16 and counting

Oh man folks, sorry for the long delay in posting, the last few days have been crazy, lots happening! This week has been our first full week at school and my class has grown and grown, which has been BLOWING my mind!!! I am now up to 16 students, which compared to many classes in the States is still a small number, but seeing how at open house I had FIVE, 16 is a HUGE jump! But, in reality it is a blessing. We have been praying for more students to register and well God is bringing the students, it's pretty wild.

Monday was rough, and I definitely came near tears at one point talking to my director about it. I had 3 new students come in that day and I felt so overwhelmed about teaching and classroom management and just felt so helpless all day. Teaching is no joke and everyday I grow a newfound respect for all the teachers out there in the world, this is no easy task!

But Tuesday was a new day, and although it brought 3 more new students, it also brought a whole new peace. I rearranged my classroom and turned the desks into group tables and tried my best to mix up the students so that I could manage the chaos and the day as a whole just went a whole lot smoother. Each day since then has been going just a bit smoother, and I think we're finally starting to get into a bit of a rhythm and I'm growing closer to the students each day. I love sitting out and talking/playing with them during recess and lunch. Those are precious moments that really help strengthen my relationship with them. I feel more and more blessed each day that I get to learn and grow with this little kiddies. Our class is still pretty chaotic most days, but overall I think we're starting to get into the flow of things. THANK YOU JESUS! haha!

Here is a picture of my precious little ones,

My kiddies (missing 3)

Yesterday some of them were hula-hooping during lunch and it might have been one of cutest things I've seen, ever.

intense concentration

So precious

sweet girl. 

Love this little guy!! 

On another note, last weekend after our first couple days of school we decided to take a mini-vaca to the west side of the island. We stayed in a cute little hostel out in West End. West End is mainly a touristy area, and is getting a road paved through it. It was all of our first times there and we had a blast hanging out at the beach and with each other. While hanging out at the beach a random man with a monkey on his shoulder came strolling by (no big deal, day in a life on the island haha!) and let us take some pics with it. Love the random things that we encounter here.

Just hanging out. 

The next day we went to church in West Bay at the only gringo church on the island. Some of the girls had went to a bit of it the week before and we had dinner with the pastor and his wife earlier in the week. Then we spent the day at the beach. The weather here on the island has been crazy lately. While at the beach a random, huge storm rolled through, and 30 mins later the sun was right back out as if nothing happened. So strange. We also ran into Pablo, one of the boys we've befriended in French Harbor. Him and his cousin were at the beach and we spent most of the afternoon with them.

Overall, life is sweet folks. I am so blessed to be here it blows my mind!

First Days of School

Oy vey, what a week it has been! We just finished our first week of school and it was a doozy, and they were just half days :/ haha. Well, where to begin? I started school on Wednesday and I have 10 students, although 1 more just got added to my class today. So my number is now at 11, 4 girls and 7 boys. They are the cutest kids ever. They are all very sweet and great, but man they are WILD. They have a lot of energy and it's been a bit difficult for me to try and figure out how to manage it all in the classroom. I have a lot to learn and I'm realizing that that is totally normal, so I'm trying to have a bit of grace on myself and not be too hard on myself. But there's a lot for me to think about and figure out with classroom management, but I'm sure it will all come with time. I'm not going to lie, it was a bit rough this week. I feel like I'm a horrible teacher and I have no idea what I'm doing, but I know it's just going to take time and that I just need to trust God. On a more of a positive note, I am really so thankful for this time and these kids. Difficulties aside, God is always good and these children are sweet and beautiful and it's a privilege to be able to teach them.

Here's some pictures of them, they are quite the hams, so excited to take pictures:

working hard or hardly working?

My kids

The boys. 

I have a couple ideas rumbling in my head for re-organizing the desks to create stations for them. Have a lot to think about and figure out, slowly but surely. It's definitely going to be a challenging and stretching year, but I'm excited to grow as a teacher and to watch these kids grow.

Please pray for me and my fellow teachers, next week will be our first full week and although it is exciting, it's a bit daunting at the same time. A lot of us were a bit overwhelmed. Thanks for all your love and support!


On another totally unrelated note, I just found this picture from a couple weeks ago when we found this huge bug in our apartment and thought I'd share. Oh the island life.

