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