I'm Coming HOME!

Well, I cannot believe my time is already here to come back to the States. Kendall and I fly back to the States tomorrow where we will meet the Coon family. Then next Tuesday night I will be back into Iowa. I cannot believe that my time here is up.

Well that last couple weeks of school went well. It was really sad to say goodbye to my students. It is a wierd feeling to think I may never see these students again. I would love to in the next couple years come back and visit!

As for now, I just arrived back from my last trip in Central America. Kendall and I decided to take aroad trip to Antigua Guatemala for a few days. We loved being able to relax and enjoy the beautiful creation God has given us. Our biggest struggle was trying to figure out how much money to convert. We could use american dollars, but then found ourselves lossing a lot more money than we should. Some how, by God's grace, we made it. About two hours out of Antigua there is a Lake called Lago Atilian. We enjoyed sitting by the water and listening to the waves crash against the shore. While sitting at a coffee shop we asked that owner to tell use a little about the lake. Because this part of Guatamela is very Catholic there are 12 different pueblos around the lake. Each pueblo has one of the 12 disciples name like San Pedro, San Juan, and so on. Also, the lake is surrounded by 3 volcancos. Many years ago the volcanos errupted and the ash and rocks distroyed a Mayan comunity (which is were the lake is now). Many divers have tried to explore the ruins, but find it to be too cold near the bottom of the lake. I am always amazed at the history God had created.

Lastly, I am sitting in my hotel in San Pedro Sula excited to come home. I am so blessed to have so many prayer warrors on my experience in Honduras. It has been amazing feeling the protection and love from God through his people. God is good. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers.

Please pray for a safe trip back to the states. The steadfast love of the Lord never fails.

Two More Weeks (and a vacation)

The end is definitely in sight whether I am ready or not. Only two more weeks of teaching my sweet little first graders. Boy is it going to be hard to say good bye. Last weekend, we attended that house church with Kristi and Shannon.  Luis (a Honduran we all have gotten to know) wanted to invite us to his home for church. So, we piled in the back of the truck and headed 40 minutes up the windy, dusty, road to church. After our sermon on Romans, Luis took us to see his land. He has waterfalls and caves all over his property. The caves were incredible. There were so many different paths to take and it was so dark in the ground. There was a time he said with this many people we should turn around because the air gets too thin here. We explored the cave hoping that Luis knew exactly how to get out. And I am here to tell you about it so I am okay!
 

On Monday, after school Stacey, Kendall, and I went to the dentist to get our teeth cleaned. We enjoyed our experience, but all came away with a few cavities. I guess I will have to worry about those later.

On Tuesday, we go to tutoring for Spanish. Well this week we decided we wanted to celebrate our last week of tutoring so we took our teacher out to eat at a local hotel here, Don Juan's. It was delicious, but Honduran style we had to wait for our teacher for an hour before she showed up. Nonetheless the food was delicious!

Stacey had a roommate that is an intern from Tegus who is working at the local hospital. So, on Thursday, she planned on working in the OB. In Africa Kendall got to experience working at the hospital and help with giving birth to babies, so she wanted to experience it here as well. So, we got on our scrubs and got a tour of the hospital. In the two hours we were there we got to experience new life to a baby boy. We had so much fun seeing God's work through the hands of the doctor and a miracle taking place. It was such an awesome experience.

I had a great week. I am going to do my best to live my last few weeks to the fullest. Oh how life flies by. And another adventure starts. God is good.

Live Life to the Fullest

Wow, its been a little while since I've written, but it is over due for another post.

First, last weekend was a very exciting weekend. It was Amy's birthday on Saturday, so on Friday night we surprised her with a little party at a nearby resurant that none of us have ever been to. She loved the surprise and it was good to fellowship with all the teachers in Gracias.

On Saturday my roommates gave me a little Bachlorette party. They figured, what better to have one than in Honduras. So, we had a lot of fun hanging out as all female teachers and playing some fun games. I am so blessed with this wonderful support group of teachers that care for eachother very much. It will be hard to leave them.

Monday afternoon my 1st graders had a soccer game. It was so fun to watch them run around and kick the ball. It is cute to see how excited they were to have their teacher watch them.

