First note from Honduras

Written Aug. 22, 2007
Wednesday Aug. 15th our flight came in around 3:10pm. Michelle, Lori and I were all on the same flight. We went through customs without much trouble and then went to get our luggage.
They drive to the school was defiantly an experience. Double yellow lines are merely recommendations here. And they seem to have a honking language that can mean many different things. Sometimes it seems to mean go ahead, watch out, I’m coming, what the heck are you doing, and taxis also honk to see if you want a ride.
Once we got to our house they split us up. They said two people would have to share a room Michelle and I said we did not mind sharing a room. Lori is also in this house with us and Karen will be in our house once she gets here. Mark and Katrina are the two SMs from southern and Kimmi and Stacy are in a place across the street.
Our house is pretty big. There are three bedrooms up stairs. Michelle and I have a bigger room with a bathroom connected. Then there are two other rooms and another bathroom. On the first floor we have a kitchen and dinning room and another bathroom with just a toilet and sink. We did not have a stove till yesterday so we have all just been eating together in the other house so we could use their stove. We think we would like to continue eating together. We will just rotate houses each night.
The school will have around 400 students. I just found out today that I will be teaching two 3rd grade classes in math, science, language, bible, and agriculture along with one 4th grade bible class.
We meet at the school everyday at 7:45 for a short worship with the teachers and staff. Then we normally have a little time to check email and then go to a meeting or two. We just got our books today so now we can start working on our lesson plans.
School starts on Sept. 3rd. Once school starts we will have to be to the school by 6:45 every morning for worship and then classes start at 7:00.
It is very hot here. By the end of the day it feels so good to take a cold shower to get rid the stickiness you have accumulated throughout the day. We have gone to the market everyday so far. It is fun to explore the town and try to communicate with the people. The street market where people are selling their stuff is much cheaper and the people have much better produce than the actual market does.
We have not had much rain yet but I guess we are getting into the rainy season. Last night I woke up to pouring rain at 2:00am. It seemed like it lasted forever. But normally the rain seems to come in spurts and not last long but when it rains it pours.


Written August 27, 2007
Last night we were in the middle of dinner and the power went out. Kimmi and Stacy ran and got flashlights. I said should make dinner by mag-light a Sunday tradition. After dinner we played phase 10 by candle light till the lights came back on. They were out for maybe an hour and a half or so. The teachers today said that power outages happen frequently and you never know when the lights will come back on so you have to be prepared with flashlights and candles and battery powered clocks.

Pretty much all Sunday we worked on our lesson plans…only to come to school today and have to change and revise a lot of what I had written. There is just so much work to do this week before classes start next Monday. We are also helping decorate the class room.

Anyway I should get back to work…

A lot of people have been asking for my address so here it is…

Mindy Smith C/O:
Esquela Bilingual Adventista Maranatha
Boulevard Cuarto Centanario
P.O. Box 322
Comayagua, Comayagua, Honduras