Dance, Dance, Dance

My assistant does a wonderful job at decorating my class.

So, its been another eventful week and weekend in Gracias. The only thing on our minds is dance, dance, dance. We dance everyday and Like Jena always says....we bounce, bounce,bounce. (Thank goodness I did not have to teach them your dance moves.) The Christmas program will be here on Tuesday night and my kids will have to be ready to preform. I cannot believe the importance they put on the dance. I have been teaching an average of 3 classes a day for the past two weeks. As much fun as it has been to learn the dance I am ready for the grand finale and Christmas vacation. Anyways, here is a recap of my week:

My classroom door.

My desk, living up to the Christmas spirit.

Every now and then we celebrate a birthday. Last week it was Raquel’s (one of the teachers) birthdays. One night we went to our neighbor’s for pizza and karaoke and dancing, which was a lot of fun. Friday after school the 11^th graders (her class) planned a surprise party at one of their houses. There was lots of pizza, snacks, a cake all the way from Guatemala, a piñata and even fireworks! It was quite the celebration!

And this past weekend the Circus came to town! So a few of us went to it Saturday night, and it was quite the experience! It was the Blue Smurf Circus and you better believe they had people dressed up in Smurf costumes. The circus had dancers, tight rope walkers, rope dancers, and even lions and jaguars! It had been awhile since I had been to a circus, so I was like a little kid, a full bundle of excitement! We also went to a house church for church and gave out Christmas presents to the kids. It was exciting to see the happiness on their face. For sunday dinner our bus driver took us up the mountain to a piece of his land and cooked carne asada for us (meat, refried beans, salsa, cheese). It was delicious and the view was breath taking.

Nevertheless, the Christmas program WAS WONDERFUL! The power stayed on for the whole program, and all the parents seemed to really enjoy the program. All of the students looked beautiful and all of the dances were great! There was a lot of work put into the program, and all the glory was for God.

My students: Antuane and Edy

Ashley, Diana, Rene, Erick, Marcelo, Keydi

Continue to pray for safe travels as all the teachers are traveling home for Christmas. I cannot wait to see you all!!!




MERRY CHRIST-more!

Wow, time flies.

I cannot believe that it is December already. It seems like yesterday that I arrived in Honduras. However, I am still enjoying my time here greatly.

I'll be home for Christmas...(Dec 17 here I come!)

This week has been fairly uneventful. My kids have been busy working on their new spelling list this week and they always love it when they get to spell with playdough. So, I took a few pictures to show off their nice work they did. In addition, the 1st graders are getting better and better everday. I was so excited to have one of the girls read to me and to see her smile on her face was a wonderful feeling. Yes, reading is a slow process, but they are coming right along. I am still trying to figure out how to help the good readers excell and the struggling readers learn how to read. It is a process when all your kids are at totally different levels.

This weekend was a nice low-key weekend. I got to stay in Gracias all weekend and get some school things out of the way. It was so nice to relax and get back on my feet again. On Friday night Kendall and I went over to Kristi and Shannon's to babysit there kids so they can go on a nice date. It was nice to hang out in a home and spend time with Tyler and Emma. On Saturday I brought my laundry to the laundry mat and got alot of school work done. In the evening, us roommates, went out to eat at a nearby pulperia. One of our students (9th grader) were there and she wanted to paint our nails. I would have to say I have never had my nails looking this good ever in my life! she really has an act for painting nails.

Today we went to a house church with Kristi and Shannon. I helped with sunday school with the younger kids. It was fun to get to work with them. There are about 10 kids that show up every week so it is great to see the excitement on their faces. After the house church we headed to a small town called La Campa. La Campa is knonw for its pottery. We got to learn a little bit about the pottery and the people who make it. I could not believe that process that these people go through to make the pottery. THey have the clay sit for 15 days and then it takes them at least 2 days to form the pot, and then they ahve to put it in the fire. It is a lot of work for  hardly any pay. They have such a talent and gift for making pots.

I am thankful...are you?

Wow, so today is the first day I can officially say... I AM COLD! I have a desire to sit  by a fire place and roast marshmellows with my slippers on. But, I am thankful it is blizzarding with snow smacking me in the face.

Well, I had a wonderful weekend in Tegus with all the other American teachers in Honduras. It was good to forget about school for a while and to have fun with people my own age. So, early wednesday morning we up and left for Tegus with a van stuffed with about 30 people, 10 teachers and 20, 10th and 11th graders. Boy, it was quite the ride with so many students. They are a lot of fun, but it brought me back to my life as a highschooler...crazy!

