Partials Week II

It is test week once again, which provides a breather from the normal routine. We only have school from 7:10-9:30 every day, but we need to have our grades finalized, etc. Last week seemed unusually long, so I´m counting on this week to help me recharge my batteries. Last night a few of us visited the movie theater and were fortunat enough that the movie was in English with Spanish subtitles. While I didn´t really care for the movie, the experience was interesting enough. There was a group of obnoxious teenagers in the back that kept making loud comments and screaming during suspenseful parts. I´m fairly certain they would have been kicked out of the theater in the States. The sun is shining, school is over for the day, and I don´t really have anything else to say (hey, that rhymes!).

A Small Delay

I flew out of Portland early Friday morning, January 2nd, with Bethani and made it without any hassle to Tegusigalpa by 4:00 P.M. As we stood in the lobby of the airport with our luggage I jokingly commented that I hoped the person picking us up remembered we were flying into Tegusigalpa and not San Pedro Sula, which is three hours in the opposite direction. We glanced at our watches and saw she was only 13 min. late, which is good by Honduran time. Four hours and a few phone calls later a small family approached us with a sign that read our names. We had indeed been forgotten, so the faces of our rescuers were a sweet sight (even though I was really impressed with how clean the airport was, so it wasn´t a bad place to hang out at all)! Apparently, they lived in Kansas City for a few years which is where the two girls went to school with Kayla (one of our housemates). Fortunately, they now live in Tegusigalpa. We stayed at their house that night, went to church with them the next morning, and then ate lunch before they drove us back to Comayagua. We were so blessed, because they were so hospitable, kind, and thoughtful!

Overall, I´m glad we were forgotten (as horrible as that sounds) so we could meet that family! We plan on going back and visiting again in the near future! Now I am in the first week of school from break, and it almost feels as if I never left. I can forsee that these last few months of teaching won´t be nearly as difficult as my first few months, which is comforting. As Kayla continually says, ¨God is good!¨ and He really is.

Christmas Time is Here!

Christmas has reached Comayagua (actually, it was here before Thanksgiving, but I chose to ignore its existence. No Christmas until after Thanksgiving is my rule!)! The stores are stocked with Christmas decorations, the parents have decorated the classrooms, and we are feverishly practicing for the Christmas program on Thursday evening. I love the atmosphere! It´s energizing to know that we only have three more days until break! Last Saturday night we had the priveledge of attending a cookie Christmas party where each person (or house in our case) brings 4 dozen cookies and then swaps. So now we have 4 dozen cookies sitting in our freezer begging to be consumed (I´m trying to be good)!

Yesterday was an eventful day as well. One of the missionaries´moms arrived and Pastor Rich from Union came to visit our lone Union missionary. Pastor Rich travels around the world visiting different missionaries, sometimes not for very long. He arrived yesterday afternoon and left early this morning. But it was nice to talk with him last night and see his pictures from his other visits. He came from Nicaragua, so he showed us pictures of where Bridget and Ruth are this year, which was neat! He´s going to the islands next, so we all wrote notes to our friends there.

These next three days are going to be busy, busy, busy. The kids are already complaining about all their quizzes they have (I remember those days......). I wish all those studying for finals luck!

The Day of the Belts

This morning we went to school as usual, not to teach classes but to hand out grades. Tables were set up, and two teachers from each grade sat from 8:00-2:00 to meet with parents and hand them "the notes." As one sixth grade student explained to me during recess yesterday, today was "the day of the belts," because when the parents learn about the bad grades, they pull out the belts. At first, I was petrified of what some parents might say to me when they learned how poorly their child did in my class. However, most of the parents were understanding, and the time passed more quickly than I had thought it would. I almost feel as if this was the last day before Christmas break, because it held a sense of finality. Next week will certainly speed by as we prepare for the Christmas program held on Thursday evening! My first graders will be "Decking the Halls" all week in preparation!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Here is my promised Thanksgiving blog! Strangely enough, we celebrated Thanksgiving twice and neither celebrations were actually on Thanksgiving day. Wednesday all the missionaries were taken to eat at the military base, who were celebrating a day early to give the military personnel the day off on Thursday. It was nice to have some "Thanksgivingish" food such as corn, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and turkey (for those meat-lovers) and to finally see the base (since you have to have a pass to get in). I tried egg nog for the first time, which was so thick I couldn't finish the whole glass but was surprisingly better than I had expected. We threw a Thanksgiving party at school before we left, so all the kids thought Thanksgiving was on Wednesday. On Thursday when I wished them Happy Thanksgiving, they all replied, "Miss, Thanksgiving was yesterday!". Our second Thanksgiving occurred yesterday afternoon in one of the missionary houses. Once again, we had fabulous food, and we made so much, we finished it off as left-overs tonight!

