A Decision

As most of you know, I have made the decision to stay in Honduras for another year of teaching. I have received a mix of emotions from family and friends, and even myself, but I thought it would be good to explain my thought processes and reasoning behind this tough decision to come back for a second year.

If I were being totally honest with myself, I would say that I have known since October that I wanted to come back and teach in La Unión again. That is about the time that I had truly fallen in love with my little kiddos and could not bear the idea of saying goodbye to them (just yet). I have grown more and more attached to them and cannot bring myself to tell them that I would only be a part of their lives for one year, and break their little hearts. They are my first class so I will always possess a strong affection for them, but being with them feels a little different. Everything in their lives is so temporary here. Half of my students do not live with their biological parents; they have spent their short lives bouncing around between family members until something happens and someone else has to step up. As well, death is far too common here. I have never been around this many people who have experienced the death of a loved one just within the 7 months that I have been here. It’s like they just never know when someone is going to leave whether by choice or by a fatality. Their homes are equally as temporary since they are constantly switching houses. I envision my house as a safe haven and somewhere that I can retreat to, but I’m sure that my students would never describe their homes that way. No one has any real possessions here either. I’ve been told that someone’s signature is the most valuable thing they can call their own because they have nothing else to really claim or identify themselves with. Can you hear my heart breaking for them?! They mean way too much to me to just float right through their lives!

They have never had a teacher, besides Jake, stay in the five years that foreign teachers have been a part of the school in La Unión. Kara, Lenny, and myself are the ones who are returning, and when I was considering whether to stay or go, I could not help but think about how cool it would be to not only have one, but three (additional) teachers stay! What better way to show and tell these students that we care about them and their success than deciding to be a part of it all for another go around? I wanted to be a part of something real, concrete, permanent in their lives. I have fallen in love with them and I never want them to doubt that. They are great kids and I could not pass up the opportunity to keep supporting them, challenging them, and being a role model for them. Even though I will not teach my current 3^rd graders next year, I have simply fallen too deep in love with them to leave them right now.

Whenever I am driving through the countryside here, I cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the poverty that engulfs these communities. I seriously wonder how anyone gets out of this place without an education. The public school system is a disaster so without schools like Abundant Life, kids are destined to a life of coffee farming or being a housewife. They will just continue the chain of living in poverty and pass it on to the next generation. I whole-heartedly believe in what Abundant Life provides and does for its students. This school is the best chance they have of creating a brighter future for themselves, and I am proud to be a part of it. I want these students to know that I strongly believe that they are capable and fully-equipped to do great things outside of what La Unión has to offer. Next year is the first graduating class from the La Unión school and I want to be there for it. I want to continue to support them as they finish out their classes here and move on to a higher education. Some of them are looking to go to school in the States or to attend a university in Honduras, either way I want to help them accomplish their dreams in any way that I can. I have loved pushing and supporting them through their trials, and then celebrating them with their victories.

Despite the emotional bonds that I have built to this place, I felt like it was valuable to my career to stay for another year. I have put in a lot (and I mean A LOT) of work into this year and teaching my kiddos. I would like to be able to put that work into another year of teaching in the same place. The materials (quizzes, tests, worksheets, activities, etc.) that I have created would not be able to be used in another setting because these students are so unique. I could use bits of pieces of what I have made, but I would like to be able to use it all. It is good for a teacher to try things, fail, and be able to try again. I feel like I would have more success next year already knowing what the group of students will be like (academically, behaviorally, and culturally) so I know better what to expect. I know what their English is like, where their general academic level is, what their parents/families are like, what their homes and community are like, and how to effectively manage and teach them.

Still, the biggest influence I felt to stay was coming from the Lord. Have you ever read the book, A Hole in the Gospel? Add it to your list if you have not because it is an excellent book about what it means (and looks like) to be a Christian outside of the church. It is such a convicting book; I read it when I first moved down here and it made me feel more confident about my initial decision to teach in La Unión, and now its words have been ringing in my ears and pushing me to keep serving in this community. Teaching with Abundant Life has never been about me. Sure I have always dreamt of teaching internationally, but that came from my desire to serve in God’s kingdom. God gave me a heart for children, especially those living in poverty. He’s been building up my heart and spirit for this kind of job for years through all the mission trips I have been blessed to be a part of. In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. – Proverbs 16:9. La Unión is not exactly a paradise destination, the school is not the best paying job, and I would never label this area as my ‘comfort zone.’ But I knew all of that before accepting the position. It’s always been about the people I would get to serve. I envisioned the tiny little faces that I would see every day and fall in love with, and their futures that I would contribute to making better. I personally would never vacation here, but this is where they call home; I may not get the dream salary, but now they have a chance to one day because of this education; and I may never be entirely comfortable here, but all of the discomforts I feel are part of their daily lives and the only things they have ever known. I am beyond ok with sacrificing here and there just to fulfill the call God has given me to do this kind of work. It’s his voice that I have heard whispering in my ear and telling me that my work is not done here; he’s been calling me to stay.

Now, it has not been an easy decision. Although I mentioned that I’ve ‘known’ since October that I would stay, the weeks leading up to my choice and even following it, have been the definition of challenging and almost gut-wrenching enough to make me change my mind. In fact, if I had told Jake that I wanted more time before deciding, I would have told him no in the end. There were (slash, still are) two big things holding me back from feeling entirely confident in my decision: home and the administration. I miss home. I miss my parents, siblings, friends, pets, the comforts that I have grown up with… all of it. I do have a new family here with my coworkers and I have established a new daily routine for myself, but it can be exhausting to always feel this challenged day to day. I feel like I have been missing out on all my family’s and friends’ lives, and I just want to be able to call them whenever I want! I miss their hugs and getting to just sit (be in their presence) and talk with them all. It’s hard to move so far away and be this isolated from the world that I am familiar with, but it helps that I have a great support system with the other teachers and I have grown to depend greatly on Christ since he will always be a constant in my life, no matter how far away I go.

The administration has been the killer lately. They have been extremely frustrating to work under. I come home physically tired from keeping up with my wild animals every day and mentally exhausted from the administration. This is Honduras and I have to remember that there will be cultural differences, but sometimes it feels like common courtesy is all that is needed. Communication is our biggest difficulty between the teachers and the administration because there is an immense lack of it. We find things out via the students, signs, or are just plain surprised as the news is sprung upon us. Unfortunately, we are hardly ever told something directly from our principal, but we are trying to fix that. There are just a lot of things that I disagree with and know that schools in the States would do differently. I am trying to be patient through it all and remember that I am at the school for the students and I am more concerned about their happiness than mine.