When we arived to Tegus it felt like a city in the states... the roads were paved with more than one lane and many buildings. It was refreshing to be in a whole new city. After we arrived, we checked into our hotel and rushed to get ready for the jazz concert. After a long day of traveling for 6 hours many of us wanted to take a shower to get dressed up and ready. So, the hotel gave us 4 different showers to shower in for about 30 girls. But, we found ourself lost using only one shower because the other showers either didnt have water, the water was ice, or the shower didnt work.... well if you know me very well.. and know that if I dont get to shower when I was planning on it... I get a little crabby... so I was rushed and crabby... not a good combo. I guess I need to learn better patience!

Mom, this apple crisp was ALMOST as good
as your crisp....

The jazz concert was at the Abundent Life school in the church and it  was a hit and we had fun listening to the music. The concert had dancers to the music as well. It was fun to see a different variety of music.

Our wonderful hike.

We then went to bed to wake up early for breakfast at the school. We ate the tipica...which is beans, eggs, plantanes, and tortiallas. Then I got to play volleyball and basketball at the school, which I miss so dearly! Then we headed to the mall and did a little shopping. At night the rest of the teachers came into Tegus and we got ready to go to our nice Thanksgiving supper at Pastor Evelio home (he is one of the most well known people in hondurs...very wealthy and started all the Abundent Life schools). It was so nice to have a delicious meal with many friends...and my new family.

On friday morning we went out for breakfast at Mc Donalds and then went to Valle de Angeles were we got to do a lot of suvinior shopping. It was fun to walk around the city and look at many things that the people of honduras made. When we came back from shopping we got ready to go to the Twilight movie. It was nice to see a movie again, but I wasnt the BIGGEST fan of the Twilight movie, but I was thankful that I go to go.

OLIMPIA!!!

Saturday we went out for breakfast and then hit up the national park, La Tigra. It was a beautiful park with many gorgeous trees. We enjoyed our beautiful 2 hour hike an got to look at the cloud forest. When arriving back to the hotel we got ready to go to a Futbol game. Olimpia, Honduras' team was playing. It was an awesome experience to see the excitement of the fans and a great soccer team playing. Some of the players on the team played in the World Cup last year.

Then, on Sunday morning we headed back to Gracias. I am thankful to be back, but also am thankful for the fun experiance I had in Tegus.

I hope all is well in the states and that you had a thankful, thanksgiving! Continue to keep me in your prayers and I continue to learn more and more on how to teach my class in the most effective way.

*Be thankful for EVERYTHING!

Parent/Teacher...And I"M the TEACHER?!

Well....at least I'm not the parent.... :)
Well, this past week has been pretty uneventful, hence why I havent written on my blog yet. Sorry to you faithful followers (cough cough Jena!). Anyways, everyday is  a surprise with my 1st graders. They have their good days and their bad days, I have my good days and my bad days. Its amazing how much sleep I have makes a different on how my day goes with my students. My lesson is learned... Get LOTS of sleep and then I am happier and my students are happier as well...Cant believe it took me 23 years to figure that one out!

Me, looking professional at my parent/teacher meeting!

Anyways, this past Friday we had a half of day of classes and started parent/teacher conferences at 2:30-6:00. It was definintally a very long day! But, the parents were mostly understanding and I didnt have too many complaints. Most of the parents just wanted their students grades and that was about it. I had one mother (the Espanol teacher at our school)...of my student Luis (one bright kid!) come up to me and said...my son absolutly loves you. He prays for you every single night and he prays for his classmates to...so that they will learn to obey you.... OH the beauty of a young man's prayer. My heart was touched... and to be honest the kids have become ALOT better. School is not so much of a headache but a joy. It is so fun to see these kids grow so much in the English. I also love it how these kids are beginning to learn to write. I have been trying to do more writing with them so they can learn how to read fluently and write fluently. I believe that reading and writing are one of the most important thing for these young kids. We are definitally working on it and I hope that it helps the grow to be fluent English speakers (they have already come SOO far!)

This past Saturday we decided we would go to Santa Rosa to stay in a Hotel and just get out of Gracias for a while. Nothing too exciting happend, but it was fun to get away with some of the teachers.

