Dogs and Dinners

It has been a few extra days since the last blog post, but let me assure that it is not for lack of crazy, wild, and unexpected things happening here in Honduras. Diana and I have just been kept busy between work, more (grad) work, and a busy social calendar. A few interesting things happened over the weekend that you probably will all like to know about. Here are two to start with more to come:

First, Diana and I got a dog! Well, not exactly. Diana and I were walking to meet up with our good friends the Vinland’s to go out to dinner at a fancy Thai restaurant. As we were in route we saw the sweetest looking brown street dog. We called to the dog and he took up following us. He followed us all the way to the Vinland’s casa. By this time we had already given him a name – Pancho. After about 30 minutes inside the Vinland’s pad we assumed that Pancho would have moved on. But as we head out to our next stop, long and behold, there was Pancho who promptly fell in line behind us as we walked. Finally, we parted ways with Pancho as we hopped in a taxi and assumed that was the last we would see of him…as it turns out that would not be the case. The next day as we exited our apartment to head out for some Saturday activities guess who was waiting outside for us? That’s right…Pancho was there to greet us and followed us all the way till we hopped in another taxi! We really want to keep him, he is soft on the eye and truly sweet in nature.

Second, we went out for a birthday celebration Saturday night. We arrived at this hip new pizza place at 7pm for dinner. Guess what time we left…11pm. Yes, that is right a 4 hour birthday dinner at a restaurant. That is how they do here in Honduras.

Next post, you will get to hear about Martin (the town's drunk) from Miami! Be excited!

Calvin on the Christian Life

I have not traditionally been a fan of Calvin, but I found his small work Golden Handbook of the True Christian Life to be a pleasant and spiritually provocative read. So I leave you with two quotes and a recommendation to pick up this little text:

"For all whom the Lord has chosen and received into the society of his saints ought to prepare themselves for a life that is hard, laborious, and full of countless griefs."

"Every man, however important he may be, should realize that he is a debtor to his neighbor and that love demands that he give to the limit of his ability."

Phone Line

We have our cable phone up and running. It is a U.S. number. E-mail Diana or I if you want it.

First Day of school (D.V. version)

Day 1 was pretty good. Sixteen out of my 18 students showed up and were super excited to be at school, which made me excited also. I received tons of hugs and waves from my girl students during recess and lunch, and one of them gave me a silly band! :)
Fourth graders are super sweet and super funny. I foresee a great school year ahead. The first week of school consists of pretty much a lot of rules, procedures and explanation of routine, so there's not much more to say about school.
After we got home from work, though, we were picked up by our friend Jonnhy ( super sweet dude). We went out on a double date with him and his wife Melissa. They took us to Pollo Tropical, a delicious cuban restaurant ( Swans:) you guys know what that is) and Jonhhy refused to let us pay. We then headed to the newest shopping center in town, Nova Plaza, and had a fun night riding the bumper cars and the Farris wheel! We are now home getting ready for day 2 of week 1.
Thanks for a fun evening Jonnhy and Melissa! Vinland's you guys will have to join in next time :)

First Day of School (B.P. Version)

Today was the first day of school! I only have time for a quick recap so I will give some quick bullet point highlights:

-Day One was a success.
-I have already gained a reputation as the mean teacher, which I highly value.
-The day opened with an hour-long assembly that included the seniors riding into the school standing on and hanging onto a fire truck that was blasting its sirens. Quite a sight to see that would never happen in the states.
-I had all my 10th grade students today.
-The kids were quiet while a spent a lot of time meticulously going over classroom procedures.
-I shared a little about myself.
-During the students chapel I met an awesome young lady, Maria Jose, who was very interested in my theological studies. She is a catholic and is hoping to study theology, especially world religions. She asked my some very good theological questions and mentioned that she is seriously considering becoming a nun, only because priest is not an option because of her gender. This led to a conversation about patriarchy in Catholicism. I am pretty sure that she will be on a level far beyond her classmates.
-I felt good, confident, and comfortable the whole time.
-Started lesson planning for week 2 during my prep.

Hopefully, Diana can put up a little bit about her first day. I know she has at least one really good story.

Thank God it's Sunday!