After weighing all the pros and cons, talking to people with opinions that I value, and praying fervently, I reached the conclusion that I need to stay. As I said, my work here is not done and I will not leave until I feel comfortable and confident that I have contributed all that I can. Please pray alongside of me that I find that confidence (again) about choosing to return to Honduras in August. (For any of you wondering, yes, I will be home for the summer!) I do now want to be defeated by these negative and doubting thoughts. God is doing amazing work here through the teachers that give up their year to teach and through the students who are daily blessings. 

A Progress Report

We have made it half way through the year, and survived! I can genuinely say that I am extremely proud of this little bunch of kiddos that make up my 3^rd grade class. It took me a while at first to notice their progress but their slow improvements have finally made themselves known to me. (It’s kind of like the phenomenon of looking at yourself in the mirror every day and not noticing how you are getting older until you look at a picture from a year ago.) If they are already amazing me now, I cannot wait to see them at the end of the year! Sure, there are days that I want to hang them by their toes from the ceiling and I am practically kicking them out the door with the final bell, but I spend more days bragging about how adorable and clever they are. I find myself thanking the Lord frequently for letting me be a part of their lives in this small way and my heart has been growing bigger and bigger the more that I am falling in love with these little faces:

Hegna: She is my sassiest girl. She has a stink eye that could scare you but she has a laugh that will melt your heart. Her least favorite class is Math, and it’s obvious. I had to send home flashcards to give her an extra boost with multiplication and she is already turning into a multiplying queen! Basic English is her strongest class because she does really well with the translations of vocabulary words. I love her attitude in class because she’s always trying and will keep raising her hand no matter how many times she gets the answer wrong. She is also the little heart breaker of the class. All of the boys are hypnotized by her beauty and spunk, but she shows no true interest in a single one of them.

Keidy: She is the perfectionist. She always has to be the best in every way possible: she has to have the prettiest drawing, all the right answers, and she is always asking me to check her work to make sure each tiny step is done right. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate her hard work and am always impressed with her high grades, but it would not hurt her or me for her to grow some independence. I determine if something was too hard if even she scored a low grade on it. Every free minute she has in class she is begging me for the whiteboard marker so that she can express her love for me with pictures and words on the board; or she is doing her best impression of me and pretending to be a teacher. She is my little blessing because she reminds me of God’s love every day and prays for my entire family.

Kensy: She is the most mature girl. Not only is she the oldest, but she is the wisest. I am obsessed with the are-you-kidding glare she gives the boys because she very well knows that they are all ridiculous. She is always willing to help me out with house-keeping things like reorganizing my bookshelf, putting worksheets in alphabetical order, or keeping my desk clean and orderly – I have no need to ever hire a secretary! Her mom lives in California and has been there almost all her life; but she does get regular gifts from her mom and we have the same stickers. She just learned English last year but she is a star in the class. She always impresses me when she thinks outside the box and gives me answers that I never would have expected from these students.

Yeri: She is my math prodigy. I have a soft spot in my heart for this little girl because she is the best at math just like I was in school! She can beat anyone and everyone when we do our multiplication mad-minutes. (Sometimes, I think she could even do better than my 9^th grade math students.) She is also one of the hardest working students so I am a little extra proud whenever she gets excellent grades. She may be a little on the shy side, but her gentleness is something I appreciate daily. She has shown a recent obsession in telling me how much she loves me, which means I get about 3 cut-out hearts a day. She is going to be beautiful when she is older so I desperately want to teach her to keep her innocence and head on straight now before all those wicked boys try to get to her!

Wendy: She is the girly girl. She is always sporting some cute hair accessory or a stylish purse. In fact, she has not taken off the Ecuador purse that I gifted to all the girls for Christmas, you would have to surgically remove it from her side. She is the lowest of all the girls but she never stops trying. The smile that comes to her face whenever I tell her that she did a great job on an assignment or that I am proud of her, is priceless. I wish I could give her the confidence that I have in her abilities, because I am sure her grades would start getting better with that change in attitude. She lives close to my house and yells hello whenever I pass by; everyone in her immediate and extended family know who I am now so they shout my name too! She showers with me hugs, pinches my cheek like an old lady, and kisses me goodbye at the end of the day – I am thankful for her loving personality every single day.

Darwing: He is my whimsical child. He is easily the poorest of all my students; he lives high up in the mountains and has no electricity in his house. I attribute his simple living style to his constant amazement with the world around him. He is so curious to learn about and play with new things! I love his excited face when he is discovering something for the first time. His go-to move is to wrap his tie around his head and stand on his desk because he is an ‘Indian.’ He can be a little too fidgety sometimes but I try not to let that taint my opinion of him. He brings a lot to the class when he participates and shares his answers. He is a true boy’s boy because he loves and is good at both science and math, but seems significantly less interested in classes like Reading and Language. He is quite smart, now he just needs to apply himself a little more!

Elman: He has stolen my heart. This little one does not have a very solid family so he spends a lot of time with me, and his grandmother says I am like a second mother to him. Every morning he runs up to me with a giant smile and gives me the biggest hug. Unfortunately he is, without a doubt, my lowest student. He tries hard and I spend a lot of time outside of class tutoring him, but he has a hard time grasping English and nothing he learns seems to stick with him. He speaks more in sounds than in whole words. I do not want to see him fail but it is a struggle teaching him. If the school took it seriously and could provide him with the necessary help, I would recommend he be tested for a learning disability.

Gabriel: He is the discreet trouble-maker; he’s cheeky and adorable, and he knows it. He is the heartthrob of the class and already occupying all his time trying to land, and maintain, a girlfriend. He knows that if he just flashes his smile then I cannot stay mad at him for too long. However, he misbehaves more often that I like and is very sneaky about it. Typically when someone is in trouble, I can trace it back to him. I recently found out that he does not have a father so perhaps that is where his defiance and troublesome attitude stem from. He is one of my brightest students all around so I never have to worry about him not understanding something. He is really helpful in class with aiding the other students and translating when necessary.

Geovanny: He is the crazy kid of the class. I have the hardest time teaching him – both academically and with his behavior – because he has not gotten a good hold on English. He hardly ever fully understands what I am saying to him and cannot translate words that even 1^st graders could tell me the meaning of. Since he does not understand me, the teacher, he is never mentally in class. He is easily distracted and has no problem distracting the others. He is, however, decently good in Math which makes me realize that he is not necessarily an unintelligent kid, it’s just the English that is holding him back. Thankfully he still has his cute moments. I can always count on him to pretend he is a racecar driver every single time he gets out of his desk to get a marker.