Some of our new Minerva Friends

Yesterday, we had a delicous thanksgiving meal. We went to Melissa and Kevin's home to eat. Our house was in charge of bring the potatoes so we had two Huge pans of mashed potatoes. They were expecting 40 people to be at this fiesta! The food was absolutly wonderful and we had a great time socializing with our new friends (Minerva School Teachers). We hope to hang out with them a bit more just to expand our horizens of friends here! We are well taken care of here. We also will be heading to the capital this weekends...we dont have school on Wednesday so we will be heading there...with the 11th graders to go to some concert. The school provides us with everything...food, hotel, transportation...EVERYTHING! I am excited for this experience. Anyways, thats all I have to share with you now... I will let you know how my trip goes over Thanksgiving break. Just remember I am thankful for all of you!!

YeeHaw!

There is never a dull moment in Gracias. Us teachers, always find something fun and exciting to do. But, before I get to the events on Friday night I have the cutest story to tell you about my first graders.

Everyday, about twice a day, I take my whole first grade class to the bathroom. We always line up in girl and boys lines that way my line isnt halfway around the world. So, We get into our lines and one of my little boys (the one that gave me earings for my birthday) had a pretty little purple flower (why would a kid have a flower on the way to the bathroom?). I asked him, Erick, who is that flower for? Is it for me? The other boys replied, "No" its for Melene Valaria." Erick gets a little red on his cheeks. Then, Marcelo was like "Erick would you like me to give it to her?" Erick grins and nodds yes. Marcelo goes over to Melene as the rest of the boys are giggling. Marcelo says " Here Melene this is for you from Erick." She gives the most disgusted look and gives the flower to me. I felt bad for little Erick. Later, I talked to his mom at school about it because she is also a teacher at the school. She said that she was wondering why he had a flower because he took it from home. She definitally enjoyed the story though.

This past Monday was a rough day at school, but as the school week went on it got better and better. For some reason my students had a 180 degree turn in behavior. I believe it was from alot of prayer and faith and maybe my attitude on teaching. I am so thankful for the turn around and I hope that their behavior will continue through the rest of the year. My biggest issue now is the little first graders tattling on eachother and not speaking the most kind words to eachother. If there is any advice how to handle this that would be great!

Last night, the local youth group had a bonfire with cowboys and indians. So, my roommates and I took the opportunity to dress up as fitting. We enjoy going to these youth group things because we can socialize in spanish and hopfully learn a little more. It was a lot of fun to dress up and walk the streets of honduras. I felt like I was ready to go ride a horse!

Today we headed to Santa Rosa to visit the orphanage again. This time around one of the girls was talking to me so nicely and I was singing jesus loves me and if your are happy and you know it. Then another girl started crying so I set the girl down and she refused. I said no I need to go make sure she is okay. Then she started saying estas fea (you are ugly) to me... over and over again... than she started to hit me. Oh boy, what do you do with a little girl that doesnt understand english... how do you scold her! But then all the other kids started saying estas bonita (you are pretty). I think this girl that was calling me ugly gets herself into alot of trouble. I guess she reminds me of myself when I was younger...stubborn! :D It was another great experience at the orphanages to feed and play with the children. The people there take great care of the kids!

This little boy is both deaf and blind. But if he every had anyone
touch him he would get the BIGGEST smile on his face

This little boy would rock himself in his car seat as hard as
he could. He has the CUTEST smile!

This lttle girl was brought to the orphanage last night
She was taken out of her home by social workers because
she is not getting fed. This little girl is almost 2 years old.
The orphanage is hoping to bring her back to the correct size.
Her bones, ears, are the size of a 2 year old but she is very skinny!
I am excited to see how she is a few months from now.

Well, I think that is all for now! I hope you all are doing well!!

Una Fiesta Tipica

Sarah and Kendall (my roommates)

Arnold and Edy

Saturday was our schools Fiesta Tipica. It was a big party in the park to raise funds for our school, and our school in La Union. All of our staff dressed up in typical Honduran clothing, and sold food and drinks in different huts that were made just for this event. The day was filled with lots of beautiful and colorful clothing, music and dancing, and delicious food and drinks. My group sold papusas, ticocus, and talmates in our hut. We were a busy hut, but because I dont know a lot of Spanish I just did a lot of saying "papusas, ticocus...etc" to get people to come to our hut and buy our food.   But all in all, it was a LOT of fun serving everybody. Some of the grades at our school even performed cultural dances, which were fun to watch too. It was a beautiful day overall, and fun to play dress up for the day! The La Union school has their Fiesta Tipica in February that we will go there for too. 

