Advertisement
Published: January 3rd 2009
Edit Blog Post
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!!
This past month has been so busy, between Period II exams, the Christmas Program, and church activities, I was going all the time!!
The last Sunday in November our church went to Limon for the service. We had a nice time of fellowship there and I took my camera along to get some beautiful shots. Every time we go there I always say, "I wish I had my camera," so this time I didn't forget it. On the way back we packed in the back of the truck, along with some hitch-hikers. This is one thing I love about Honduras, riding in the back of pickup trucks. It is such a fun experience every time!
The Honduran school year lets out in November, and then comes graduation parties and weddings and all sorts of things. November, December and January are much like our June, July and August. Life gets really busy when school gets out. But of course, I was still teaching in the bilingual school while life got busy so it was pretty crazy for me.
We had two graduation parties in our
church and a wedding in December. Every weekend someone was in the church decorating and getting ready for a big event. The first graduation party was for Maribel, a young member of the church. She is a very joyful girl, I love to be around her because her smile is infectious! The pastor's sister-in-law sang at the graduation and we ate quite a bit.
The second graduation was for Marlene, a daughter of a member in our church. I don't know her well but the entire church was invited and I was not going to miss out so I went! We had a very nice time and afterward her family invited me to their house to watch her open the gifts.
All month we have been very busy at school, getting ready for period 2 tests and the Christmas program. I wrote the drama for the school (actually, I copied it from the Spanish Bible) but did not direct it because my Spanish skills are still not great. And every classroom teacher had to teach a song to the class so I chose "How Great our Joy" for 2nd grade. It was a struggle, but they did learn
all three stanzas and when they sang up front, did an exceptional job.
The Christmas program was amazing. The teachers spend the entire day, from 7 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, making and decorating the stage. That evening at 5:30, we led the children from the school to the stage which was near the park. Each child had a lantern with a candle in it; it was very pretty. Then we put on an hour-long presentation near the park. It didn't go exactly as planned, the sound system didn't work until halfway through the program, and not one teacher knew the program so we were waiting on our tiptoes to hear which grade was up next, but everything turned out alright.
After the program I left Santa Rita with my friend Carol and went to her dad's surprise birthday party. It was also a special evening because it was the last evening I would spend with the family for a few weeks.
The Christmas program was the last school event for two weeks. It was now officially Christmas Vacation!!!
The next day I attended a wedding at our church. I didn't know the couple
but they invited the church, and I couldn't give up an offer to go to a wedding. I love weddings!!!!! But this wedding was very different from the first wedding I attended. The people did not do anything to prepare, they only told pastor the date and bought the dress and the tux for the groom. The people from the church helped decorate and they made a program (last minute). The wedding was rather disorganized, like no one knew what was happening next. (Which was probably true.) But in the end, they were married and that was the goal. :-) After the ceremony everyone piled into several truck beds and we drove to the next town over to celebrate. The family had killed several pigs and everyone ate to their heart's content.
The next day Zonia drove me early in the morning to the...airport!!! I came home for Christmas vacation! I really wanted to go home for the holidays, and I am very grateful to God that everything worked out so I could visit my family. It was only for two weeks, and time went uncannily fast, but I did enjoy every minute of it.
My brother arrived
Almost finished...
We only need about 10 bags of cement to finish the floor! from Colorado, and I from Honduras about 12 midnight in the Detroit airport. We finally made it home about 5 in the morning. It was nice that Dan was able to find a flight that matched mine so my parents only had to drive once to the airport. I was able to spend Christmas with all my grandparents and immediate family, and that was so special to me. We also had a minor celebration at my house on the 31st.
The 5th of January school starts, I fly in to Honduras the 4th. I have made more goals for the third period, teaching goals as well as goals for my students. It will be another challenging period but I am looking forward to it.
There are just a few prayer requests this time. One is for my health, I have been sick almost a month and was hoping it would go away over the holidays but it did not. It started out as a cold and now it is a cough that won't go away and it bothers my lungs. Please pray that I would can recover so I can get back to teaching without any problems.
Graduation
Maribel (on the right) graduated. Her friend sang for her in the ceremony. The other thing to pray about is my church. They have almost finished laying the floor and the next business at hand are what they call "balcones", which are bars that go around the windows for security. Right now the windows are wide open any anyone can just jump in and take whatever. They would like to start purchasing them but they are quite expensive. Please pray for initiative of the church members.
It is possible to raise the money here in Santa Rita but it will take a lot of work and dedication!
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. Take care, and don't forget to give all your plans for the year to the Lord because He directs our paths. God bless. ~ anna
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 7; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0174s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kary Chapman
non-member comment
Fund Raiser...???
When I was in Peru people would have parrilladas, or polladas, or cuilladas (just keep it easy and call it a parrillada)... any way, it was basically a BBQ. People do them all the time to raise money for a new roof, or whatever. The family spends the whole day before preparing all the food, and then they spend the whole day of cooking it all. That day, they sell... basically entrance tickets. Every ticket gets you a plate of food. (There was also a LOT of beer too, but I think it could be successful even without that ; )