Juan: He is my little snuggle-bug. He is never too far away from holding onto my hand, wrapping his arms around my waist, or laying his head in my lap. I am in love with his little smile and gentle demeanor! He is also one of the lower students but I have been working a lot more with him lately and he is improving. I was able to cooperate with his mom to encourage him to behave better in my class. He wants to learn and be a good student, he just needs a little extra support and help. Since that chat with his mother, Juan has been making leaps and bounds with his academic performance! A fascinating part of Juan is how identical he looks to his older brother. His brother goes to the public school but if you saw him walking in the street, you would know instantly that the two are related. They have the same tiny-shaped head and skinny little body, and it never ceases to crack me up.

Julio: He is the odd-ball. I have not quite figured out what makes Julio tick yet, but he is growing on me. He is quirky and I cannot help but laugh when he stares at me with those bug-eyes. He is slower than most of the class but works really hard to stay caught up. He is one that is constantly making me proud and feeling like a good teacher with his progress. I had the best Parent-Teacher Conference these past meetings with his mom because we could both celebrate in his significant improvements! He is an artist and loves drawing and color, a little too much sometimes. I am constantly asking him to put away the markers, and I haven’t quite figured out yet whether I should punish him or hug him when he interrupts my lesson, mid-sentence, to give me a beautiful drawing he’s made.

Marco: He is the man in a boy’s body. He is a tough guy, but has his sweetheart moments. He never leaves school without giving me a hug; it’s almost like it’s physically impossible for him to do so. I love and look forward to the days when he brings me flowers in the morning! He does not like to admit when he needs help. I am sure that his grades would be better if he asked more questions in class. On the other hand, he is super eager to participate in class and is always the first one with his hand raised. I love that kind of attitude! His enthusiasm for answering my questions is a great model for the rest of the students.

Rolando: Even though I probably should not admit it, he is my favorite student. He is the definition of precious. He is the best-behaved boy and a star in everything he does. He puts forth the greatest effort in all his studies and he normally gets the grades to show it. Language and Basic English are his strongest classes in which he outshines his other high-achieving peers. He works a little slower in Math but never quits until he fully masters the concept. He is not afraid to ask questions and surprises me with his higher-level thinking. He also showers me with love daily. If I am ever having a bad day I just find Rolando and get a bear-hug from this little angel! My heart just melts into his when he looks up at me from being wrapped around my waist with those big brown eyes  and lets out a small, soft giggle; it is pure joy for me.

I wish you could personally meet each one of my munchkins because they are such a big part of my life here. Not only do I spend every school day with them in our always-seemingly-chaotic classroom, but I also see them a lot on the weekends and frequently open up my house and fridge to them. No matter how tired I get of spending so much time with them, they never seem to get enough of me and want to spend every free minute hanging on me or playing with me. I do not feel like I deserve their love every day because even when I punish them or am steaming from my ears out of frustration with them, they quickly forget that we are bad terms and squeeze the anger out of me with their hugs. How could I possibly have gotten so lucky to be their teacher?

Please pray for each one of these kiddos by name. Pray for their well-being in and out of school. They live such fragile lives here and always need God’s protection and guidance. Thank God for the member of their families who support them when everyone seems to not care. Pray for their health in this dirty town that spreads sicknesses like wildfire. And pray for the people who are paying their tuition at this school – whether their own family can afford the price or they are being sponsored – and giving them that precious chance at better and brighter future. I am so proud of them and I know that you would be too within five minutes of meeting them. I pray that no one overlooks their individual greatness! 

One for the [Rotten] Books

I’ve heard horror stories about teachers’ first years in the business. I’ve been clearly cautioned and warned to expect some challenging moments. I’ve essentially been promised to have a rough first year of teaching.

I never doubted these wiser words and seasoned veterans, but you never really realize HOW challenging it is, how exhausted you feel, or how rough some of the weeks get until you take that leap of faith and dive right into that first year of teaching. After these past two weeks, I would give the same advice, word for word, to people who are training and preparing for their first year as a teacher. Those were a ROUGH two weeks of school.

Week 1: There had to be something in the water that was now running through our students veins. My third graders were barbarians. It was supposed to be a fresh start to a new partial, but it was more rotten than the swarm of fruit flies we find after leaving fruit peels in the trash overnight.

I had made a few changes to my classroom based off of some new ideas I wanted to try out. I put my students’ desks in groups instead of rows because I wanted them to interact with each other more. I wanted them to create these small learning communities where they could feed off of each other and help one another. Well, that idea backfired on me. Like the little chatterboxes that they are, I spent more time asking everyone to be quiet than actually teaching. Also, the lower students that I put in groups with some of my smarter ones, in hope that they would be challenged and ask help from their peers, ended up just copying all the work I gave them. And the two biggest rascals that I kept away from any group and had sit by themselves? bonded together to scheme against me. I swear, they all wanted to see me actually pull my hair out. Each day more and more students were ending up in yellow and my punishment system was beginning to lose its power; some of the boys actually started laughing whenever they got checks and they made the extra homework I would give them every night seem like a prize to be won. My classroom had turned into a zoo. I was changing from a teacher to a wild animal breeder.

Geovanny has been on a particularly frustrating rampage ever since school started back up after Christmas break. He managed to get himself into his third fight in three weeks, all with different students. The first week, he kicked Keidy and yanked her fingers backwards so hard until she started crying. I gave him demerits then and sent a letter home to his parents about his need to be (physically) careful with the other students. The second week, he and Elman ganged up on Rolando and bullied him until too started crying. They pulled one of those shenanigans where they pushed Rolando over and kept pushing him over every time we tried to stand up. Both of them lost their lunch recess for a week and had to sit with the principal during that time. Then, the third week, the day Geovanny was released from his week-long office punishment, he got in a fight with Wendy. However, this time he was the victim. He decided to bother Wendy, Yeri, and Hegna to the point that Wendy took action. (Basically, he was asking for it and quite frankly, I am proud of her for standing up for herself.) She decided to punch him in the back and poke him in the eyeballs. When I asked her what happened she was on the verge of crying because she knew she was in trouble, and all I really wanted to do was give her a high five for finally doing what every person had wanted to do to the boy for a long time. I sent them both of the office to sort it out, and I never actually followed up with the principal, but I do not think any consequence of punishment was given out.