This week at school went well. It is awesome to see my students grow more and more everyday. They keep getting cuter! I can't imagine the feeling when I have to leave them. My hope is that I will get to see them again in 5 or so years. But, that is up to God if I will be able to.

Last night was a fairly eventful night, but today is going to be full of excitement. I plan on going on a run today, to the dentist, watch my kids play soccer, and do a little shopping. I am excited to be in Gracias for this weekend to spend it to the fullest.

Well, this is all folks for this week. I hope you all are doing well and I will be home in a month to Sioux Center. Thanks for all your prayers and pray that I will enjoy my las 3 weeks.

Exhausted

Sore, I am very sore. After a long hike to the highest point in all of Honduras(2,849 meters, about 16km total hiking), I finally made it back safe and sound. Its been a busy weekend but a great one to have in the last months of school.

This past week Tuesday, when we didn't have school, we had a baby shower for two of the ladies that work at our school. It was good to be with the Honduran teachers and get to know them a little better. We had the baby shower at the hot springs in gracias where we had to drive down a steep mountain to get there. Most vehicles can make it up and down the mountain fine, but the van we were ridding in had a little trouble with all of our weight (maybe we ate too much food!). We had to get out of the van and walk up the hill while the van drove. Only in Honduras.


Jennifer, Raquel, Stacy, Kendall, Tabitha, Amy, me, Kristi

My lovely assistant Mrs Delmy

So, I only taught my kids for 2 1/2 days this week which was a nice way to ween back into teaching. I had parent teacher conferences on Friday. It went well and there were no too upset parents, so that was a relief. I had a great time talking to the parents and getting to know their children a little better.

Then Saturday morning, bright and early we got into a red pickup truck and drove 1 hour down dusty and dirty roads to a small village called San Manuel. From there we met our guide who took us up two hours up a steep, rocky trail where our guide Santos was loosing some great faith in us (I guess we took too many breaks). After two hours we got to eat at his mom's house a delicious breakfast. I had never felt more tired. We then persevered through the mountain going straight up (they say most of the inclines and declines are about 60%). It was tough and a few of the girls rented horses to help out the load. By around 3:00 we made it to our campsite and enjoyed relaxing, making spaghetti over the fire, talking, and playing games. We were so thankful we made it. To top of a good hike God sent us rain and then HAIL! I had not seen hail in so long but it was exciting to finally see it again. They were just little pea sized hail but we were very surprised. We went to bed at 7:00 and slept for a long time in our little tiny tent that was meant for 2 people.

This morning we got up at 5:00 and left our camp about 6:00 to continue on our journey. We made it up to the tallest point around  8:30 were we gasped at God's miraculous beauty. God is good. All the hiking was definitely worth it. After that moment it was time for the decline. My knees have never felt so sore. The mountain was steep, slippery, and rocky. Thank goodness we made it all out of there safely. With some cuts, bruises, and falls we are all okay and thankful that we could spend so much time in God's lovely world.

Enjoy the lovely pictures. God is good. Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for perseverance through the rest of the year. It is becoming hard to keep trucking through the year.



Breakfast



Our drinking water



Crammed into our tent



We made it to the TOP!!



EXHAUSTED!! Our guide Santos

Tegus or bust

Once again, I failed this week at writing on my blog, but dont worry I have good excuses.

Well, two weeks ago we had spirit week for the big gathering that I just got back from in Tegus. The highschool students did not have to wear their uniforms and were able to do their hair crazy for crazy hair day, wear class colors, dress up like movie characters and other various ideas. It was fun to watch the kids participate.

Then last week Friday (1 1/2 weeks ago) played volleyball in Santa Rosa. I loved watching my girls compete and they finally won a game. They have improved fundamentally so much, but we are still working on how to play in a game.

Last week Monday, the teachers surprised all the students with a nice dance. It was alot of fun practicing and warming up with the dance with the other teachers. Here is a video to give you a good idea of our dance.

Last weekend we went to La Union for the first time. We left at noon on Saturday and came back by 8 on sunday so it was a quick trip but a well worth one to see more of God's beautiful world. It was also good to see and compare the other abundant life school to ours and seee how similiar and different our lives are. In La Union they dont have any resturants and only little places out of people homes (comedors) to eat. So, we at at one of those places while being there.

