school.

The first week of school has just ended, and it has been interesting. (Well… I started writing this like three weeks ago. So school started the first week in February.)

This year is different because now the kids go to school from 8 until 3, whereas last year they went from 7-12. So not only are they not on the property for a while, they are gone almost all day.

The good thing is that someone has to walk them to and from school, as well as go and bring them back for lunch and then take them back to school after that. I get to walk the kids to school with Maria (another volunteer) and we get to spend a good amount of time with the kids that way, as well as working on our tan!

Each kid has a hat, to shade them from the sun, cause it’s a good walk to get to school, but they always try to give their hats to us, as well as their backpacks. So some days I end up with 5 backpacks to carry, and a hat that doesn’t fit my head.

Since the kids have school all day, we haven’t been able to start the classes on the property that we offered last year as an additional program in the afternoon. For right now, I go up with two volunteers (Monica and Maria) to teach English two days a week, and it’s super fun getting to plan activities and games to teach them English. And I also get to hang out with some of the other kids that don’t live one the property by going to the school.

Something else that is different about this year, is that two of the oldest girls are being homeschooled on the property. Because of their age and current grade they will not be allowed, if they are accepted, to enter Instituto El Rey, the private Christian high school, that our kids will attend after elementary school. Hopefully by the end of this school year these girls will be caught up enough to enter IER!

It’s been a lot of fun being able to teach the kids, and attempt to speak Spanish and explain things well, as well as teaching them new information. I started out planning the activities with Maria, and after Monica taught the information we would explain and run the activity. This past week I taught the whole class by myself, with a little help from Maria!

my honduran life.

In the past couple weeks I have basically become a Honduran. Well... not really. But oh well.

First I learned how to drive a motorcycle. Am I’m almost to the point where I can drive it by myself. And let me tell you. It is the most glorious thing in the world.

I also have babysat some of the houses for a whole day, with another girl. Sometimes when the parents go to the city they need someone to watch the kids and cook. The first time we babysat the more behaved kids and it was fun. This past week, we watched the crazy kids’ house. Which was also a blast.

But what also comes along with babysitting is cooking. And I'm super duper proud to say that I can cook Honduran food by myself and have several meals that I can cook. All from scratch. And it doesn’t taste too bad.

Last week at church my friend did the welcome, and I prayed in Spanish.

Which was so nerve racking cause the church is made of teenagers and kids, who are mostly guys, that stare you down.

Also… I realized that I stutter when I speak Spanish to people I don’t know, cause I get nervous. Terrible right.

This week at church me and my friend sang with the worship band. Which was interesting enough by itself, not to mention the fact that we aren’t fluent and can’t really sing. It wasn’t nerve racking, but no one could here us, which is fine by me. I think the worship leader turned our mics down on purpose. But hey, I’m not complaining.