Unfortunately they were academic devils as well. Here’s just one story: I had a Reading test planned on Wednesday over a story that we had been reading and working with for a week and a half. I learned quickly on that only spending a week with one story was too quick, but now I was starting to feel that spending two weeks on it was too much. Even looking back, with this particular story, I don’t know how I would have stretched it out for two more days anyways. We had read the story (multiple times), acted it out, drawn it, learned vocabulary words, answered a variety of questions about it, written sentences, and baked brownies together! (Because the story was about a girl who decided to bake brownies for a school bake sale.) I was certainly feeling confident that they would pass the test, but apparently not a single one of them felt that same confidence. The first time they took the test, every last student failed. Not a single soul got a passing grade on the test. The lowest score was a shocking 6% and the highest was a 60%. I sat in shock after grading them. I decided to review the test and the story with the students for one more day on Thursday before asking them to retake it on Friday. We walked through the test as a class for two separate periods on Thursday. We reviewed every vocabulary word I asked them to learn, every question on the test along with the correct answer, and I pointed out that almost none of them read the directions for the last part so they all got that section entirely wrong. I begged with them to keep reviewing that night and come prepared to take the test again the next day. I did very little to change the test: instead of asking them to translate the vocabulary words from English to Spanish I asked them to translate from Spanish to English, and I rearranged the order of the answers in the multiple choice section. The second time they took the test? This time five passed it, but still half of them did not read the directions on that particular section and bombed it. Oh well, I guess there’s just some things that they are not going to get.

Usually my 9^th grade math class offers some kind of relief for me when I am frustrated with my little ones, but they are the ones who actually broke me that week. Monday was a review day where they worked in groups while passing around note cards with practice problems on them. As soon as they started working, it was like they had never seen this math a day in their lives. May I just say that the problems came from Chapter 8 section 8 which means that we had spent a solid seven previous lessons working up to this point AND the chapter is on fractions which they have been learning about since at least 5^th grade. I could not believe their questions and blank stares! Is it bad to admit that it took every ounce of my self control to not swear in front of them? I could not believe it! They made me feel like such an awful teacher and that they were not actually learning a darn thing from me! Then after their quiz on Thursday I was completely defeated. The highest grade, coming from my best student, was a 75%. They could not even do the simplest math and were making the most basic mistakes on their quiz. I went into Jake’s office to ask him for advice because I was completely lost. In fact, I cried because I genuinely had no idea how to teach them anymore. I was 100% defeated by those students and had been sucker-punched in the gut.  

Week 2: This one was hard on one’s soul. Monday was no better with my little monsters than the previous week. I had decided to move their desks because the groups were clearly not working out, but the fengsuay of the room did nothing to change their individual auras. Gabriel had a terrible attitude all day and flat out refused to do his work. He even challenged Harriet while she was teaching them by telling her to just keep giving him more and more checks because he was not going to do his work. Darwing, Geovanny, and Juan were being their usual obnoxious selves which won them a spot in red for the day. All four of those students received demerits, which is a new record for me. I knew I had to change something because the current system was failing miserably. I now have a new rule in my classroom: for every check you have next to your name, you owe me five minutes whether that time comes from your recess, lunch, or after school. I don’t generally like taking away time from students’ recess because I think they desperately need that time to let all their energy out, but I had to hit them where it hurts. Since then, I have had two straight days of no one in yellow (yay!), and only one student in yellow on the other days.

The school as a whole suffered twice this week from the deaths of cherished loved ones. On Monday the mayor’s wife passed away. It was clear early on in the day that she was very sick and needed immediate attention, so they called for a helicopter to come get her out of La Unión and take her to a real hospital. Unfortunately by the time the helicopter arrived, it was too late. Not only was she a prominent figure’s wife, but in a small town where everyone is related somehow, she was the grandmother and aunt of many of our students and staff. Monday night we went to the wake to pay our respects to the woman and her family. It was the first time I had personally ever seen a dead corpse. Tuesday, half of the secondary students were absent for the funeral service because they were either personally affected or supporting people they dearly loved who were. It was a weird day at school with a very solemn atmosphere in every classroom.

Then Wednesday, after school, we caught wind of the sister of one of the 11^th graders dying. She was brutally raped and murdered, which made the news of the death even harder to bear. (She was living in a different city a couple hours away from here, so please do not worry about my own safety.) Thursday night we attended that wake to show our support for the student and remind him that he is surrounded by people who love him. That was particularly hard to stomach when we realized that they too had an open casket for viewing. On Friday the 11^th grade students were told that only five of them would be allowed to miss part of school to go to the funeral service. After spending about an hour fighting and crying over who would get to go and support their friend, they all decided to just leave. After Jake took the chosen five, they all walked off of campus and decided it was more important to show their friend support than to follow the rules. All of us teachers were cheering for them the entire time and will continue to back up their decision without hesitation.

There was a bit more of drama poisoning the school this past week, but we are starting a new week and I don’t want to take it with me. It primarily is concerned with everyone’s decision to come back for a second year of teaching here or not. Tomorrow Jake will be sitting down with each one of us individually to hear our answers. If you are reading this before Tuesday, please pray for me that I make the right decision. I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted a few weeks ago, but now I am having my doubts. Pray that God makes it clear which choice I need to make.  If you are reading this after Tuesday, please pray that I am feeling confident in my decision. Of course I do not want to regret my decision and let that worry or pain rot in my heart. Please also be praying for every student who was affected by the deaths last week. Both were heart wrenching to witness and to see our students bear. Pray that every single student finds comfort with the death of their loved one and remembers that greater things wait for us after our lives here on Earth. Pray that they never feel alone or without support from the community of our school. Thank you for your support! 

Brooke Osekavage: a Honduran RESIDENT!

Alright, confession time: I have been deceiving my readers ever since I moved here. Although the title of my blog is “Brooke Osekavage: a Honduran Resident,” I have not actually been a legal resident until recently. (Don’t worry, I haven’t been illegally living here, I’ve just been surviving off a temporary visa.) If you read my last blog (all the way through) about my journey to and from Ecuador, you read a tad bit about the visa rules of Honduras. Whenever you enter the country of Honduras you are granted a traveler’s visa that lasts 90 days. To renew said visa you either have to leave the country for a minimum of 3 days before returning, or you have to make the trip to Tegucigalpa to renew it through the migration office. When you are going to live in Honduras, you want that residency.

