Parade Madness

So, this past week felt like I was almost making progress with my kids and they were learning things. I had to give out progress report card grades and it was really difficult and made me realize I need to step up my game a whole lot. This quarter is zooming by and I can't believe we're already half-way through and that it's already October! WHAT? When did that happen???

Anyways on Friday the school organize a HUGE parade to celebrate the arrivals of the independence scrolls. The 15th is independence day, but I guess the scrolls didn't arrive until the 28th? Something to that effect. So, we had a huge parade that started at the gas station across the street from our school and then went down to "the mall", which is about 1/4 of a mile maybe, not too sure, but it's not too far. BUT, the parade was CRAZY. I think 12-16 (I kept hearing different numbers) participated in it and apparently it was a band war, I don't know, I feel like sometimes they don't tell us anything and I just go with the flow. But it was a pretty big deal and there were lots of people and the road was basically shut down for 5 hours, which is crazy because there's basically only 1 main road in Roatan so I'm sure it caused some problems. But it was pretty cool. Although it took us about 3 hours to get through the whole thing. I was with the little 1st and 2nd grade girls. We walked in front of the band and they were little mariposas (butterflies). SO CUTE! We just walked and flapped our little arms and danced to the band. T'was real cute. It was quite elaborate. Our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade boys wore long sleeve white shirts with a red tie, a red visor (pretty random), and sunglasses, They were looking so good. It was one of the most precious sights ever. We also had our band, "dancing crabs", although they looked nothing like dancing crabs. And some other cute dressed up children. It was fun.

I wish I had pictures to show you all the cute little kids but I forgot my camera, sad days. Here's one picture that almost gives you an idea of the madness.

In other news we had a great weekend relaxing and hanging out. We got to beach it up, meet new friends, snorkel, and get work done for school all in one weekend. It ruled. Life is good and I am thankful.

Scuba and Canopy Tour

I had a moment yesterday, lots of them actually, but one in particular swimming underwater, my snorkel mask allowing me to simultaneously breath and see clearly underwater. As I was swimming and in awe of what I was seeing under the surface, I had a moment with God, of just complete awe and thankfulness. I had a moment of realizing that this was the life I was living and this was the God I was serving. It was a sweet moment, just for that minute, it was just me and God and this vast beautiful ocean that reminded me of His goodness all over again. The vast beautiful ocean that calmed me, lavished me, and reminded me to just stop take it all in and cherish the moment just with God, to remember that He is good, that He loves me and that I am blessed beyond measure. T'was sweet.

huge lobster!

This was my 2nd time snorkeling in Roatan and it never fails to amaze me that all of that is so close right under the surface of the water. This time we went out to French Key, a small community about 3 miles from where we live. We went out to 2 different spots and go to swim around and explore the underwater world. It's so incredibly beautiful and we had so much fun. We got to see TONS of huge lobsters, along with a bunch of conchs. It's just incredible.


TODAY, we got to go out on a sweet canopy tour (ziplining) for FREE! Our neighbor Marvin works for one of the companies and offered to take us out. It was so nice of him and we had a blast. There were 12 lines throughout at various speeds and heights. Another experience reminding us that we are currently living in one of the most gorgeous places on earth, it's surreal!

In other news, we have adopted a pet cat, well more like she has adopted us.

This little kitty that we have named Frick has been coming around the last couple days and just keeps coming back. Now, I am by no means a cat person, at all, but I'm not going to lie, she's kind of grown on me. She's super loving and affectionate and just keeps coming around. Sometimes she acts like she owns the place and I think she really is starting to think she's home here. Might become an issue, but for now we're showing her bits of attention, while also yelling at her to get outta here. Complicated relationship, but she really is so dang cute and a really good kitty, so for now she's just our little Frick.

Independence Night, 3-day weekend, Baleadas, and all around fun time

Alright folks, my lack of updates is a JOKE, lo siento. Things have been busy per usual and I have been lazy/trying to use my time more wisely by doing things for school. But I'm back and I'm ready to give you the goods. So last Friday (a week ago) was our school's Independence Night celebration, to celebrate Honduras's Independence day. The school put on a grand production with our band performing, dances from each grade, a skit, singing, dancing, and just good ol' fun. Because of the night's production we had a half day where we came in at 2 pm and had classes from 2pm to 6pm. It was a real trippy feeling having school in the afternoon like that, it definitely threw me for a loop, but we made it through. We basically got nothing done, but all is well. The night's production was a lot of fun, our kids are so precious, it warms my heart.  My kids performed a super cute dance with the 1st and 3rd graders. Here's a picture of them practicing earlier in the week:

 Ms. Anita, our office secretary is the bomb(dot)com and created/taught all the dances. They were super cute. The kids were HILARIOUS. They're all super uncoordinated and all over the place, but just so stinking cute. I caught them on video for a short bit during the performance. The song was super fun, not going to lie, I definitely wanted to be in the dance, I thought it was the jam.

