falling in love.

Everytime I try to capture this beautiful place, in a picture, I can’t.

It’s more than just the mountians.

It’s when you get to sprint down a jungle path in the rain, feeling like you are living the life of Mogli from The Jungle Book.

Or when you are being served home roasted coffee and roskios in a distant village, deep in the jungle.

Or when you get to ride the motorcycle up the mountain in the approaching dusk.

Or get to make tortillas in the dark, with your best friend, because the power is out once again, giggling and telling stories in Spanish.

Or when you get to worship your creator in a language and with a people you are constantly falling more in love with.

And that’s when I become in awe, when I take a step back and look around.

Like I'm living in the jungle!!!!

Ever since I was like 10. I've wanted to live in the jungle. And now I am. And I don’t understand how it happened.

God is crazy like that.

Everyday I do something different.

But everyday my work is what I’ve always dreamed of, and I can’t believe that this is work.

You know how people are always like do what you love and you will never work a day in your life. Yep, that’s my life right now.

Like teaching English, playing soccer with kids, hanging out with teenage girls and sometimes cooking, or going hiking through the jungle to let a village know about an event.

Some days it doesn’t faze me, which scares me. Cause I want to stay in the state of awe, always. Of God’s beauty, his faithfulness, provision and love.

Other days I think I’m crazy.

Why did I think this was a good idea?

It must have been God. Cause like whatttt? Yeah I don’t understand it. Some days I feel like I have no purpose and I should just be at home going to school to get a degree and get married so that I can start my own orphanage. You know a whole year sooner. Cause that’s a good idea. Yeah right.

I don’t know.

I’m a confused individual.

But everyday I’m reminded of how much this is totally a God thing. That I’m here, that He provided for me, that I can be a part of something bigger than me, and that he created a place and people so beautiful.

He’s awesome and NONE of this would have happened without Him and I would be in college, not getting to experience what God has for me.

seeking

Find God, find life.

Seeking, longing, craving, and crying out.

Willing my eyes, clouded by sin, to see.

To see him in the midst of this beautiful place. To see him beyond the glorious mountains, smiling light brown faces, and vibrant trees that I wake up to each day.

Find a blessing. Thank Him. Write it down.

Find a blessing. Thank Him. Write it down.

Get ticked, or find something ugly. Thank God anyways.  Look for beauty in ugly. Thank Him some more. Write it down.

The hard thanks.

Constant thanksgiving. Continual communion with my creator.

Rejoicing in the hard and ugly. Finding Him in everything.

Rejoicing always, praying continually, giving thanks in everything.

May my praise be all that you can hear!

I experienced Him once, and nothing else fulfills. Nothing else will do. He is all I want. He is all I long for.

Siempre volviendo para mas. Estoy nunca satesfecha. Siempre queiro mas.

I'm constantly craving to see Him, and to be with Him.

Running along side Him and holding His hand.

late night surprises

I just killed my first scorpion.

And it was a moment full of much excitement.

I showered this morning. And saw it. And was trying my best to not move the curtain that it was on. Later I mentioned it to my roommate. And even later when she showered, she saw it. And she said it was on the wall.

Well she thought she did.

Right before bed I asked her if it was still there, and she showed me.

Yeah she showed me the spider, and I showed her the scorpion. It hadn’t moved.

She freaked out.

And we discussed the best method to kill it.

1.  Go get some male to do it.
2. Use the bug spray we use to kill ants.
3. Get it off the curtain, by means of flinging it, and hope it lands somewhere that we can smash it with a shoe.

Guess which one we chose. Yeah the last one.

The problem with it?

When I tried to fling it off the curtain… it kinda disappeared. Like we couldn’t find it, so of course we freaked out. Big time.

We really didn’t want it sneaking up into our beds tonight.

Eventually we found it. I smashed it, so that it was almost dead, but so that you could still tell that it was a scorpion.