When we all signed our contracts to work for Vida Abundante we were given the signing bonus of getting residency. We qualify for residency as missionaries while we are here (fun fact: it is a lot easier to get approved for residency for religious reasons than for general work reasons). Trust me, having someone organize and take the lead in the process of getting residency in Honduras is considered extremely lucky. Otherwise, the procedure is a nightmare. We did not get our residency right away; in fact, we had to send our passports to Tegucigalpa when our initial 90 days were running out to get our visas renewed. The lawyer told us that the office had not gotten to our papers yet and we could do nothing else but wait. However, once the migration office does finally get to your papers, they call and you have to be at their office within the week otherwise they stick you back at the bottom of the pile. Well they finally called us in December. Unfortunately, they called too close to the date that we were all leaving to go home for the holidays. Someone on that end of things pulled a few strings and got permission for us to wait until we all returned to Honduras to make the residency journey to Teguc.

The school made plans for us to all go straight to Tegucigalpa as soon as we got back in the country. All of the Gracias and La Unión teachers met in San Pedro Sula (because that is where we all had our flights scheduled to fly into anyways) and we were shipped off to the capital. The trip, like all, came with its bumps, difficulties, and frustrating moments, but I’m going to skip over those parts because I am extremely grateful that the school paid for us to get our residencies and we had a lawyer who took care of every little detail for us. My roommate Heather recently had to go through the headache of trying to renew her residency (since she taught with Vida Abundante last year, who paid for the visa, but now works with the Micro Finance group, who cannot afford to get residency for its workers) and I cannot imagine having to do that on my own – she handled everything as gracefully as possible but she almost pulled all her hair out during the process.

We spent an entire day sitting in the migration office waiting to pass through. We got there plenty early but when they first called us up, the lawyer realized she did not have any of our bank statements from the school so we had to wait an additional two hours for her to run that quick, but vital, errand. During this time we were not allowed to leave to get food, and we were forced to use a terrifying public bathroom. Once she got back and they called us the second time, we were starting to get nervous that we might not make it through. In fact, the woman behind the desk said she would only be able to get through 10 more people that day, and there were 19 of us. Wouldn’t that put you in a sweat? We went through a series of back-ups plans to decide who to send through the line first, who was going to have school the next day, or how we would all get back to our towns if we couldn’t all get through on the same day. Thankfully that woman underestimated her skills and she did in fact get through us all. She had us you sign a few papers, scan our fingerprints, and take a picture to be plastered on the card. (Remember how I lost my suitcase traveling back from Ecuador? I was thrilled to be taking my picture with absolutely no trace of make up on my face and wearing the same clothes that I had been for the previous three days.) I was one of the last people to sit in that cubicle with that woman, and she was quite sick of our group at that point. She called us “an invasion” to her friend and was in no mood to hear jokes about the size of our group. I really just wanted to congratulate her for successfully completing the paperwork for all of us! But she was not having it.

We left all the necessary paperwork with our lawyer so that she can return in 30 days (which was yesterday!) to pick up our cards. The cards are supposed to be sent to us once they are ready, but who knows how long they will take to actually get here. Until then, I do have a little piece of paper that proves that I am a real resident of Honduras! 

El Año Nuevo in a Familiar Place

After basking in the sun for a week on the beach in La Ceiba, my holiday travels continued further south. I hopped on a plane and jetted down to Ecuador for a quick visit with my old host family! I hadn’t seen them since my semester abroad ended a year and a half ago. The anticipation was building up inside of me all over again with the thought of seeing more of my family.

My multiple plane rides to get there could not have gone quick enough. I flew from San Pedro Sula to San Jose, Costa Rica (comfortably alongside 10 other people on a normal-sized plane, aka we had 3 rows each to ourselves) to Panama City (where we were delayed almost 2 hours because an obscenely drunk man tried to get on the plane and another woman apparently did not have the right documentation to be allowed into Ecuador) then finally to Quito. Thankfully I was sitting in the front of the plane so I practically ran off it once it landed because I was not about to wait any longer behind a giant line of people. I forgot where I was and how much I stand out in any Central/South American country as I started to worry that maybe my family would not recognize me after a few years; but I was quickly reminded of my physical appearance when they easily spotted me after my first step out of the doors. There they were: my dad, Balito (the middle brother), and Mateo (the youngest brother). Their smiling faces overwhelmed me and I felt instantly happy, just plain happy, that I got to be with them once again.

Balito has changed the most. He is taller than me now and going through puberty so his voice is changing too. Basically he’s turning into a man. He has plenty of girls interested in him and any number of girlfriends at a given time. I no longer beat him in our simple games like a thumb war and light sabers. But other than that, he is still my little brother. We still had tickle fights and snuggled together while watching movies. I still don’t stand a chance when we play video games and our love for coconut juice is as strong as ever.

Mateo is thankfully still littler than me. He is quite big for his age (in height and weight) but not too big for holding his sister’s hand. It took him about 12 hours to get used to me again, and then he was back to loving me with every ounce of his being and being glued to my side. He had an endless list of things he wanted to do together but we didn’t get a chance to cross off too many. Instead we just enjoyed every minute together playing all sorts of games, eating treats, and also snuggling during movies.

Both of them are attending a bilingual school where they are learning English so that was a new dynamic to our relationship! Balito liked it when I talked to him in English so we could have ‘secret’ conversations in front of the family. Mateo liked asking me how to say every other word in English. I had to remind them that I was there to be their sister, not their teacher, but it was kind of fun to use English with them! Especially since they have no problem making fun of me when I make a mistake in Spanish, so now the tables were turned.

Dany was the same as I left him, except with longer hair. He is still studying to be an environmental engineer through his university. He still towers over any given Ecuadorian in the country which makes it easy to follow or find him in a crowd. One day our little brothers were at school and the parents were off running errands so Dany took me to the artisan market so I could do my shopping. While he wasn’t very helpful when I asked for ideas of what to buy my boy students, he was more than helpful with carrying my bags and making sure we got everywhere safely. He has always been a fabulous older brother and I loved my time with him.

My mom and dad were also perfectly the same. My mom was still a little on the crazy side and my dad was very loving. They took such good care of me the whole time I was there! They made sure that I never spent a minute hungry; I had more meals in a single day that I have in 3 days when living on my own and each one somehow managed to be bigger than the other one. In fact, for one meal, they refused to leave the restaurant until I ate every last bite off my plate that was not in the least bit empty with the pile of rice, two fried eggs, French fries, salad, a slab of beef, and an extra chicken breast for good measure. They cleaned my desperately-needed-to-be-washed clothes – although my mom was a little worried at first at how to tackle the mound of despicably dirty clothes. Although, I still had to wash my own underwear in the shower because my mom said I could get an infection if I threw those in the mix with the rest of the laundry (should I have taken that as an insult for being so dirty, or a comment of concern from a mother who was just trying to protect me?). Unfortunately while I was visiting I came down with a cold but they took exceptional care of my sick little self and gave me plenty of cough syrup and decongestion pills. I could not have been in better care while traveling.

