Ramblings

The past two weeks have been so jam packed at school with special "events" that one of my fellow teachers suggested we have a "go to school and learn day." Novel idea! Ooh well, at least it's helping to keep things interesting.

One of these events was Summer Day. All the kids had the day off to go to the pool. We had field day type games planned, but mostly they just swam and had a grand ol' time. It sounded like a terrible idea at first.. 300 kids crammed into a couple pools, most of which can't swim! As it turns out, probably less than half the kids showed up and there were no drownings. Phew!

Another event was the science fair. My class did a couple of experiments on density and did a pretty great job presenting to the judges.

I also had the chance to go help for a day with Habitat for Humanity in Santa Rosa. Our day consisted of standing in a line to move hundreds of 25 lb adobe bricks from one part of the field to the other. Hello, sore arms!

They also humored us and let us each take a try at making a brick. It's just a mud, water and pine needle mixture scooped into a square mold. Easy enough.

I can't not mention my trip to Tegucigalpa a few weeks ago with 7 of the other teachers. We had to go because our year-long visas were finally ready to be processed. Imagine that, ready just 2 months before we depart! We had to leave at 3 in the morning for the almost 6 hour ride, spent some time at the migration office, had lunch at the mall and turned right back around to return in the same day. Now I can say I saw Tegus and brag about having a green card. Here we are after finishing up with our finally-legal smiles:

I'm really feeling the strong desire to get home and return to normal life. I have treasured my time here but have so many reasons to want to be home! I can't wait to be with my family especially after my Grandpa's passing, start my new job, go on a painting spree within my house and reunite with all my fantastic friends.

You might be asking, "How could Kristin want to leave, isn't she just on an extended Spring Break?" Well, my friends, not quite.

I've compiled a list of things I will not miss:

Bugs bites but especially the fire ant bites on my feet. I itch just thinking about it.

Stepping and tripping on rocks, having them cut my feet and general dirty feet problems. Who will go for a pedicure with me immediately following my return?

Getting heckled on the street.

Being a gringa.

Not always knowing what's going on around me or being able to communicate exactly what I want to say.

Dirty, smelly, loud and generally unsafe bus rides.

Rooster, dog, cat and loud vehicle noises at any hour of the night. And I thought I had a feral cat problem in a Ralston, NE!

Cold showers. Never will get used to them, even on the hottest of days.

Not being able to drink tap water.

As a follow up to the latter- always fearing strange parasites and worms are being housed somewhere in my body.

Of course, now I feel guilty for saying all that so in a later post I'll compose my list of things I will miss about this place. Stay tuned.

The Homestretch

It's been an eventful month between an unforgettable vacation and the pieces falling into place for the next chapter. I was beyond excited to find out I will be teaching at Papillion Junior High next year. It's making it somewhat difficult to stay focused on school here, but I'm trying my best! It's hard to believe there's only 8 weeks left of school. It sounds so close yet so far, all at the same time. I'm definitely ready to go home. But, at the same time, it will be hard to leave those little cutie pies. I also decided to scrap the extra travels in the summer (minus the few days I will go back to the beach), and just head home. I'll be home on June 20.

Visiting Roatan for spring break was a major highlight of this year! It was so fun to share it with Nikki and Gina, two friends from home. Roatan has all the best features of Honduras, but also has additional things that can't be found here in little ol' Gracias; a variety of good foods, English speakers, clubs and the BEACH!

This was our rental house for the week:

And some photos of the fun we had:

 

 

Another recent event was "Culture Day" at Minerva. Four of my students were involved in learning and performing some traditional Honduran dances. While the final product was adorable to see, I still cringe at the amount of time those kids were pulled out of class to practice over the past two weeks- I mean, full DAYS they missed (teacher friends, you understand)! Not to mention, the music was blaring and reverberating in all of our classrooms during these practices. Between the noise and heat (drenched in sweat at 7am = not fun), teaching and staying productive has been especially difficult. I also couldn't run the fans for 4 days straight when the power was out. Ok, enough complaining. Look at these cute pictures:

One last random thought to share. My friends and I were talking about habits we may bring back to the States after our experience. Bagged food and drinks will probably (definitely) be something that will be hard to shake. I mean, it's so practical. Why didn't I just eat my leftovers out of baggies before? Or pour my drink into a bag and stick a straw in it? Yep, that happens on the regular here.