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.