Well now here I am, I finally made it back from my week of monitoring, fun, and exhausted. I had a great time in Tegus with the highschool students watching them compete in sports and other various activities. All the Abundant life schools in Honduras get together at this Student Anual Gathering (SAG) to compete verses other schools.  It was so nice to see them outside of school and how they interact with eachother. I still cant believe that I am the teacher of them. I never though I would be this old.

We played volleyball on Thursday, and of course we were matched up with one of the top teams in all of Honduras. So, we had to play the tegus school first and my girls worked hard, but we didnt win. I know volleyball isnt about winning, but it is hard to seem them get beat, they work so hard. I guess I will continue to work with them and see if we can get any better in the last month of school. I added some pictures from volleyball, and SAG for you all to look at. The pictures say it all.

This Friday is parent teacher confrences, please pray that they go okay. I had a few students not do so well in my 8th language class, so I am a bit nervous to talk to the parents. Hopefully none of them are too upset.

Thank you for all your htoughts and prayers. Love and miss you all!

Only TWO more Months-bitter sweet

I cannot believe that I only have two months left of school. I have so much to do, so much to teach my kids, and so much to see. So, I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed, excited and sad all at the same time. I am sad thinking about leaving my students, excited to get home to start "really" planning for our wedding and seeing my family and friends.

This past week of school went well. It was hard to get back into the swing of things after a long vacation, but it was great to see the kids again. Every week I have my students write their spelling words twice and then on the back of the paper they need to write me a sentence/story and draw a picture. So, Jossue wrote this sentence:

The men dat is faver of Miss Kily is Luis an Marcelo an Ana.

The picture of me teaching with my three favorite students

At recess I went up to Jossue and said, "What does this say?" He read it to me just as I thought he had wrote it (The favorite men of Miss Kiley is Luis, and Marcelo, and Ana) . I said "Jossue you are my favorite too, so is Melvin, Jossiel etc, you ALL are my favorites." Why didnt you write everyone in the class. He kept his answer short and sweet "No Time." I guess I did not give him enough time to finish his work. The poor kid doesnt realize that I love all my students the same. Hopefully I am not doing something wrong :D

Also, I had chapel this week where I had to give the sermon. So, I had my kids help me where we talked about  people we hope did not go to our school like Pokey Pink or Bossy Blue, or Tan Tattle, Or Yelling Yellow, or Greedy Green, Or Rudy Red. The first Graders helped me with each person and held up the faces. I then tried to tie it all into how we need to be like Tommy and Tillie Trier because they were nice (only these kind of kids go to Abundant Life), and how we need to live with the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. I think the kids enjoyed being apart of chapel and they just love acting things out.

Also, Kristi (the missionary here), her mom, came out to visit. She is a retired teacher of many years and had sat in my classroom after the first couple months of school. She then asked if she could come sit in my class again. Boy was I nervous! She came in to give me advice, encouragement, and help. In the end it was okay that she was there, she taught my math class and helped the students that needed help during reading. It is nice having some guidance and help when being a first year teacher.

Yesterday, I finally caved in and got my hair cut. It has been a while since I've got it done, I believe since August. So it was due time. It cost me about $2.50. Not to bad for a nice trim. A lot of times on Sunday the teachers like to get together and do praise and worship and have a Bible Study (Kristi and Shannon were out of town). So this morning we all got together while Raquel played the guitar to sing and praise the wonderful God we serve. I love being able to sing songs in English and discussing the Bible with fellow believers.

This coming Friday my volleyball team will head to Santa Rosa to play a Bilingual school there and next week I will be gone from Tuesday-Sunday to Tegus for SAG (student anual gathering) so i need to get a lot of lessons ready for a substitute so please pray that I will keep it all in perspective and get everythign ready in time for the teacher who will teach my class.

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. Love Kiley

Thank you God for safety.

Well, I never thought I would say, I am thankful to be back in Honduras.