In general my family is doing very well :) They have more money than when I first lived with them so they have a few new luxuries like nicer cell phones, a car, and they are moving to a new house. It’s interesting to me that people show off how much money they have, not necessarily by the things that they can buy or the nice gadgets, but by how big their bellies are. The more money you have, the more food you can eat and the better diet you have, so the bigger belly you have. We didn’t eat as many home-cooked meals this time around, but rather ate out at restaurants for most meals. My mom was sure to point out that my dad looks much better now than when I last saw him because he has a bigger gut. She also had no problem telling me that I was way too skinny and needed to eat more, so I could be chubby like her. She made it her personal goal to make sure I always had food in my mouth or my hand.

In hind sight I would have planned to go to Ecuador for the first part of my Christmas break and have my sister come visit me in Honduras for the second part because while I was there, all my brothers had to go back to school. We still had a lot of fun together! But I wish we could have had more time. I did get to spend New Years with them and that was a whole new experience. Fireworks, masks, and crazy wigs are the accepted norm and dress code for New Year’s Eve. The tradition in Ecuador is very… odd. They celebrate the passing of the old year by making giant mannequins of the most random characters ever, and then burning them at midnight. Since the old year is then dead, all the men take it upon themselves to dress up as the ‘widows.’ So as you are driving through the street, at night, on December 31, you will encounter men dressed up as women. It’s not intended to be a giant transvestite show, but it ends up being one. These ‘widows’ stop you in the middle of the street and dance for money. Fire and cross-dressed men in the streets… what could be a better way to bring in the New Year?

Besides welcoming 2013 in such a unique way, I spent the majority of my trip there just having quality family time with everyone. The few days that my brothers were not in school were spent traveling around the city. Anywhere we went turned into a photo shoot of me, with maybe the addition of a brother or two. I started to feel uncomfortable, but I just giggled it off and grabbed Mateo whenever he was within reach so I wouldn’t be alone. We visited the Christmas lights down a main stretch of Quito. There was a Nativity scene, giant toads, a snake, Santa and his helpers, and some traditional art pieces. It was quite the eclectic Christmas set-up, but I liked to walk around and take thousands of pictures of it all.

They took me out to their new house to see where they will be living. It was still under construction so I did not get to see the finished product, but it had the potential of being a beautiful home! (Unfortunately the days that my brothers were in school and I was feeling deathly ill, I had to accompany my mom and dad to the construction site where we just had to sit and wait all day, supervising the workers. I was miserable.) They are moving to a valley just outside of Quito which is much closer to all of the boys’ schools. The new house is part of a gated community (so much safer than where they are currently living) and has its own pool and gym. Mateo is especially thrilled about the pool!

I revisited the artisan market to shop for my friends and students back here in La Unión. For all the teachers I got some combination of a mug, scarf, or Ecuador pants. With coffee season in full swing everyone uses their mugs almost on a daily basis. Thankfully we have had a few cold days since being back so the girls have been able to get good use out of their scarves. And who can honestly resist wearing Ecuador pants? Once you put them on, you will never want to take them off. For my munchkins I bought all of the boys and shirt and a souvenir pen. They wore their shirts for the whole day when I handed them out. For the girls I bought them little Ecuador purses and satin headbands. Wendy has not taken off her purse since then!

We went up to the Panecillo, which is a giant statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking all of Quito. I never visited this when I studied abroad because I had always been told that it was much too dangerous to go as a tourist. Luckily, this time, I was in the protection of my family and their car so I would not be in any kind of danger. You have to pay to climb to the top of the statue, so we did not do that. However, the view is spectacular from any point so we didn’t miss a single photo op. Since it was during the Christmas season, a giant Nativity scene (made of lights) was set up next to the Panecillo too. It was truly beautiful!

I also had the chance to see an old friend while I was there! Eric, one of the people I studied and was neighbors with, has since returned to Ecuador to work. We got to reunite back on our old stomping grounds and reminisce on our crazy adventures together. We met for dinner and drinks one night and just spent the whole time telling old stories. Unfortunately we could not coordinate our schedules to meet until the night before I left so we didn’t stay out for long, but it was great to see him again.

I felt like my trip was too short but I loved every minute of it. I did not realize how much I truly missed them until I got to be with them again. And now, everyone is assured that I will always come back to them; they are my family and I will always find a way to come visit them. They may be a little quirky, but they are still my family and I am deeply in love with those crazy Ecuadorians.

The journey back to Honduras was less than desirable. I got to the airport and waited forever in the check-in line (which I found out later that I was seated in First Class so I could have skipped that line all together). Once I got to the counter the woman not-so-politely told me that I was not going to be allowed to travel to Honduras that day. See, when you enter the country of Honduras you get a 90day traveler’s visa. To renew the visa you must leave the country within those 90 days and stay outside of it for 3 days until you are allowed back in. Working with Vida Abundante qualifies me for residency under missionary status. Our group of teachers was scheduled to travel to Tegucigalpa the day after we all returned to Honduras to get our residency cards. But since we could not exactly prove our residency, we all had to rely on our visas to get back in the country. Sometimes the airline companies get fussy with travelers who do not have a return flight within those 90days, so naturally they decided to pick on me that day.

I was traveling on January 5^th which was the precise date that my visa was good until. After waiting for the airline staff to decide to let me fly and return to Honduras since I was still legally allowed to be in Honduras, they threw another bomb in my direction. Apparently, when traveling from Ecuador to Honduras, you need to show proof of your yellow fever vaccination. While I have my yellow fever vaccination, I could not tell you where the card is that proves it. This is the point where I lost my composure and started crying. The woman behind the desk offered me this solution: my plane was leaving in an hour which would be “enough” time for me to find a taxi, go to a nearby clinic, get the vaccination, beg the nurse to set the vaccination date for 10 days before the 5^th to make it legal, and make it back to the airport. She would hold the plane for me up until the very last minute but I was going to have to run! By the grace of God, her plan worked! The woman even ran through the airport with me to catch the plane – it was like having my own personal cheerleader.

The other legs of my journey were refreshingly smoother. I flew from Quito to Bogota, Colombia back to Panama City and then finally landing in San Pedro. I will have you know that not a single person ever asked to see my yellow fever vaccination. Once I landed and made my way through security and customs, I discovered that my bag did not make the journey with me. I should have known that just barely making the plane all the way back in Quito would mean that my bag would probably not be so lucky. I went through quite the chaotic mess to track down my bag and have it returned to me. The bag took a couple of days to make it to San Pedro where it took a few more days to be shipped to Tegucigalpa. There, (unfortunately we had already left Teguc after getting our residency cards) Jake was able to pick it up and bring it back to La Unión. It wasn’t until an entire week later that I confidently knew where my bag was because it was finally in my hands!