The night also included a performance by our lovely band. We've been listening to them practice since we first got here, so it was fun to see them in action for reals.

 They also had a Danza Folklorica performance, which is traditional Honduran dancing (I think), which 2 of my kids are a part of and it was the most precious thing eveerrr.

 Too cute. Sorry for the crappy pictures but it's all I've got. Overall it was a super fun night and I'm so proud of all of our alumnos (students).


After that night 3 of us teachers headed to West End to spend our weekend vacationing (we had a 3 day weekend because of the Independence Day). There was a big Fishing tournament going on down there so there was lots going on. We got to spend the weekend fully enjoying ourselves. We had our first snorkeling experience and well it definitely convinced us that we NEED to learn to SCUBA! It's ridiculous how close the reef is, how clear the water is, and how BEAUTIFUL everything is. We even got to see a sea turtle. It ruled, we were obsesssssed. ALSO, one day while we were hanging out at the beach we saw this crazy little sail boat out in the water swaying back and forth and realized it had a crazy rope swing on it. We swam out to it (it was really way to far but we somehow managed) and we got to swing off the boat, although it took us all forever to swing off the one of the baby steps. But it was such a cool and elaborate piece of work. Hopefully, it will still be there the next time we're out there and we can make our way up some more steps. There were also tons of vendors out selling food and live music and just fun times all around. GREAT weekend for sure.


In other news the other day 3 of us teachers went over to our Taxi driver's house. I know that sounds kind of strange but Nino, our taxi driver, is seriously the coolest. We've grown quite a close bond with him and he just is the best. He's been inviting us over for a while to make baleadas, the typical honduran dish, which is basically a delicious quesadilla with refried beans, sounds simple, but oh man SO GOOD, I can eat them everyday. Some of the girls had already gone to his house to make some a couple weeks ago so I was stoked to go this time. He dropped us at his house, which is up the road from our place about a mile, near the soccer field where we've gone and played with some of the kids. He left us with his wife and daughter to get to work. We hand-made the dough, for the tortillas, which is actually a ton of work. His wife is a pro and made it look way too easy, while us gringo teachers struggled real good. We all dropped a ball of dough at some point with our clumsy hands. They had cooked some beans and stuck some in a blender with some chiles and onion, then put it back on the stove in a pot to make home-made refried beans. We cooked up our tortillas, layered on the refried beans, sprinkled on some shredded queso duro (mmm so good), added some avocado and we had ourselves some delicioso baleadas. It was awesome. We had a tons of fun. He has a super sweet family and they were so nice and welcoming. It's just another example of how lovely this island is. Seriously I'm in love with this place. Where else in the world can I go to my taxi driver's house and make baleadas? Feel so blessed.


Basically life on the island rules. There's always an adventure to be had. This weekend we're supposed to go out snorkeling and ziplining also known as canopy tours here. Our neighbor works for one of the canopy tour companies here and offered to take us out FO FREEE. Seriously, the blessings keep pouring out.

Sorry for the ridiculously long blog post, will try to be better about updating. LOVE to you all.

Happy Children's Day!!

Today is Honduran Children's Day, a day to celebrate all the little ninos. We had a half day at school  and the day was spent playing games and having fun. The school set up a bunch of stations with various games/activities for the kids to rotate through. My kids were crazy but also quite hilarious. One of my favorite activities of the day was "zumo" also known as sumo in English. My kids got so into it and it as just plain hilarious. 

The girls. 

The intensity.

Another favorite was the Pinata. Man the kids here do not mess around when it comes to pinatas. They ravaged the candy like no other and were whacking away at the thing. I think the school went through at least 10 pinatas throughout the day. Apparently Pinatas are a big deal for Children's day, so I'm sure the whole island had pinatas going all day long. 

They also played soccer, dodgeball, water balloons, make-shift mini-golf, ate snacks, and played some other random little games. 

soccer

snacks! 

dodgeball, boys vs. girls

love this picture. 

Overall it was a sweet day. Exhausting but fun. Oh man these kids crack me up. 

My sweet crazy kids

This is how things are all the time haha.

After school since it was a half-day Sarah, Ingrid, and I hitched our way over to Brick Bay and spent the day hanging out at Club Natale. Oh man, do we love that place. It's just always a good time when we are there. We're hoping to start working with them soon and helping them out by doing some tutoring/teaching/mentoring with some of the kids in French Harbor and hopefully eventually in Punta Gorda/Pandytown/the East side of the island. Super excited for that. 

Another week down

I have made my way through another week of teaching. My kids are still wild and crazy and I'm still learning how to teach and create an environment where learning can happen. It's crazy times but we're getting there, little by little. It was a hard week in a lot of ways but with each struggle and hardship, I feel my dependency on the Lord increasing. I'm just learning to feel blessed in the midst of hardships. It's been a difficult process but I've been learning tons through it all.