Easter break was QUITE an amazing adventure, and we are back safely in Gracias!  We made it to Nicaragua, Costa Rica AND El Salvador even...God's world is SO beautiful and I am so excited to share my adventures with you through words and pictures, enjoy!
Saturday morning Kendall, Amy, Tabitha and I headed out for an adventure we had been waiting a good time for.  We headed to Tegus first, making our way by night to the border of Nicaragua.  We had planned to stay in Nicaragua for a day or two in the beginning, but there were issues with our visas, and we would have been illegally there in the next two days if we stayed there.  We thought our school figured everything out with our visas, but it turns out that because Nicaragua is in the same region as Honduras, there were problems.  We decided to just stay the night and then head to Costa Rica right away, and enjoy Nicaragua on our way back.  We got through the border on our "taxis" which were men on bikes with wooden carts in front for us to sit in.  We then got on a bus and headed to the town of Leon, staying at a hostel called Sonati, and rested up to head out the next morning to Costa Rica.

We woke up at 5am to catch our buses to Playa Tamarindo where we were going to stay in Costa Rica.  Because it was Semana Santa, all of the buses were EXTRA crowded.  These buses are normally packed, but we are talking about 200 people on a 50 person bus.  It was not fun!    We had a few more issues with the border for Costa Rica, because they needed proof we were coming back into Honduras, and they wouldn't allow us to show them our plane tickets.  All of the buses we had been taking and planned to take didn't provide tickets, so we had no other option but to buy their only expensive bus back..kind of like a tourist trap for us.  It was only $25, but we didn't need to spend that amount of money when other buses cost barely a fraction of that price, but we had no other choice--so we bought that bus ticket for our journey back to Nicaragua, for two days later.  After we figured the border problems out, we soon we made it to Tamarindo, which was as much of a surfer town as you can it-it was awesome!  There were tons of tourists everywhere, and the beach and the music just made it really feel like vacation.  We found a surf hostel, La Oveja Negra, and got a room.  We walked around the town for a bit, finding some dinner and then we played ping-pong at our hostel and just relaxed. 

The next morning we all woke up early and went for a nice run on the beach.  We found breakfast at a place down the rode, and then we enjoyed the beach all day together.  We made a mermaid in the sand, swam in the waves in the ocean, and enjoyed the sunshine.  Soon we realized we had enjoyed too much sunshine, and were all fried, oops!  We went back to the hostel and napped for a bit and then we headed back to the beach to play some sand volleyball before sunset.  We met two guys from michagan, Pat and Ben, who also played with us.  After the sunset we cleaned up and headed out for a yummy dinner we were all excited about, sushi!  It was every bit of delicious. 


The next morning we took the 9am bus to head back to Nicaragua. We got off at a stop to wait for our expensive bus back to Nicaragua, which happened to be a gas station.  We waited there for about an hour or so,as our expensive bus pulled up--air conditioning and comfortable seats and all. Just what I needed after a long day of travel.  God is good.

We finally made it to the ferry to take us to the volcanic islands in Nicaragua of Ometepe.  The volcanic islands are on a huge fresh water lake--which seemed like the ocean.  The ferry before had just left and we were sitting and waiting for ours to arrive when I noticed a man ahead on the sidewalk take off his shirt and climb down the rocks into the water.  I instantly scanned the water for what he was doing when I noticed a man in the water trying to stay afloat.  Men on the other ferry had also just thrown the safety raft into the water and one of them began to swim towards the drowning man as well.  The waves were big and the man continued to come up and go under water.  The men were close by this time, but my prayers were still going strong.  Thankfully they made it to the man and pulled him safely into shore.  We later found out that the man had put his stuff on the last ferry to go to the islands for someone, but he didn't want to go to the island himself--the ferry left before he got off--so he decided to jump and swim to shore a bit after it left.  Thank the Lord those men were able to save him!