And then we proceded to have a photo shoot cause we were proud of ourselves.

Which was quickly followed by scooping it up and chucking it outside.

I’d say that it was a pretty interesting experience. 

work, work, and more work

So…. I do a bunch of random things.

Like I don’t really have a job title. I just help everyone else that have their own programs or activites.

I would give you a day by day for what a normal week looks like, but I have been here a month, and I haven’t had a normal week yet. Things always change. Like I help with things that are once, twice or three times a week, but something always happens.

But I’ll try to explain.

So the main thing that I do is help at the school.

I go with Monica, an Ecuadorian American, so she is fluent in English and Spanish, but shes a volunteer, anyways I go with her to school. She teaches English to 3^rd and 4^th graders, and then 5^th and 6^th graders. Typically I just sit there and watch her teach, but the kids have to ask me if they have questions. Sometimes I write things on the board. I also am in charge of grading everything and have to turn all the grades in, in a couple weeks to the government. So I have all their assignments and have to keep track of them. I am also going to start helping her make curriculum for the rest of the school year and next year.

Typically what she teaches is some vocab that is reinforced for two weeks-ish. And on Mondays we do math. So they know the numbers and how to say add, subtract, etc. We do things with them that they might not get otherwise because there are only two teachers for six grade levels.

I help there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and school only goes until noon.

Leah, my American roommate, is the Librarian and is in charge of “library”. It’s a program for all the kids in the community. They have some free time where they play outside in the beginning. Then some kids read two books aloud for everyone else, and Leah normally has a activity that goes along with one of the books. Then its silent reading time, and they can read any book that they want. At the end of the program, they do another game with a ball, or play board games. And lately I’ve been in charge of figuring out a game.

             After Library, we have soccer practice. Which is a weird concept, cause no one has “practice”. Even “practices” for the mens team from the village, just consists of a scrimmage. So we do different drills for 30 mins, which is interesting because we only have like 7 balls, so we have to figure out how to do drills with 20-30 kids with that. But Monicas husband Kelvin, is in charge of that, so I help with ideas for drills, and help kick and throw balls at kids or let them kill me when they shoot.

Those programs are only on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

Leah and Cynthia, another American volunteer who is here with her family, run the preschool program. It’s just for the kids that are living on the property, and that don’t go to school yet. So the volunteers’ kids go as well as one of the Honduran worker’s kid, cause they live here. I help them keep the kids focused and participating. We are constantly teaching them colors and numbers and different vocabulary. We do different activities to help with sensory issues, and do lots of projects and crafts, as well as dancing to music and trying to help them get their shoes on the right feet. Preschool is on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

The rest of the time if I’m not grading papers or working on another project, I either clean and nap, or go find another project to do.

Friday night in the basketball court we have church that is geared towards the kids. Well more like a youth service, not a kids service. Some of the Honduran college kids that work here, sing and do the music, with a mixture of some other people. There is normally a game and then Kelvin or one of the college kids speaks.

Its open to everyone, and they are trying to fix little tweaks before they start sending a bus halfway down the mountain to bring more kids.

So that’s my week and on Saturdays I try to not die of boredom, if there isn’t a special event or we are going to town.

Prayer Requests

 - Contentment here. It’s getting better. But I still have a ways to go. I think a lot about when I get back, but that’s a ways away. A long ways away, 11 months away. And my brain still doesn’t get that. And not constantly wanting to go to where the wifi is to talk to friends and family, because I want to know what is happening in their lives. 
I need a balance between learning to live life on my own and letting other people live life without me, but still being able to talk and communicate with people. 

- To open up and not be afraid to use my spanish and build deep relationship.

- To find where I fit in with work cause I have set stuff I do everyday, for at least part of it, but its all helping other people run their little program or activities for the kids. I haven’t really found my “thing” yet.

 - For my relationship with my american roommate. We have had some disagreements and it can be a little tough to get along because we are pretty different.