Beach Bums

This weekend has had some sweet weather. It's been quite warm and sunny, just the way we like it. We had planned to have a beach day Saturday, but in the morning one of the girls didn't feel so well and ended up going to the doctor in Coxen Hole. She is now, A-Okay, and everything worked out great. We still ended up going to the beach but opted to stay close to home and go to Turquoise Bay. We planned to hitch-hike and I must say, it gets better and better every time. We hit the main road and we're all pretty tired from the get go and hoping we would get picked up soon, and as always right as we think it might not work out we got picked up. A nice man driving a Sherwin-Williams paint truck picked us up and off we went.

Sarah and I on our way there.

He was even nice enough to drive us all the way into the resort (there's a pretty steep long dirt road you need to take to get to the resort).

the long road into the resort.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we basically walked into our very own private resort because no one else was there on the beach when we arrived. It was pretty sweet. It was a perfect day, minus the heinous sand flies that ate all of us alive. But we had a sweet time lounging and enjoying the peaceful beautiful day. We ALSO got even more spoiled because a nice man, who I assume works there hooked us up with some free snorkels and a free kayak ride. Ingrid and I rode the kayak through some mangroves and basically felt like the coolest people ever, not to mention we were pretty boss at kayaking, definitely surprised ourselves. We also lounged by their pool and ate yummy food. Overall, a sweet day.

View from the pool

View from the pool 

We hitch-hiked our way back home, although it was a bit rougher this time around, took a bit longer to get picked up, but it seems to always works out.

starting our trek home

Hitch-hiking

We got to catch a pretty epic sunset. I'm sure you're all getting sick of all my pictures, but I still can't get over how beautiful it is here and I'm just feeling super blessed that I actually LIVE here!

Last night we also got a intense craving for ice cream, everyone was pretty pooped from the day and Ingrid and I wanted to get out and well YOLO, so we went and got some ice cream! Haha, Rachel, Ingrid and I took a cab because it was late and hitch-hiking at night just doesn't sound as appealing. Carlos, who lives downstairs met us there on his moto-bike. We enjoyed our ice cream with our cab driver at the "mall" here (the mall is basically equivalent to typical suburban shopping centers think Calle Real shopping center for you Santa Barbarians). It felt very American.

Ingrid and Carlos enjoying their ice cream

Ingrid REALLY liked her ice cream 

Today for church we went out to Oak Ridge. I had another contact of a couple, Hank and Kathy, sent out by Reality Carp. I had emailed them before arriving and contacted them again earlier this week. I chatted with Hank during the week and arranged to check out their service at 3. This week we decided to split forces and check out 2 different churches. So Ingrid, Sarah and I went to Oak Ridge while Rachel, Krystal and Anny went to a church in West Bay. We got picked up at 1 and headed to Oak Ridge. We haven't been to the East end of the island, where Oak Ridge is much so it was so great to see another part of the island. Hank is seriously so great, so energetic and full of the Holy Spirit. We got fed a delicious meal, got to chat with him about his heart for Roatan and his community, and got to check out the service. We had a blast. Lots of loud music, dancing, and Jesus loving, it was awesome.

Overall, a great weekend. I'm feeling more and more blessed every day here. We start school this next week. Some of us start tomorrow and then all of us start Wednesday (I start Wednesday). I've been working on year-long lesson planning and have lots to do before class on Wednesday but I'm so excited to meet all my kids!

Open House

Friday night was Open House, equivalent to Meet the Teacher Night in the states. There was a small talk, all the teachers introduced themselves, then we went into our classrooms to await meeting our parents. It was a bit of a slow turn out. Right now, I only have 5 students registered and only 2 registered students/parents came. But I also had 3-4 not yet registered, but going to register, students come through, so I will definitely have more than 5 students! Am definitely getting a bit nervous, some of the parents don't speak English, which is a bit scary, but I guess it'll force me to practice and work even harder at my Spanish. A lot of the kids seemed pretty shy, but were super cute and I'm looking forward to having them in my class.

I just barely got my room finished before Open House. I feel pretty good about it. I still have some things I need to do, but overall I feel pretty good about it. My kids don't start school until Wednesday next week, and it's all half-days so it should be good.

Here are some pictures of my class, it's starting from the back and moving counter-clockwise. 

My back wall

Reading corner, I need more books. 

Pretty excited about this Math Wall. 