So turns out your body gets pretty used to waking up at 5:30 AM. Ben and I both woke up bright and early today, and realized we had another 3 hours before we had to get up, and that was good!
We had been invited by one of the Honduran Spanish teachers, Claudia, to go to her church. She picked us up at 9:45 AM and we met her husband, German, and two children, Geyli (pronounced Hayle) and Daniel. They are such a sweet family, they were so happy we had accepted their invitation and they introduced us to everyone at their church. It is a small house church of about 35 members, if we decide to make that our church Ben will surely learn a lot of Spanish. You can expect a picture of this sweet family soon, Claudia and Geyli are coming over Saturday night to bake a cake with me, in exchange they will teach me how to cook some typical Honduran dishes!

We got dropped off after church, and Ben and I decided to go for a walk and look for a place to eat lunch. The pictures you see above are of an uncovered drain (which are pretty common around our neighborhood), and you can also see the beautiful view that surrounds us all over; lots of green and lots of mountains. We ended up eating at a Chinese food restaurant. The food was pretty good although it didn't taste like regular chinese food, it must be the Honduran touch.
Now we are back home 'Mac Camping'

P.S. Ben really wants me to inform you all that the vice president of Honduras is a member of the church we visited today. And we got to shake his hand!!!

~Diana

On Love

I came across this little gem in my reading today:

"The more surely you know yourself loved, the easier you will find it to love in return."

-Bernard of Clairvaux

Out of Water

Just a quick update on the happenings of today. Today is Saturday, so you would assume that we have had a leisurely day right? But we haven’t. We got up early and caught the bus to school for Open House. Open House is when all the parents come to sign out the books for the kids and meet the teachers. Diana had a great day meeting students and parents. I did not see any parents because my room was not a book station. This gave me time to spruce up my room and get some reading done. Hopefully, pics of my room will be coming soon. We had a great catered lunch at school today so that was definitely a perk.

We got home around 4 and were settling when a lady, Claudia, who had invited us to church the previous day randomly showed up at our place! We had no idea how she knew where we lived but I invited her up and we got things set for church tomorrow.

Finally another strange thing happened today. We ran out of water. Yes you read correctly…we ran out of water. Diana went to turn on the faucet and it was simply dripping on her hands. I had the same experience. Turns out you only get water from the water company some days and other days you have to use from your own tank. If the water pressure is low on a given day then you need to make sure you don’t use the washer lest you deplete the water supply. In our ignorance we had been running the washer today thus depleting the water supply. So I am still not entirely sure when we are going to have running water again. Bienvenidos a Honduras!

UPDATE: We are now officially bone dry and I made the mistake of using the toliet...uh oh

Tip

Diana and I ate out tonight (Same day as the two previous posts) I know eventful day, huh? I only want to report one quick feel-good story. At the end of the meal the little girl who had been serving us, she was maybe 12 or 13, gave us the total, which was 109 lempiras about $5.70. I gave her a hundred and twenty and told Diana to tell her to keep the change for herself. The girl’s face lit up like a Christmas tree with joy. This brought a big smile to my face. I cannot remember the last time I have ever made someone as happy as this little girl appeared to be.

In conclusion, this eventful day began terribly, but ended quite beautifully.

Man on the Roof!!!!

So Diana and I were walking back from dinner after the crazy day of having part of our roof torn off in a storm. We had just eaten some bomb baleadas, a Honduran original that is something like a stuffed quesadilla but not quite. And as we were walking back I was practicing my Honduran greeting to everyone we passed on the street. Right after a successful greeting I hear a voice yell out towards Diana and I in greeting. At this point I think to myself, “No way can that be for us because I haven’t seen anyone around us.” At this point Diana says that the “Buenas!” that we had just heard was directed at us. Diana then pointed up to a roof where we saw a gentleman standing on the roof. ( We presume we was fixing his roof which had most likely also been damaged by the storm) This was a strange sight indeed, as you can imagine. I respond to the greeting and the man on the roof, Job as his name turned out to be, began to speak to me in English.

