Another blog about....

...some random things. Thanks to Janelle I have some more pics of what I did during semana santa. The pic of the statue of Jesus is Picacho, where we went the other Saturday. The one pic is of one of the water games I had organized for one afternoon. (I need to give credit where credit is due..alot of the game ideas I got from Woodcrest retreat). Then there are two pics of a drama that I participated in on Easter evening...and not its not the traditional Easter story, but rather a humorous skit that the kids love, and we (some of the older kids and I) are asked to do over and over again...and will be starring Saturday night at the local theater...or rather at the Finca's 40th anniversary celebration.
On a more serious note...we are back into classes, and a more routine schedule. My students are learning about parts of the body currently, and most of my classes will be having a quiz tomorrow. Lesson planning and creative activities continues to be a difficult thing for me, but with God's help, and some books we are moving on.
After one week of the house to myself I am again sharing it, but this time its only 3 people, not 8 or 17. The Soadys and their sister arrived yesterday for the Finca's celebration on Saturday. The Soadys are the couple who founded the Finca.




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Semana Santa

This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week). Writing this blog prompted me to do some research, to find out some of the history behind why its such a big holiday. Unfortunately I didn't have the patience to do too much research. I believe that it derives from the very strong influence of Catholicism.

Since Semana Santa is a holiweek (holiday for a week) here in Honduras, all of the kids and teachers (heehee that includes me) have off of school. So far it has been a great week, full of being with the kids, relaxing and doing different activities. Some of the activities for me included pool "lifegaurd" duty (more like just making sure the kids are playing safe- the water is only 4ft deep), planning an afternoon full of water games, and camping out with some girls.

Here are two pics of the some of kids enjoying the pool that is behind my house. For various reasons they only fill up the pool during semana santa, otherwise it is empty.




The next picture is to add my album of lizards...well, in this case its an iguana that was found outside one of the girls' house. Isn't it sweet?

Last night Berta (one of the ladies who lives and works at the Finca) and I took 20 girls over to the other finca to camp out. It was alot of fun sitting around the campfire singing songs and eating hot dogs and marshmallows. I didn't get much sleep, and that reflects on the following pic from this morning while we were waiting for the truck to come pick us up to go back the the finca.

Here is one of the girls and me. Sorry, I'm not sure how to rotate the pic.
Here is a pic of Berta and me.

***I encourage you to check out the Horsts' latest blog (link at bottom of page), they also have a picture that reflects some of what I've been up too. Since Javier's accident I try to visit him almost every day and play games or something...I will say that the one day I gave him two choices, talk with me or get his nails painted...you can see from the picture which he chose. :-)

Being blessed and blessing others

With the arrival of the group of New Jersians came an wonderful opportunity for the girls here at the finca to be a blessing to others. One of the ladies who came this week is a hair stylist who also cuts hair for Locks of Love (Locks of Love is an organization that receives donated hair to make wigs for children with cancer). With the encouragement of some of the adults here, about 20 girls decided to donate their hair for children who don't have any. It was great to see these girls realize how much people have given to them, and then take the opportunity to give what they have to others less fortunate.

Here are a few pics of the girls who donated their hair. (And yes, you will see that I also joined with them in donating my hair.)

Feliz cumpleaňos

This Friday evening we celebrated two birthdays. It's always alot of fun for me to make cakes for these kids to celebrate their birthdays. I believe that this past year was the first year I haven't had a birthday cake, and this year is the first year I am making birthday cakes for some of my dear friends who may rarely get a birthday cake.

Tomorrow starts the flow of people in an out of the house for the next while....the house is half cleaned and the beds are yet to made...but have tomorrow morning yet...

The pics are of the two who are celebrating their birthdays, and of the group eating chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and other stuff(contrary to perhaps popular thought, the Hondurans -here at the Finca- love peanut butter).

We are talking some serious games...

It's Friday. I think I play Uno every Friday night. Uno can be a very serious game...but not quite as serious as futbol (soccer). (Here we go on a bunny trail...also known as my rambling...). One of the guys here at the Finca suggested to me awhile back that my friends from "my" church in Teguc come out to Valle to play soccer with the guys here. So, I suggested it to a dear friend of mine and her husband started getting a group together. Both sides seem very certain that they are going to win....Futbol is a serious sport here, i would probably compare it to American football in the States. I am excited about the oppurtunity for my friends from STEP and my friends here from the Finca connect.
Now, back to that Uno game. As I've mentioned before I still have the young adults over to my house almost every Friday night. Its fun to relax and hang out, and of course, play Uno. Please pray that it will be a time for me to connect with them, and give spiritual nuggets while we are talking.
(note: the picture of the lizard may make it look much larger than it actually was- it was about 3 in. long)

A few snapshots of my life...

I thing its about time I show a few more pics. You know, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so if I put a bunch of pictures I won't have to put many words right?

Here is a picture of my new pet....okay, so its not exactly my pet, but i found it on my back porch, its kinda cute (unless it were to surprise me during the night).
The kids below are my students. :-)


Here some of the girls and me. (whoohoo for the Cous Cous shirt-YES/STEPPERS '0809)

This is a picture of the in-progress computer lab, it looks alot nicer than the pic. I put on a month ago.

Flying Fast (time that is...)

I feel like every time I write I comment about how fast time is flying...and how easy it is for me to forget to do my goal of a blog every week. I think its been more like three weeks since I´ve written last. In those weeks a life has started to have some sort of a routine....if thats possible in Honduras. Every week day I have classes in the morning, do lesson planning and any other random things in the afternoons, and in the evening I´m in the library supervising the high school kids who would much rather play solitaire that research about microscopes for science class. While I am telling this one or that one that if they don´t stop playing games they will have to leave, I myself would prefer to play solitaire than make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do, but that´s okay.
This routine that I have just settled in to will soon be interrupted with the arrival of a large group of New Jersians whom I will be sharing the house with, then the day they leave another group will be arriving and staying for 1-2 weeks. Needless to stay life stays busy and interesting.