With my assistant Mrs Delmy

Daniel, Antuane, and Oscar

In addition, school has been going well...well I lied on Monday it was bad...Tuesday it was better... and Today was GREAT! It seems like every week it takes a while for my students to get use to the routine again after the weeked. We are working on a lot of discipline things because last year they had none. It is hard to train students who are in such a habit to get into a good habit again. We are working on it a day at a time. I am very impressed with how well my students are picking up English. They are able to hold a decent conversation and answer questions. This week we are focusing on the word family -ack. The kids seem to enjoy the activities we do...like singing and doing the hand claps of Miss Mary Mack.  I also had them take a sack home and fill it with -ack things like the color black or a snack. I think they are finally getting it (maybe its only cuz today was a good day at school for the kids... but yes I have faith that tbey will get better and better).

The weather here has been great. Its been pleasent enought be be in our lovely uniforms and not swet too much. I enjoy going for runs home from school, walking to the store, or sitting in the local coffee shop (outdoors) and doing papers and homework.

Well, I think that is all that is going on right now. I hope all is going well. I miss you all and will see you over Christmas!

Jennifer, Tabitah, Jaime, Kendall, Stacey, Kristi

First Graders...

I've don't have a lot to say, but I just wanted to update on some videos of my students. They are so cute!

They sang happy birthday to me first thing in the morning....

Enjoy the videos...we made pin wheels in science class... they loved them!!

Boy are they FULL of energy.... I was trying to video tape the kids... while having a little girl give me a gift. That is who I am talking to in the video...

My Whole Class...including my assistant Mrs Delmy

Can you find that boy saying I Love You? I taught them the sign language... and they LOVe it!

Feliz Cumpleaños a Mí

Wow, I cannot believe that it is almost November and almost my birthday. I'm used to having frigged weather mixed with a few snow flakes. Honduras is anything but snow. But, before I get talking about my birthday  I will tell you about my week and weekend.

I never thought it would happen, but everyday at school gets a little better. Everyday it is a challenge to keep the children doing what I want them to do, but they are definitely learning my expectations. My first graders are so cute, but they are very sneaky. I had an issue with one of my students stealing from my desk this weekend and another one of my students cheating. I have a hard time explaining the concept to them about stealing and cheating and why it is wrong, but I went to the administration to talk to them about it and they are going to call their parents. I hope they will learn their lesson so I don't need to worry about it.

For devotions in my class we are memorizing Psalm 23. I am very impressed with how quickly they are picking up each verse. We will be on verse 4 next week...so I hope they can learn that one as well. Also, if anyone has any suggestions for songs or music that would be helpful in my classroom I would love the advice. Working with these ESL students I realized that it is so important to use music as a tool for teaching. The kids memorize and learn things a lot more quickly with music. So, if you have any kids praise song ideas or music for instruction I would love to hear your ideas.

Our whole group after our drama.

Alright, enough about my week. This weekend has been very eventful. The youth group in Gracias, which consists of a few Abundant Life kids, but mostly public school kids had a camp out this weekend. I was blessed to be apart of the camp by being involved in a drama. I had the part of death, but I tried my best to pull it off in my all black and with my knife and gun.

My 8th grade student, Angelica

The  cabin we stayed in. No hot water and bugs on the wall.

We also were in charge of supervising the High schools and helping with serving the food and starting the fire. Shannon, the missionary here, gave the message for the night. He did a great job focusing on how there are many distractions and sins in our lives that consume us. We need to get rid of them and focus only on Jesus. We spent the night at the camp and woke up early to walk back to Gracias down the mountain. (an hour walk). Kendall and I got back to Gracias in time to go to a Breast Cancer Walk. There is a group of people from Canada who are volunteering at the hospital for three months. They put on this walk so it was fun to get to know them better.