I know this blog post is quite overdue, but I have been very busy with getting back into the routine of school. My prayer request is for wisdom and patience. My students, both 3^rd and 9^th graders, have been quite the handful since being back. They have challenged me in many ways and have sadly left me feeling very defeated. Their grades are slipping and their behavior has become unbearable. They finally broke me last week and I could not take it anymore. I spent the weekend trying to relax and seek God’s help, but I still need a lot of help. I have to try new ideas to help them learn and keep progressing academically, and mold them into respectful little kiddos. Pray that I do not give up and find some new ways to overcome these obstacles. 

A White [Sand] Christmas

It had been precisely 4 months and 19 days since I had seen anyone from my family. And then, there she was – in all her tall, gingery beauty – my beloved sister. I was pacing back and forth in the waiting area and standing on my tiptoes to try to find her once I knew her plane had landed. I knew it wouldn’t be hard to find my fair sister in the crowd of Hondurans, but I was incredibly anxious. I was getting a lot of interesting looks from people because I’m sure they thought I was going crazy while bouncing up and down like that. As soon as I saw her I couldn’t help myself; tears came streaming out of my eyes as I finally got to hug her! It had obviously been way too long since seeing her and my whole being was ecstatic to be with her again. Our long awaited reunion was here at last and we took off right away to start enjoying Christmas together!

Katie and I made plans to spend Christmas week together in a coastal city named La Ceiba. We picked a beautiful, all inclusive resort, called La Palma Real, to just sit back and relax to the max for Christmas. We both had very long travel days to get there: Katie left Saturday at midnight flying from Denver to Miami arriving in San Pedro Sula Sunday afternoon. (Did I mention that I love my sister dearly for making that kind of trip just to visit me?) I left Copan Sunday at 7 in the morning morning on a bus to San Pedro Sula and then sat in the airport for a few hours waiting. Once we were joyously together we took a bus to La Ceiba which (in Honduras fashion) was late leaving and took a little longer than expected. When we got to the city of La Ceiba we learned that our hotel was on the outskirts of town so we would have to take an additional 45 minute taxi ride to get there. We finally arrived at the hotel by 9:30pm. Can you imagine how exhausted we were? Thankfully the buffet had no closed yet so we went there right away to fill our bellies, get a drink, and then hit the sack.

As I mentioned the hotel was absolutely beautiful. Honduras is not exactly a popular tourist destination (except for the Bay Islands, but we were not going to risk a severely rough ferry ride to get there) so the hotel was not very crowded. Interestingly enough, there is a direct flight from Montreal to La Ceiba so there was an unusual amount of French Canadians there! They represented about half of the guests and the other half were Hondurans. Basically, Katie and I were the only ones from the States there and we were surrounded by people talking in French or Spanish. (If only Katie had kept up with her French from high school, we would have been the dynamic duo!) Although we were at a top of the line hotel, I was reminded that we were still in Honduras. Some of the main attractions – the waterpark and all of the restaurants besides the buffet – were closed which was a big disappointment. The pools were not heated, but thankfully it was hot enough outside for the cool water to feel refreshing. Sometimes the electricity and water in our room were temperamental. But put all that aside and it was fabulous! I was in heaven with the big and cozy beds, cable tv, bright lights in the room, normal shower, buffet of food I had been missing, and soft towels. They had fun activities to do during the day like dance lessons, beach volleyball, water aerobics, kayaking, etc. There was an endless supply of tasty tropical drinks we could sip on. Hammocks were everywhere that we both took full advantage of for reading books and taking naps in. And the ocean; even though La Ceiba is on the coast, it is not known for its beaches but we had a marvelous beach and I can never get enough of that salty water.

Every night the animation crew put on a show for the guests, but I would not rate their ‘shows’ suitable for a ‘family’ environment. I personally thought they were hysterically out-of-the-blue and totally unexpected. Now I’m wishing I had pictures to show you but I was in such shock that I was too busy rolling my eyes and picking my jaw up off the floor to remember to take some. Christmas Eve they set up a manger scene outside of the cafeteria. Three of the workers were dressed up as Mary and Joseph (with a doll for baby Jesus), and a wise man. Then they had a little petting zoo-esque area where you could pet a horse, a cow (with a hump like a camel), a pig (although he didn’t seem to want to be petted), a (distressed) sheep with her lamps, and a turkey (who sadly lost his friend early on in the night and still lay in a heap next to him)! Every child’s petting zoo dreams could have been fulfilled right there. After dinner we went to the hotel’s theatre for the main event. Have you ever seen “Mean Girls”? Keep the girls’ “Jingle Bell Rock” performance in your mind while I try to describe what we saw next. The female dancers were dressed as Santa’s helpers in bikini halter tops with very mini-skirts and knee high stiletto-boots. The male dancers were shirtless of course and wearing some kind of spandex bottoms. From there they performed a few dance numbers that would make you turn red. Their hips move in directions that I never thought was possible and they certainly know how to be scandalous (while keeping classy?) on that stage. They also lip synced to a few songs to make us feel like we were attending the real concerts. It absolutely was not your traditional Christmas program and we will never forget it!

Two of the nights we were treated to the traditional dances of Honduras. One was very folkloric with big flowing dresses on the women and the men dressed as farmers and cowboys; everyone was adorned with flowers, bright colors, and intricate patterns. There was a lot of twirling and cheering as they waltzed around the dance floor. The other was put on by the native coastal people, the Guarifunas. It was a great beach party with drumming and dancing! The way they move their feet is even more incredible than the half-naked dancers shaking their hips. It just doesn’t seem physically possible! For each performance they picked people out of the crowd to come to the front and try to duplicate their elaborate dance moves. Katie and I were the unlucky ones for the folklore dance and we had to dig deep down to our latino roots and bring out our best dancing hips. We made absolute fools of ourselves and Katie got more votes than I did!

Every night the after party was worth the wait. After each show they opened up the dance floor to all the guests. Since every show had mind-blowing dancing it was always incredibly intimidating to join the pros and dance alongside them. I did make a few friends in the process trying to show off my cheesy dance moves and my groovy whiteness. Plus, Katie often went to bed after the show (she was too exhausted from trying to keep track of their insane hips) but I wanted to celebrate the night, so I flashed my cute smile and made friends with some of the dancers, Canadians, and bar tenders. I learned all sorts of new dances! I swayed my hips to Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, and Punta. Judging by my sore hips every morning, I know I had too much fun.