I feel like this week, my eyes and heart were open to the reality of the brokenness of many of the students at our school. There's just a lot going on and it's crazy to realize that there's so much that a lot of the students are dealing with in their home lives. There's just a lot of hurt and brokenness on this island and it's becoming more and more apparent each day. I'm trying to figure out my role and place in learning to walk through hardships and heartbreak with these students.

It's a lot of heavy stuff but I know that with God there's hope. God is good always and I'm constantly reminding myself of that fact. I'm so excited to see what God has in store for this year and to see how He is going to use me, as well as for the things He's going to teach me in the process.

Oh man, the island is always so full of surprises and blessings. The people here are the most generous and kind people I know. It blows me away how much people will go out of their way to bless us. There have been so many times when we've hitch-hiked and people have gone out of their way to take us to where we needed to go, it's truly incredible!

Today is one of the teacher's birthday and I feel like we've been so spoiled this weekend. We spent the day yesterday at Pristine Bay a hotel/living community right next to our school.

View of Pristine Bay

This picture looks fake, but it's not.

This place is no joke, it literally is its own world. It reminds me of a really fancy gated community in the states. It has its own golf course, private beach, and swimming pool. It believe it's also a hotel, but really it's like a residential area, where people have homes and live there. It's super beautiful and just real fancy. We actually didn't realize how fancy and exclusive it was when we were going there, we thought it was open to the public, but it's super exclusive. We luckily know some parents that live there and were able to use our connections to spend the day at their beach and just get spoiled.

View of the pool 

The whole day really was spent just being spoiled, getting picked up by people without trying, free pizza, drinks, private beach, it was pretty sweet. That night we went out to a restaurant called Frenchy's 44, that's right out by the water. The owner was so sweet and even got us a cake for Rachele's birthday, it was fun times.

Girls at dinner.

Really, each day I am just reminded of how blessed I am, it's the little things that just really bless my socks off. Life is sweet on the island.



P.S.
I've decided to start a new series on my blog that I'm calling "Meet Roatan". I'm going to be writing posts about the people that I encounter/get to spend time with on this island. I'll be starting with the fellow teachers and CPBS staff, and as I start to make more friends on the island I'll be able to feature them as well! So be on the look out for those posts. Love you all.

Domini Balli in Roatan

So this past Friday, I had the special treat of seeing Dominic Balli here in Roatan! For you Santa Barbarans you know who he is. Dominic Balli was/is? a worship pastor at Reality and is a super rad reggae artist. Club Natale, a resort/vocational training center I wrote about a couple posts ago, hosted a massive benefit concert to help promote education on Roatan. It was seriously one of the coolest things I've been to in a while. It was full of goodness. I wish I had better pictures to represent the night, but alas, I don't. But it was filled with incredible music by local artists, including a group of local girls/women from the East side of the island, who have voices of angels.

They were so incredible. They also had these awesome local Garifuna people do some of their traditional dances. It was the bomb(dot)com, I was so entranced watching them, my cheeks hurt from smiling so wide. The Garifuna people are native to the island and are of African descent. They have a very rich culture and it was so fun to see some of their traditional dances/music.

There were also a bunch of other musical acts, Dominic Balli being the headliner. He rocked the stage and even preached the gospel during his set, it ruled. The night ended with an epic fireworks show, it was kind of random, but mainly awesome. Oh and I forgot to mention that at one point there were flame throwers doing a little fire show, it was pretty epic.

View from the rooftop. The little flame on the right is the flame-thrower!

Overall, we had a ton of fun. I felt super blessed by the night. We also made contacts with an organization from CA called Artists for Human Rights, they gave a small presentation during the night and are doing some really cool things.

Here are some pictures I stole from my friends of the night:

view of the stage 

basically a view of the night

the girls!   

love them.

Sarah and I 

Ingrid and I

Sorry, the pictures are mainly of my friends and I, but it's the best I've got!

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging at the man made beach in Parrot Tree (the closest resort to us) and lesson planning. Oh also, this Sunday we went to a huge conference in Coxen Hole that a bunch of the churches on the island were a part of. We only caught the last session, and the whole thing was in Spanish, so it went a bit over my head, but there was lots of Holy Spirit and Jesus loving going on, it was pretty cool. There's a sweet abandonment that a lot of the Spanish speaking churches here have that I feel is a bit rare in the States. I've really enjoyed being a part of it here, hoping to find a church soon to settle into, but for now it's been fun/interesting hopping around to the different ones throughout the island, they all have a unique flair to them. Anyways, I have a whole week ahead and I need to get planning. Lots of love to all you readers out there. Please don't be shy to leave a comment! 

Friday Art

So, Friday afternoons is our Art time. I found some easy and fun drawing guides on this blog, decided to do the snake and chameleon with my kiddies.  We had tons of fun drawing these crazy creatures and coloring them in. I had them all pose together with their pictures and it all just turned into madness, but we had fun and the kids cranked out some awesome drawings.