On Saturday night, I was really craving a salad. Of course, I convinced Kendall, but my other roommates refusing, to go out to eat with me...even though she had other ideas. We went to the nice hotel down the road where they serve delicious salads. She convinced me to split a salad with her. We ate our salads and she kept talking to the other teachers that live here. I didnt think much of it as we continued to eat. After eating, we headed over to Tabitha's and Stacey's house were we ran into some more people going to their house. Still oblivious to what was going on we entered the house, before we knew it everyone was singing happy birthday to Tabitha (Oct 31) Zak (Nov. 3) and me. I see a table full of food....too bad I just had my salad. Of course, if you know me I can still eat more. So I got two suppers last night. But, the fiesta was not over yet. Of course, all the other teachers got me my favorite... a dream come true... a Pinata. Just what I wanted for my birthday. Our birthday party was complete! Food, Candy, Pinita, Cupcakes, and friends. I thank the Lord for all these blessings. I had a wonderful birthday party... a little early but definitely worth it!!!

Emma, one of my first grade students.

The Birthday Kids.

What a great way to start a birthday week. Plus, I got a new hat. Love the clown!

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3 day weekend=more travels

Well, I know it seems like I've been traveling a lot lately, but I am trying to untilize my breaks I have. For the month of October we had one Monday at school. Therefore, all my roommates and I took a trip to Tela.

We began our trip bright and early on the 5:00am bus to San Pedro Sula. Nearly 7 hours late we arrive in Tela. We get off the bus and ask a friendly man if we were close to our hotel. And of course he said we werre within walking distance from the hotel. We begin our walk....20 mins later we were still walking....ok thats it we were sick of traveling and sick of carring all of our back packs. Us seven girls get ourselves two taxis to get to our hotel. We decided because we usually stay in a hostel when we travel that we would get ourselves a nice hotel...let alone a resort. We got a great deal for this resort because we have Bank Atlanta cards. The sight of the hotel was jaw dropping.

We enjoyed the weekend by relaxing, swimming, playing sports, and enjoying the shows put on by the hotel. I could not have asked for a better weekend filled with fun and wonderful friends.

Other than my trips, life in Honduras is going great. I am becoming more and more comfortable here and am feeling more and more at home here. I enjoying going on walks in the city or hanging out with my roommates. We always seem to have a good time.

Volleyball is now started in school and I did not realize how much I missed volleyball until I got to coach the volleyball girls. It is different to be in a community wherre volleyball is not a big deal at all. I am use to volleyball being the main sport that girls play. But I love the volleyball players and am having funn being back into the sport again.

Teaching....I am finally as much as I can at this stage in life am getting more and more organized and ahold of teaching 1st and 8th graders. It was a hard adjustment to go from 1st to 8th and often times would call my 8th graders 1st graders in class... but I finally am getting a little grasp of the whole ordeal. It is never perfect... but Im trying!

I hope everything is going well in the states and I am grateful for all your thoughts and prayers that you all do for me.! Have a wonderful week!!

Lago de Yajoa...and places in between

Leave it to Kendall and I.  Her and I just happen to get ourselves into interesting situations!  We can easily call ourselves "Double Trouble."  Kendall and I get along really well, and many people have called me "weird" in my life, and Jen even stated herself that Kendall and I are both extremely weird and have finally found one another.  We just had to laugh about it!

Here is a perfect example of what happens when Kendall and I are left alone.  Kendall and I both have the same kind of foam rugs in our classrooms, but I didn't end up using them.  So she brought them home the other day and we decided that we would use them for little mats to work out on.  Well, the rest of the girls left somewhere for a bit, and Kendall and I are extremely tired.  But instead of going to bed, we decided to become robot people.  We made robot heads out of the foam pieces and took pictures.  It gave us a good laugh!    Then, it just got better.  We pulled our two chairs in front of our house door, sat in the dark with our robot heads on, and waited for someone to come home.  We literally sat there for over 30 minutes chatting quietly until we heard someone at the door.  In walked Justin and Jen, and they turned on the lights and we got two reactions: Jen, immediate laughter.  Justin, "what...the...world."  Priceless.  It was well worth the

one hour less of sleep we got that night! 

This weekend Kendall and I decided to head to Lago de Yajoa and meet up with some of the teachers from La Union.  We got a little bit turned around and lost on our journey there, but after 9 hours of travel, we safely made it to D&D's Brewery (our hostel), where we were going to be staying for the weekend.   We arrived around 3pm, and it was just pouring outside!  We had planned to float down the Jungle River, but instead we just hung out at the brewery for the day/night.  We were stayed in a private cabin that held six people, and that night the hostel had a trivia night and live music.  It turned out to be a lot of fun, even though our team didn't win!  It was fun to be able to sit down and relax.

