I'm a local.

This weekend was full of fun events. After school on Fridays I help out in the highschool with a youth group ministry. It's fun because I don't know these students and it's a way to be a witness to our young adults. After the program, Devon, John, and I rode the bus down to the city and met up with our friend Alfredo and went to a concert: Sol Caracol (check them out on youtube). It was really fun and I love the carribean sound in the music.



On Saturday, we went to the open market by the soccer stadium at 6:30 AM. I love shopping there to get the fresh fruit, especially the pineapple. After that, I met up with Erika Matute who is the resource teacher for the 4th-6th grade. She is a sweet lady who has a passion for Japan. We went swimming with her and Jenny Sanderson. It was a lovely sunny day! I could do that everyday :) After swimming we went out to sushi for lunch. It was delicious. I've been craving Japanese food since I've been here, so that was a wonderful treat.





Another week of school and today, there was a lot of rain down in the city of Tegucigalpa. One of the soccer stadium walls collapsed and one man was killed. Please pray for the safety with all the rain here. Thanks for your friendship, love, and support. Miss you all, An

Dia del Independencia de Honduras

Did you know that many Central American countries celebrate today for their independence? Well, it was an amazing 2 days full of activities and fun. Yesterday, my class had a celebration and did a beautiful presentation for the first grade class.

The kindergarten class dancing in Honduras dress:


My kids were patriotic and wore blue and white.


This morning started out at 9 am when my friend, Jorge, picked me and 2 of my friends up. We drove past the Resistencia, which is the group of people against the current government. They were planning a demonstration march today to downtown. Lots of roads were closed and we finally got to Expresso Americano, a nice coffee shop and dropped my friends off. Then, Jorge and I dropped the car off at his house and walked 4 blocks to the parades. The sun was out, the marching bands were playing, the cheerleaders were dancing, the smell of food was in the air... (I think you get the picture) it was a beautiful day. In Tegucigalpa and other parts of Honduras, this parade involves high schoolers from public and private schools. There were over 40 of them!! They all marched down the main street and ended up at the soccer stadium. There were thousands of people lined along the roads and in the stadium. We saw parachuters and planes fly over us.

The parade


The parachuters


The stadium


Please pray for the country and for peace and wisdom for the government. Happy birthday Honduras!

It's been a month!

I can't believe it's only been one month since I have been here in Honduras. It seems like a lot more time has passed since then. I'm sorry it's been awhile since I have written on my blog. (I will try to do a better job of that)

Well, to catch you all up on my happening here... where should I start? The first day of school was great and has been going well for the last 2 weeks. I have 22 students now: 11 boys, 11 girls. I play soccer with the boys on Monday and Wednesdays; and I jumprope with the girls on Tuesdays and Thursday. The kids really enjoy me spending time outside of the classroom with them. They are a good group of students. I've only had problems with having perfect lines (so we're working on that!)

These are my housemates and I on the first day of school.


We had a school wide open house last week Friday and I got to meet most of my students' parents. It was really neat to meet them and be able to communicate with them in Spanish. All the families are so generous and loving and offered to help me in any way they can. Here they say "a la orden", which means "at your service."


At Pinares, lesson plans are due the Friday before the week begins which is really great because then you have the weekend almost all to yourself. I've gone to Valle de Angeles with some old family friends. It's a cute touristy city with lots of good food and artisan and Honduran souvenirs. I'm actually going there again this weekend and will be sure to take pictures for you all. I laid out on my porch this past weekend and actually got a tanline ;) I went swimming in a pool today and went to my old church that I use to go to as a little girl.

Yesterday was really fun. Gina, Julie, Devon, and I decided to walk down the mountain, about 4 km through the winding road to El Picacho. El Picacho is a national park and hosts the Jesus statue which you can see from pretty much anywhere in Tegucigalpa, the national zoo, and replicas of Mayan ruins. It was fun because it started out as a beautiful sunny day, then, we had torrential rains and the park closed, but we were all determined to see the statue which we walked 45 minutes to see... so, we decided to climb the wall made of rocks to capture a few photos. It was a fun adventure with some wonderful friends.


The people here are really amazing. I live with 3 other girls: Julie, Elisa, and Charith. Most of the teachers live in the apartment complex or the houses across the street which is very convenient. We have game night, potlucks, movie night, dinner parties, and unannounced visitors. It's a loving Christian community which I am truly blessed to be a part of. I have seen myself grow in many areas: physically (thanks to Rachel DeJong and her aerobics classes AND soccer on Tuesday nights), spiritually (through small groups, Bible study every morning, chapel at school, church, and fellowship), mentally (learning how to effectively teach these students through research and trial and error), and emotionally (not necessarily in culture shock, but being away from people you love and cherish).


To close, my prayer requests are for my students and their continual growth in all areas of life; as well as for me and my ability to teach them to be like Christ and to learn and do well in everything. Thanks for your support and friendships. Love always.