At this point I received one of the strangest requests I have ever received in my life. Job asked if he could throw us his keys so we could unlock his house, go into his bedroom, and retrieve his cellphone from the pocket of his brown jacket. I know what you are probably thinking right now, “WTF,” because that was the first thought that ran through my head too. Despite my initial thought and the ensuing thought that this was a trap laid for us to either rob or kill us, I felt Job to be a quite amiable and gentle soul, so I quickly agreed to accomplish the task. The keys were tossed over, Diana unlocked the gate and then door. I proceeded into the house and made my way to the back of the house via pocket flashlight, which added to the ominous nature of the task. Once in the bedroom I searched the messy room for the brown jacket. I found it and retrieved the cellphone from the second pocket I tried. Diana and I then quickly exited. Diana then climbed the security screen on the window and safely handed off the cellphone and keys to Job. Job then expressed his deep gratitude. Lastly we all said our goodbyes and Diana and I continued home.

The Sky Is Falling!!!!

So today began for Diana and I like any other of our few days in Honduras. We woke up at an ungodly hour in order to be sure that we caught the teacher bus to school. We were a little sluggish this morning, not even being able to eat breakfast, because of a somewhat late night. Despite the slow start, we made it to school and began our routine. Devotions early in the morning, followed by meetings and a little free time to lesson plan and what not. After lunch Diana found a few extra minutes to come and help me spruce up my room, so we went down to the library to grab some posters. While in the library we begin to hear rain pounding on the tin roof. The noise quickly rises to a fever pitch and continues for about thirty minutes or so. Rain is coming down from the sky in sheets. Within minutes all the lower levels of the school begin to flood. Diana and I take off our shoes to traverse the newly formed lake standing between us and the main building.

After hearing that our place has a leaky roof a friend of ours, Johnny, offers to give us a ride back to our place to check out the damage and get anything out of water that might have been under a leak. On the ride back we are able to see that the streets have turned into small rivers. Trees have blown over. The water was carrying pieces of the road away with its current. It was quite a sight to see.

Once we arrived at home we saw some water in the living room as we approached. The water was right where my Xbox power cable was! I was worried. We entered. Luckily there was only a thin layer of water here and I had decided to unplug my Xbox before leaving just in case there was a power surge or something, not even having rain and water in mind. Moving on to other parts of the house we realized that conditions were not too bad all things considered. Our bed was a little wet and the guest bedroom had quite a bit of water. We were about to leave to head back to school when I went to further investigate the back room. Behind the back room is our laundry room. Upon entering the laundry room I noticed a ton of water on the ground. After observing this I looked up to find the clouded sky as our new roof!

As I write this there are guys wrapping up repairs at our place. The neighbor below us was helping with repairs because his family owns the whole complex and these were the words he had for us “Bienvenidos a Honduras!” The response of my thoughts, OMG!!!!!

Apartamento del Sol

Given the fact that there are no street signs or house numbers in Tegucigalpa, houses are identified by their color (at least amongst the staff) Apparently the inside of our apartment was bright yellow last year, which is how it got its name (The Sun Apartment). This year, however it is absolutely white, so I am thinking of painting it yellow. I have a bit of free time since Ben is focused on school work and is on a mission to finish his distance class by Sept. 14th.
We have been pretty busy since we arrived with orientation, a small tour of the school, a shopping trip to get all the necessary items to begin life in a new country, tour of the city, lunch, dinner, church, etc.
We are beginning to form some friendships and relationships, everyone in the teaching staff is so nice and sweet.

We miss you guys!!!!!

~Diana ( I am hoping it won't always be me posting on our blog, my guess is after Sept. 14th Ben will be more motivated to share :)

The Adventure has begun

We arrived in Houston, TX Tuesday August 10th at 8:30 PM. Trey Allen picked us up and we spent a great 36 hours with him and his wife Erin. The showed us around Houston and took us to some pretty amazing restaurants.
This morning (Thursday August 12) we arrived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at 11:15. We met other teachers and got to see what will be our home for the next year. We only saw a glimpse of a teeny tiny roach, so it's not as bad as we thought it would be.
Internet works GREAT, so we will for sure stay connected :)

~Diana

Leaving, on a jet plane......

Well, the day has finally arrived! We had a long and great summer and plenty of time spent with the people that we will be missing for the next 4 months. Thanks to all that arranged your schedules and made yourselves available to hang out with Ben and I, we appreciate it more than you know! We will surely miss you all so much. Much love!

See you December 19th!!!!