It would be an understatement to say that it was odd to be spending Christmas on the beach. It wasn’t until noon on Christmas Eve that we realized what day it was. That Christmas program threw us both for a loop. I felt goofy singing along to the Christmas tunes they were blaring because they just did not suit the environment! Our days were spent catching up on our rest and Vitamin D. Isn’t that normal for Christmas? I mean, I have a few memories of 60degree weather on Christmas day. We had a consistent routine of eating, reading, sleeping, swimming, and playing beach volleyball. Katie brought me some juicy magazines so I could catch up on all the celebrity gossip I had been missing; I also devoured the first book in the Hunger Games series. I picked out my favorite hammock to nap it – it wasn’t too tight to let my body slump into it or too loose to drop me to the ground, there were no holes that would let a limp slip through or make me strain my neck to hold my head up, and it was in a peaceful area with no screaming kids around. I took turns swimming in the ocean and then rinsing all that salt off my body in the pool. Katie and I carefully watched the volleyball court for any signs of a game that we could jump in on. All you mothers out there, don’t worry, I put on plenty of sunscreen and actually did not suffer from a sun burn once! The hotel also had a few tours organized that its guests could sign up for. They offered a variety of fun outside of the hotel that was simply irresistible. Katie and I signed up for two: Cayos Cochinos and the Canopy Tour.

Cayos Cochinos: There is a small set of islands off the coast of Honduras called Cayos Cochinos. Now, I am not educated enough to tell you all of their individual names, but I will share an interesting fact about them. They have been a popular spot for many international Survivor television shows. Only one of the islands is inhabited by the public so those tv shows have their pick of deserted islands to throw the contestants on (whom, once they get voted off, stay at the Palma Real hotel). The islands are breathtaking! They are surrounded by crystal clear waters that are just begging to be swum in. We stopped briefly on one island to look at the preservation efforts to keep the islands alive and thriving. We cruised around a few to get to an island where we were able to look for the rare pink boa. They made you feel like you were going on this special expedition to find one and you would be lucky if you did… However, the boas apparently don’t move very often so once you find one, you have a pretty good chance of it staying in that same spot for the next few weeks. We found four different ones and just marveled at them napping in the sun.

We had the opportunity to go snorkeling after the snake-hunt fun (which Katie was happy to be done with)! The guides made us wear the lifejackets upside down so that our hips and butts would be the parts that floated; didn’t you know that’s how you are supposed to wear life jackets? The first place we started snorkeling at had too many jelly fish in the water so you had this constant stinging feeling on your skin. Thankfully the second place was much more inviting. I did not really appreciate that we were in such a large group because people kept swimming into me and vice versa, but it was still a beautiful sight! We saw many brightly colored fish and coral swaying with the ocean’s current. Some of the group got to see a baby sting ray but Katie and I weren’t so lucky. After that we headed out to our final stop:  lunch! We ate lunch on the only island open to the general public and inhabited year-round. At any point in the year there could be between 100-200 people living on the island. Can you imagine living on such a tiny little island with that many people?! (And I thought La Unión was small.) We had a scrumptious meal of fried fish (the whole bugger too, bones and face and everything else), tejadas, beans, and rice. Some visitors to this island bring gifts for the people, so there was a woman there who was handing out simple Christmas gifts to all the little ones. It was so precious to see their faces light up over toy cars, dolls, and hula hoops!

   

The island itself is one of the “twin” islands. It sits right next to another island that once out of the year the water level gets low enough that there is a land bridge to connect the two. The other island is private so you aren’t really allowed to visit it. We had just missed this year’s ‘bridge’ but the water was shallow enough still that you could tell where it was. I imagined that this would be an ideal location for any swimsuit photo shoot because the backdrop was gorgeous and you could just stand in the middle of the ocean (plus there were a few people taking personal glamour shots to set the scene). A group of the islanders started playing the drums while little kids danced around in circles and shook their booties for us. I just love the beat of the traditional island music with the natives chanting along. That wrapped up our trip to Cayos Cochinos and before long we were on the boat to journey back to the hotel.

The Canopy Tour: We took another morning trip into the mountains. La Ceiba is an ideal place to live because you have the mountains on one side of the road and the beach with the ocean dazzling on the other side. This was both of ours favorite excursion. We rode up into the jungle and harnessed up for our grand morning. Again, we were with a big group but the guides kept the line moving rather quickly to make for a smooth adventure without much time wasted standing around. Katie had never been on a zip line before and was a tad nervous, but I was not about to let her wimp out on me. There were little kids in our group and if they could do it, then surely the grown woman that I call my sister could. It was a success, she loved it! We zipped through the tree tops on 18 different lines – some were fast and heart stopping, others were long and took the scenic route, and still others were short, sweet, and simple. The fun ended too quickly and I would have gladly done it all over again.

After the thrill rides on the zip line, we were treated to a couple of hours at the hot springs. It was a gift from the gods to be able to soak in those pools of hot water after spending the last few months in La Unión teaching my little rascals. As part of the package we received free massages and mud baths. Did you hear me? FREE massages and mud baths! Merry Christmas to Miss O! I was in pure heaven while getting the massage. While I was growing impatient, waiting for my turn, with the masseuses for giving the others fairly long massages, I wanted them to extend my massage by another half an hour. After being fully relaxed by their magical hands, they rubbed mud all over my body like a giant face mask. I felt like a mud woman, hear me roar! I could not keep my hands off myself afterwards, I felt so smooth and fresh.

Our quick week together had to come to a (sad) end at some point. We were forced to leave our slice of Honduran paradise and return to the normal world. I was broken hearted to say goodbye to the endless buffet of food, the hot water and comfy beds, the hypnotizing latino music, the warm kiss of the sun on my skin, and the salt water that always reenergizes my soul. I could not leave without one more nap in a hammock and dip in the pool. Katie and I boarded a bus back to San Pedro Sula where we spent the night before going on our separate ways. This time we took a much nicer bus that made our trip go by quickly and painlessly. We spent the night re-packing our suitcases to make everything fit, and I washed some clothes in the sink out of desperate need. Even though it was not home, I had a beautiful Christmas with my sister in La Ceiba.

I thank my parents for letting go of their baby girls and letting us spend Christmas away from there. It was a huge blessing to be with her for the holidays, but I have promised them both that I will never spend another Christmas away from home. I hope your Christmas brought as much joy and happiness to your holiday season as mine did!