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