The next morning we slept in and ate a nice breakfast at the hostel.  We then traveled to the waterfall, which turned out to be quite the walking adventure!  Buses in the area were said to never be consistent, and we found this to be a fact!  We walked quite a bit (a beautiful bit) until a bus that was finally heading towards the waterfall area picked us up.  We got to the waterfall and enjoyed hiking around the area and seeing the beautiful falls.  We had the option of going behind the waterfall, but for this you needed to hire a guide, and no one really seemed too interested in paying to do this. Still, the falls were beautiful! 

That night we just hung out at the hostel again.  We got to know the owner and manager a little bit from hanging out for the night, which was fun.  They even brought us a free plate of delicious crackers, cheese, and olives to enjoy, since we were all the last ones to be awake. 
Later that night two men in what looked like some kind of army gear came to the hostel. Kendall and I were paying for all of our stuff and talking with the manager, who happened to be good friends with the two guys (twin brothers).  Also, the manager and owner of D&D's spoke English.  Anyways, we were talking with the manager and he told us how the two Russian guys were "hit men..." I kid you not, HIT MEN!  He said they had just come in from "fishing"...for people!! I wanted to ask so many questions, because it was just so crazy to me!  But they didn't want to talk about "details" because there were other people around.  Anyways, I can say that was definitely a first experience for me!  But they were very friendly to us and reminded us to "stay safe" always, and were in and out of the hostel quickly after eating.  Needless to say, good thing I wasn't on anyone's hit list! Yikes!

Finally Kendall and I went to bed, ready to wake up at 5:30 for our long journey home.  Everything was going fine until we were on our last bus home, less than an hour away from Gracias.  First, our bus got a flat tire, which took about an hour to fix.  After we got going again for about a minute or so, our bus stops again and everyone had to get off.  We didn't realize that up ahead the road was blocked by officers for some reason.  After figuring out that everyone was now going to walk, we started to walk, and then the weather decided to start raining.  So, soaking wet, with a bunch of grocery bags and luggage from the weekend on us, we walk a bit further.  We were able to pass the officers, and by asking questions in the little Spanish that Kendall and I know we figure out that there is some kind of protest going on.  At the point both of us were very nervous because no one spoke any English and we had no idea what was going on or if we were in danger (we have heard in big cities protests can become very violent and to just stay away from them).  All of a sudden an army vehicle pulls up and about 20 army men jump out with their machine guns and beating sticks, and they continued further down the road.  At this point my heart began racing quite faster than normal.  We stayed back for a bit, and then we continued to walk with some people close by and stayed by some women.  There came a point in the road where it was completely blocked off by people and we stopped to sit behind a parked vehicle and Kendall used her last seconds on her phone to call Kristi.  We let her know where we were and what had happened.  Luckily, her husband Shannon had been at a lawyers office earlier and heard that there was a protest going on in Gracias about the road conditions.  We were told that we weren't in any kind of danger, but to just stay out of the protest itself.  This was a relief to hear at least that we weren't in any danger! 

So we sat around awhile and then an elderly lady came up to us and told us that we were able to keep walking if we wanted, but vehicles just weren't allowed to pass through.  We didn't know if we were being set up for something, because no one else was moving.  So we made our way through the crowd just to see why they were blocking the road.  What we saw was a sight I will never forget!  About 50 army men now blocked the road further ahead with their shields in front of them and weapons in hands.  I wish so badly I had a picture of the image I have in my head!  The elderly woman and now elderly man said that there was no danger and that we could pass, and so the elderly man led the way and we followed him.  The walk seemed forever towards the army men, and was very awkward because close to a hundred eyes were on us two gringos, the only people making their way past the army men.  The elderly man told the guards that we wanted to pass and they said in English, "Oh! Of course." 

We finally figured out that the whole time we were sitting and deciding what we should do, we were sitting in the protest itself.  We had no idea because everyone was just sitting and standing around, but I guess I am at least very happy that it wasn't violent at all!  We continued to walk a bit further, and Kristi and Shannon called to say they were coming to get us.  Soon after that call, they called again to say that there was another protest just past where we were and that they couldn't get past in in a vehicle.  So again Kendall and I walk through all the cars this time, and finally we see Shannon and Kristi up ahead looking for us.  It was such a relief to see them, especially since they have played a parental role in our lives here.  And praise God they drove us home safely!  

 

Blog: written by Kendall...revised by me...