here love it, but it tastes kinda funny). Then we talked for a while- they don't speak any English, so our Spanish has been getting a work out. Cleo's ex-husband came by and we got to meet him. He is living with another woman now, which is fairly typical for most "families" here. Then we all walked to the new property that Cleo has bought- it is on a very steep slope and there are only stairs that go to it. There is a small wooden shack on it right now, but she wants to eventually build a house on it. And we are going to try to help her do it, but it looks like it will be more work that we had thought. It is a long way to carry the material and we don't have the expertise to build everything (especially since it is on such a steep slope). They build everything down here out of concrete and bricks/rocks, so it is different that what I am used to. But we are going to talk to the pastors at the church and another missionary who has experience building, and we will see what we can do. All in all, it was a very sobering experience. We really do live like kings.

I will upload some more pictures soon.

haircuts?

2006-09-28T17:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I am at the end of another week. We don´t have classes tomorrow because all the teachers are going to an ACSI conference both Friday and Saturday. So it is nice to have a day off from teaching, but we are going to be sitting in conferences from 8 until 6. Saturday is only a half day, so we are going to go hiking up in the mountains with Erin Sheehy and some of her friends (because the conference is at a school up in the mountains).
This past week went pretty well for me. The students seemed to be more attentive than usual, but that is probably because I am developing a little bit of a reputation. I suspended five more students for cheating this week- so now all the students know that I don't mess around. These five boys cheated on a quiz the day after I gave their whole class a lecture on cheating and threatened to suspend them. I hope that they learned their lesson.
On a different subject, the seniors decided to involve Brian, Jason and I in one of their fundraising projects. All three of us have beards (Brian and I more than Jason), and beards are not the "cool" thing to have in Honduras. No one has beards here, except for a few who have the pencil thin, really shaped-type beards. So for the month of October, the senior class is going to collect money from the rest of the students and if they collect enough money (about $100 per person), we will shave our beards. If they collect even more money, then they can cut our hair too. I don't know how much they will raise, but I suspect that we won't have to cut too much off.

ups and downs

2006-09-24T15:04:00.000-05:00

This past week had a lot of ups and downs in it. Classes were pretty trying at times, and I had to deal with a few more instances of cheating in two of my classes. The students just don't think that I will actually catch on to their little tricks. So I got pretty mad at one of my classes and threatened to suspend them all... and now they are behaving a little bit better. But seriously, the students just don't seem to learn.
Friday night we went out to this really nice Mexican steak place with some of the other teachers from school. It ended up being Brian, Jason and I with four other middle-aged, single women. They are all really great, but it was a little awkard anyway. The food at this place is amazing- seriously some of the best steak I have ever had. You all should come visit me just so you can eat at this place.
Saturday we invited Limber, one of our guards, to come to church with us. We had asked him once before and he wasn't able to go, but this time he assured us that he would be there. So Sunday morning we went to church and waited around for him, but he still hadn't shown up 30 minutes into the service. So we decided to just go in. Then at the end of the service, the pastor gave an altar call and Limber came from the back of the church and accepted Christ! We had been talking to him a lot and lots of people had been praying for him. So I wasn't really suprised when the Lord worked in his life this morning. Glory to Christ!

the encuentro

2006-09-18T16:26:00.000-05:00

I spent this past weekend at a retreat center about an hour outside of Tegucigalpa in the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. The mountains are different than in the States- they are shaped differently and aren't as tall, but I still consider them mountains. 160 young men went ranging in age from 12-25 and most of them were new Christians (less than a year) or not Christians at all. We spent the weekend going through different "conferences" with the big group and we also had time in small groups. The retreat was basically set up in the progression of salvation: conviction, confession, liberation and then filling. Several guys accepted Christ for the first time and lots of others had their lives completely changed. The Lord came in power, cleansed hearts and set people free. A lot of the guys that came were into drugs and lots of other stuff, and they were set free.
I had a good weekend too. I was refreshed and felt called to complete obedience once again. Plus it was just great to see God move in so many guy's lives. However, there were some things that didn't sit well with me... there was a lot of focus on outward manifestations of the Lord's work, which doesn't bother me too much, but this weekend I felt like it was focused on more than it should have been. The role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ, not ourselves. But all in all, I felt like the weekend was really beneficial for everyone.

On Sunday, Brian and I were laying around in our dorm and all of a sudden something dropped down onto my leg. I thought that someone had thrown something at me, but when I looked down there was a 3 inch scorpion on my leg! Right away it started crawling up my leg towards my stomach and I kinda yelled out. I couldn't slap it away with my hand because it had a big stinger sticking up, so I just sat there frozen. Then right as it was about to crawl up my shirt, Brian grabbed his Bible and smashed it. Gracias por la Palabra de Dios! That was actually the biggest scorpion that I have seen in real life and it almost stung me. I talked to some of the Hondurans and they didn't seem to think that it was that big of a deal, but I would have had to go to the hospital if it had stung me.

Here are some pictures of us and our new hammock...

Starting Off

2006-09-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

This is the beginning of what I hope will be a long and fruitful blog... a blog which will chronicle my weekly (or sometimes daily) exploits. I am not always the best at giving updates, but I will do my best.

Tomorrow is Independence Day for all of Central America, so we have today and tomorrow off from school. It is a nice little break to recover from the first two weeks of school and get some grading done. Tonight we are going out with Erin Sheehy and some of her friends who all teach at another school here in Tegucigalpa. Brian and I know Erin from Wheaton, and she actually did Youth Hostel Ministry the year that I helped lead it. I think we are going to eat at Big Baliatas (a type of Honduran food) and then to their house for dessert. Tomorrow we are going to watch some parades downtown, then we head out for the encuentro...