Also just want to say that I love our staff so much. Everyone from the office to the cleaning lady are seriously incredible. The back pack rack on my back wall was made by Umberto, our maintenance/misc. does it all guy. He does a lot of things around the school and is overall awesome. He nailed the blocks of wood into the wall, painted the blocks, then put the hooks on, felt super blessed and I'm super stoked about it.

Back Pack rack. 

It was quite a relief to be done with Open House. I'm feeling a bit nervous about the year, but getting excited at the same time. Just gotta keep reminding myself that I'm prepared and that God's going to take real good care of me.

Here are also some pictures of us teachers:

The teachers who live in the apartments (plus Fernando)

At the school. Lovely bunch! 

Living in Paradise

Sorry that I haven't updated in a couple days. Things have gotten pretty busy and I have gotten a bit lazy. But here I am, with lots to share. This past weekend was set to be a staff outing to the beach. On Saturday we went out to West Bay (the beautiful beach where I stayed with my fam). We went to an awesome resort called Mayan Princess. Ms. Nina's brother works there so we had the hook ups. We got to enjoy the beach for free and just had to buy food. 

The Pool 

beach chairs

The beach,  stormy. 

It was actually pretty stormy when we got there. A huge thunder storm with lots of lightning was rolling through. It was actually really cool to watch the huge bolts of lightning bounce off the waters. We watched the storm pass right through the beach, it passes pretty quick and then it's a beautiful day ready for the beach. The water is so warm and nice and even during storms the weather is super nice and beach-worthy. 

post-storm. the sky looks so cool. 

We had lots of fun hanging out at the beach and the pool. Also, since Ms. Nina had the hook-ups her brother gave us all free club memberships to Mayan Princess, comes with free admission to their beach and other nice touches, we were pretty stoked. 

On Sunday we checked out a church in French Harbor. Augustine and Carlos, two teachers from the school help lead worship for the church. We had fun and met some cool people, but we'll probably keep checking out other churches for the next couple weeks. After church a new teacher, Mr. Dean arrived. He will be temporarily teaching Chemistry, Physics, & high school Math I believe. We're still in need of a full-time teacher! But after he got dropped off at the apartments All the ladies in the apartment went to another resort about 10 mins East of our house called Turquoise Bay. Another reminder that we live in paradise. Turquoise Bay is a man-made because but still beautiful. It's a lot less crowded and less busy than West Bay and the sun was out so it was quite the day. 

Oh just hanging out in hammocks at the beach, NBD.

View during dinner. 

Is this a joke?

Yesterday, I followed up with a contact who is from Santa Barbara but also does things in Roatan. He invited us to his resort to hang out and watch a rehearsal of some local singers. His resort is in Brick Bay about 10-15 miles from our house. Being vehicle-less we weren't sure how we were going to get there so we figured we'd try out hitch-hiking and let me tell you, it was a HUGE success. I promise we were safe! Let me paint the picture for you: it was broad daylight, 6 girls, and we were on the main road, so yes in the States we would probably have never done it, but it's the island and we did it and it actually kind of ruled. We got picked up in about 5 mins, got dropped off about 4 miles from our destination, and within SECONDS got picked up again, it was awesome. The resort Club Natalie, is about 2 miles off the main road and the 2nd car was nice enough to drive us all the way into the main gate. We felt spoiled. Once we got out of the car we basically realized we landed in paradise. 

Their private beach

Infinity pool

View from their rooftop terrace

Stoked. Loving life.

We had a super sweet time. Got to meet new friends, enjoy paradise, and hear some incredible local singers. The cool things with Club Natale is that it's all part of a vocational training program. They reach out to single moms and at risk youth of the island and train them to get jobs in hospitality. It's super rad, and the singers were local women from another part of the island. They were preparing for a huge benefit concert the hotel is putting on in a couple weeks. They were incredible, felt so blessed to be there. Overall, a super fun night, felt like we were finally breaking out of our bubble and making new friends. 

This week, we're finishing up working in our classrooms and getting prepared for open house this Friday and school starting next week! We've been getting to school at 6:45am this week, getting prepared for what it's going to be like during the school year. It's been a bit brutal, although on Monday I woke up at 5:30 to go for a run, I'm still shocked that happened. During the day it's been quite hot lately, we all just sweat all day. Although it is raining right now, but still hot. Oh the weather on this island, quite strange.