Karen is now here with us! She arrived on Sunday…its good to have our group complete. There are actually 10 of us missionaries teaching at the school. The 6 of us from Walla Walla (Kimmie, Stacy, Karen, Michell, Lori and myself) and the two from Southern (Mark and Katrina) and then Greg and Emily who are a younger married couple that are really nice. Just last night they made us a list of safe/good restaurants that they have tried and recommend to us. They don’t have an oven so they eat out a lot.
Yesterday was my first day of class. We arrived at the school decked out in our uniform ready to start the day. When we arrived the reality hit that we were actually starting today. Kids where running around everywhere and no one knew what we were supposed to be doing. After staff worship we were to go get our kids and line them up for the assembly. It was crazy in the gym…hot and noisy and kids doing whatever they felt like. It took awhile to get everyone to quiet down but eventually they were able to proceed with the assembly. After that was over the kids had an hour of recess and parents were walking around the school putting their kids stuff away (even though this was supposed to take place after recess).
I had about an hour with each of my third grade classes. We had just found out last Friday after we had all finished our lesson plans that Monday was only a half day and we were not to start teaching but just play games and get to know our kids. This was harder than is sounds the kids only seem to understand me half of the time and that is after I have repeated myself about 4 times. They are only to speak English in class but the kids that understand more English are always translating for each others. They do not understand the concept of staying in their seat or raising their hand and waiting to be called on without talking. They were constantly yelling Miss Miss or Teacher Teacher. And as soon as one kid says they need to go to the bathroom 12 other kids suddenly all need to go as well. We were all exhausted by the time 11:30 rolled around and all the kids left.
Last night at the parent meeting there was talk of a hurricane hitting Honduras. We all kind of joked about praying for the hurricane to come so we would not have to teach class today. This morning we woke up at 5:00 to get ready for school. We were at the school by around 6:50 only to be meet at the gate by the guard who told us school was canceled today and tomorrow because of the hurricane. They let us come in and I helped Stacy put up a few things in her class room that had fallen down. They asked us to make sure nothing was left on the ground incase things start to flood. We also were able to get online for a bit and look up stuff about hurricane. We have picked up a few extra groceries and got some extra water, just incase.
Roy said it would probably hit us sometime in the afternoon. It is now 12:00pm and the only thing that we have noticed that was different was the cloudy sky and wind starting to pick up. Even if all we get is a lot of rain that can cause trouble here. The river will start to flood and the drainage systems here are not that great so it means water will be building up and flooding streets and areas that are not even close to the river.
Kimmies dad just called and he has been keeping track of the Hurricane online and said we would probably be getting 60mph winds and lots of rain. She explained to him that it’s actually sunny outside rite now.
Well that’s all the news I have for now…I’ll let you know how this whole Hurricane thing ends up turning out.
Fun Facts about Food and our stores here in Honduras
We have named all our stores:
- We have a Wal-Mart (this is a grocery store that has Wal-Mart signs above the cash registers)
- Costco (is a real small store that is in a car garage type thing that sells Kirkland soymilk)
- The Street Market (this is the actual street market where people sell their produce, tortillas and what ever else they can)
- The Jumbo (this is the only grocery store that has an actual name)
A lot of things come in bags here. Just today Stacy and I went to the "Wal-Mart" and bought Ketchup in a bag. We also saw Mayo, and Mustard in a bag, oil, and we sometimes buy spaghetti sauce in a bag and refried beans in a bag (the picture of the beans looks like a really bad brown loaf but they are actually pretty good). It’s a lot cheaper to buy things in bags.
Written September 9, 2007
Well the hurricane was not bad by the time it got to us. I think it really hit around 2:30am. We got a lot of rain and some wind but nothing major. We really could have had school on Tuesday and Wednesday no problem. But it was nice to have those days off. I really don’t know how we would have made it through a whole week with those rowdy kids. I mean I know it will happen eventually but this week we have Thursday and Friday off and the following Monday because the 15th is Honduras Independence Day. That will be useful time to work on our lesson plans.
Tomorrow is Children’s day at the school. Yes they have children’s day here. I guess it’s just like Mothers or Fathers day except it’s for the kids. We only have class till noon then the last two hours the kids get to pretty much run free it sounds like. My 3rd grade class will be having pizza and a piñata.
We have officially made Sunday our market day. We buy all the food we will need throughout the week. We also buy beans that we cook so we can have beans for the week. We eat a lot of beans and we can buy 4 pounds for only 32lps (that’s about $1.50). We do have to pick through them and get rid of the bad ones and the rocks and dirt chunks but it’s so worth it because we save a lot of money by making our own. Norma taught us how to make tortillas Friday night so we also might start making tortillas on Sundays as well.
Stacy and I have been sick starting around Thursday. It was the worst Sabbath morning. We both work up and could hardly talk. We were all supposed to do Sabbath school at the church and teach English in the afternoon but since we were sick we stayed home and rested. We both feel much better today but are still pretty run down. I’m hoping tomorrow when I have to start yelling at the kids again my voice won’t go out on me.
We did some rearranging of rooms Friday. I am now in the other house with Kimmie, Stacy and Mark. Michelle traded rooms with Lori and Lori and Katrina are now rooming together. A bit crazy I know but it’s something that needed to be done. In our house we have not had water all weekend. It has not been very fun but thankfully the problem was fixed this afternoon. Not that it won’t keep happening but it is at least fixed for now.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