We got to the islands and found our hotel--The American Hotel & Cafe, which was run by an elderly American couple.  We walked around the small town a bit and found some pizza, and then rested up for the night.  The next morning we had breakfast and then decided to rent scooters to ride to a small beach at a National Park about 20 minutes away.  It was so beautiful to be riding through the islands on scooters, dodging stray dogs and even more cows.  We were almost to the beach, and turned down a road with a lot of loose sand, and Tabitha and Amy fell on a turn in front of us.  Luckily it was very sandy and they just got a couple of scrapes.  The small beach was very beautiful and we swam in the fresh water lake.  After awhile we walked through the park a bit to get to a lagoon, where we wanted to swim across to a small island.  We started to swim, but soon realized the current was way too strong and we would not be able to safely make it to the island.  So we enjoyed the scenery and water for a bit more before walking back to our mopeds and heading back into town. We enjoyed lunch quickly and then took the ferry back, and found Louis, the taxi driver we had met the night before and hired to drive us the three and half hours back to the city of Leon, where we originally planned to stay in Nicaragua.  We had some price issues with Louis in the beginning because we realized there were two Leons, and he wasn't planning to take us to the right one.  All throughout this trip we were VERY thankful for Tabitha's Spanish that we ended up needed very often.  She worked it out with him and we continued on our way to Leon. 

We checked back into Sonati, found a restaurant with delicious chicken wraps, and looked at souvenirs in the park.  The next morning we made breakfast at our hostel and then walked around the town a bit.  All of the museums and shops we wanted to look at were closed because of Semana Santa unfortunately.  We ate lunch at another hostel down the road, and then went back to our hostel to plan our way back to Honduras, since we decided we would be able to make it to El Salvador as well.  After planning for a bit, we got ready to head to the activity I enjoyed the most: volcano sledding!  Tabitha had done it last year, so she decided to hang back at the hostel.  Kendall, Amy and I headed out with our tour guide Nony to Cerro Negro, about a half hour away.  Nony was such a cool fella, originally from Israel, but working in Nicaragua for many years as a volunteer.  Him and our hostel Sonati work with young children and teaches them the importance of the environment and how to keep it clean.  We hiked the hour up the volcano learning so much more about volcanoes, while seeing the craters, and gases being released and feeling the heat from below.  It was like being on another planet!  We went up diagonally, reaching the top in one hour.  The view was incredible!  We had to wait quite awhile on the top for the group in front of us to finish, so we just sat and talked and enjoyed the view.  Soon it was our turn, and Nony went down a bit before us to take some pictures of our rides down!  The ride was AWESOME--you had to lean back to go faster and then keep yourself balanced by using your appropriate foot on the ground when needed.  I was having such a blast I couldn't stop smiling, and I got volcanic ash everywhere in my mouth and everywhere else--I probably still have some in my hair right now!  Volcano sledding was so beautiful and thrilling at the same time, I wanted to do it again instantly! 

After our sledding we showered and found a small rooftop restaurant for dinner and then we went to bed.  The next morning we headed out at 4:30am to El Salvador.  We got on our first bus to the boarder of Honduras and then our next bus to the boarder of El Salvader where we arrived at Perquin, before dark.  The rides to Perquin were so beautiful though, and the air was much cooler and fresher feeling.  We found a beautiful hotel for the night, and it soon began to pour down rain.  Just what we needed after a long day of travel!  I sure do miss it raining often and also thunderstorms!  In El Salvador they only use American money, and we each had only taken out $20, not knowing there would be no where to exchange Lempiras at all.  We each split dinner to save money, and luckily our hotel had a free breakfast, so our $20 was just enough!  That night we enjoyed HOT showers and played cards together before bed.  We enjoyed our breakfast in the morning and then began making our way back home to Gracias to be able to make it back by Saturday night, to have Sunday to relax, plan for school, and enjoy Easter!  Buses were few and far from in between, so we ended up walking 5km on a dirt road towards the border of Honduras, and the mountains and hills and towns were SO beautiful.  We got to a hotel on the road, Hotel Arizona, where we hired the owner to drive us to the border, which was 10km or more, that we would have never been able to walk the whole way.  The ride was beautiful in the back of his truck, and we soon made it to the no man's land--the dead area between Honduras and El Salvador that belongs to neither of them.  We walked through this area which was just so interesting, and 1km later we made it to the Honduras border area.  From there we went to two more small cities and made it back to Gracias by 5pm!  WOW!

God has blessed me with such an incredible life here and it has been so awesome to see more of His creation here in Central America.  I am happy to be back to be back in Gracias, and although I am not fully prepared to teach tomorrow yet, I am fully ready to see all the kids at school again, I sure do miss them!

Thanks again for all your prayers while we were travelling. We could definitally feel God's presence with us where ever we went. Thanks again for all your continued prayers aas well. Love and miss you all.