Its been awhile...

Written Saturday Febuary 9, 2007

Well I have now been back in Honduras for a little over a month. I was able to go home for Christmas and spend time with friends and family back home for about two and a half weeks. It was great to be back but at the same time it was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do coming back to Honduras. Especially knowing that I had an even longer stretch ahead of me…6 more months and I had only endured 4 before Christmas. In fact as soon as I got back to my house here in Honduras I took my bags to my room and started to cry. I could not believe I was here again.

The next thing I knew it was Monday morning and I was waking up to my blaring alarm at 5:30am knowing that back home it was only 3:30am and all my friends and family would be sound asleep for a good 4 hours still. I was out the door by 6:40am to make it to the school in time for morning staff worship that is almost always in Spanish (which means I never know what is going on).

But everything changed when I was on my way to my class room and saw all my kids standing in the doorway with smiling faces to great me waiting for the okay to dart out of the class room to the auditorium for hora civica. It was then that I realized the reason why I am here. I am here for these kids…my kids. 40 children that I have grown to know and love. I have come to know each of their individual personalities and though much of the time I don’t feel like I have a clue how to be a teacher and to how get through to them but one thing I have learned how to do is how to love them. Yes they are crazy and drive me nuts most days but at the same time there is this crazy never ending love. I don’t know where it comes from or how it got there but it is there. Recently even when I have tried to lecture them when they have been bad (as in running around the class room out of control, wrestling in the back of the class room, yelling, over all not listening, throwing things in around the class and much more) I end up laughing at them when I look at their cute little faces staring up at me as I try to be the big bad mean teacher. I just can’t bring myself to do it. I really enjoy just being able to play and joke around with them. It makes teaching hard at times though. That is one reason why I have realized I am not cut out to be a teacher. I would much rather play and have fun with my kids then teach them about math, science, bible, or agriculture.

I was thinking this past week about what it will be like to leave when June comes along. As excited as I am to get back home and be back in Walla Walla and back to my normal life. I was also thinking about how heart breaking it will be to leave my kids. I teach one 4th grade bible class…and yesterday after their parcial test I let them go outside to play. It was the last class period of the day and Friday and I did not feel like teaching anymore…as I watched them play I started thinking about how I wont get to see my 3rd graders at that stage. It really is a big difference that even just a year makes in the maturity and understanding that the kids have when they are so young. I hope that they will have a great teacher next year that will care for them and get to know them and love them they way I have come to.

Well sorry its been so long since I posted...i´m going to work on being better about this in the next 5 months ahead. Much love!

Mindy