We couldn't celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday because there was some sort of talent show at the school that evening which we were required to perform for. It was really neat to see all the different students from almost every class perform, especially two of my seventh grade students! The two songs we sang went well, considering we didn't really practice extremely hard for them. We got a little nervous when we arrived at the school and saw everyone dressed in suits and fancy dresses. It turned out to be a fun evening.

It is hard to believe that it's only two weeks until Christmas vacation, which also means that I've reached the half-way point in my SM experience (crazy!). In two weeks I will be boarding a plane to come home (my older brother's getting married December 28th), which is incomprehensible. If I don't write again before break, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hopefully I can see some of you soon!

Tying Up the Loose Ends

These past two weeks have been crazy, because it has been the end of the partial (or quarter, in my terminology), which means that grades need to be submitted. This has left me scrambling to test and re-test my kids (we believe in second chances here), collect back work, attempt to conquer excell, etc. I think I've finally taken care of everything (although I never know, because just today I was called back into the office to fix some of my grades. Apparently I can't add. Maybe it's a good thing I'm teaching first grade, so I can learn basic addition again!). Grades are handed out to the parents next Friday, which is a big deal, because we don't have school that day. Instead I think we're going to meet with parents all day.

Besides trying to get things under control at school, we've had a few weekend adventures. Two Sundays ago, 10 of the missionaries jumped on a bus with one of the kindergarten teachers and drove to the beach. Pulling out at 6:30 A.M., we arrived on the stormy coast four hours later. The plan was to go swimming, but we were chased away by the wind and the thick clouds threatening to rain. But just seeing the water was beautiful! We visited an old castle and then drove to San Pedro to walk around the mall. As I stepped into the mall, I felt as if I'd stepped through a portal into the States. It was huge (and clean)! Everyone was really excited about eating a "real" burger in the food court (I'm not as lucky as a vegetarian, but I enjoyed a nice burrito all the same). We finally arrived back into Comayagua at around 8:30 P.M., making for a very full and satisfying day.

Last weekend the school took the missionaries on a day trip to The Valley of the Angels, which is a cute little town up in the mountains about Tegusigalpa, the capital. There we were able to tour an Adventist hospital, buy real whole wheat bread, and go Christmas shopping in all the touristy shops. It's always a nice change to get out of Comayagua and see other parts of Honduras. We ended with lunch at a rather nice restaurant where I had a delicious plate of rice, beans, and mixed vegetables! It was very nice of the school to take us on a trip, and we all enjoyed it immensely! It was also interesting to drive through the capital for the first time. For almost as far as the eye could see houses seemed stacked up on top of each other covering the hills. The city is enormous!

That's all the news I have for now. I'll be sending a Thanksgiving update soon. Until then, I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgivings!

Thank You, Thank You!

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all who have made efforts to contact me in whatever way that may be. Thank you for the e-mails, comments, notes, etc.! I really do appreciate them! I received my first package from Walla Walla on Monday, and the best surprise were all the notes! So thank you, thank you!

Partial tests are going well. It´s refreshing to only have three periods in the morning and then have the rest of the day off. I did some Christmas shopping on Monday, which was fun to brouse around the souvenir shops. However, testing first graders has been a little more difficult than I expected, especially since English is not their first language. I spend the whole time circling around the room answering the same questions (it doesn´t matter how many times I say something in front of the whole class) as little voices echo, ¨Teacher, like this?¨. Testing is also kind of scary, because I learn if I´ve been teaching them anything or not. At least there´s hope, because a new partial begins next week!