Thanksgiving Break

Hello folks, so last week was Thankgiving, HAPPY belated THANKSGIVING, which meant we had a four day weekend. It was quite glorious. Wednesday was a half-day that consisted of a special Thanksgiving Chapel and playing games. It ended up raining which changed our plans. Instead of putting on one big chapel and playing games all day, we had to do two separate chapels and watch a movie/have free time in our room. The American teachers were responsible for chapel so we decided to create a rap. We all worked hard together and created a rap that goes to the beat of "Gangsta's Paradise" our rendition being "Grateful Paradise". It was actually pretty rockin. We also made awesome pilgrim hats to wear. See picture below. We had a blast.

We had Thursday and Friday off and to our great surprise we had a SUNNY weekend! All of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday had lots of sunshine, which is a huge blessing and abnormality at this time because it has basically rained everyday of October and November. We spent our whole break in West Bay enjoying the beautiful beaches. Sarah's dad was visiting and staying in West Bay so we took full advantage of hot showers and living the good life in West Bay. It was awesome. We also got to go to a huge Thanksgiving Dinner with a bunch of families from our school. Lots of delicious good and company.


On Sunday Sarah, Ingrid and I ventured over to Punta Gorda, a small little town on the East Side of the island. It was the first time for all of us and we fell in love. It's where the Garifuna people live. Garifuna people are people from the island with African descent, they have their own language and culture. It's such a cute little town right next to the water filled with lots of simple homes. It's basically what you would picture living on the island to be like. Here are some pictures from our time.

Epic.

Overall it was a fun and restful weekend. It was a much needed break. And now we only have 3 more weeks until Christmas break!!! I CAN NOT WAITTTT.

P.S. if you want to read our awesome rap click "read more".

Suba diving, tie-dying, weekend galore

Hello folks, I hope all is well with everyone out there in the world. Life here has been pretty sweet. Things in my class are still up and down, alternating between really good days and really bad days, but overall I think we're making progress and my kids are learning, a poco a poco. I'm learning and trying my best to love them more and better. It's a process and it's growing me in a lot of ways. We have Thanksgiving break this week so only 2 days of classes, which I must say I am so excited about. I'm looking forward to having a break and can hopefully get ahead on my planning for once. 

Last week we went to a baby shower for one of our new friends. She works/her husband owns a coffee shop that we've been going to. We made friends with two of the girls there and one of the girls hosted the baby shower for the other girl. It was super cute. Evie, the host is super crafty and creative and just went all out. Everything from the favors to the food to the decorations were awesome. 

the set up, supes cute.   

party favors Evie made out of foam paper!! CRAZY!!

delicious fruit platter, that she ALSO MADE!!

 We had a ton of fun. We got to eat good food, play baby shower games, dance, and just enjoy each other's company. Overall, super fun time.

This weekend, Sarah, Ingrid and I went on our FIRST DIVE! We're still chugging away at our Open Water certification course, it's been hard getting all the way out to West End so it's taking us quite some time. But we made our way out there on Saturday and got to go out on our first real dive! It was incredible. We even got to fall backward out of the boat into the water with all our gear on. We felt real B.A. I had a slight panic moment when we were first descending. It had been a while since we had been in the water and not to mention we've only really used the equipment one other time so I kind of freaked out. But after a pep talk with Jonathan (our friend and instructor) and some long deep breaths and a pep talk to myself I made it down. It was so much fun. We just got to swim around and enjoy under water exploration. The reef is just RIGHT THERE so it's just really cool to be swimming all around it and with the fishes. We had a blast. SO GREAT.

Today, all us teachers got together and we had a tie-dye party. We got all our white shirts and got dying. It was so fun and everyone came out with a lot of really cool creations!

our proud work. 

tie-dyed shirts errwhere.

the two shirts I did on the right. 

We're pretty obsessed now and basically want to tie-dye everything we own. Tomorrow we are having a Thanksgiving potluck with all the teachers at school. Excited to eat some good food.

ALSO, I made a last minute decision to go home for Christmas break, so I just bought my plane ticket today to go home for Christmas! I will be home from December 20th - January 5th. I'm so excited to see everyone and get to spend time with so many people I've been missing! I'm also ESPECIALLY excited to go to Target, Trader Joes, the Farmer's Market, and the IV Co-op, oh how I've missed those places. Well, I think that's all for now. Until next time!

Meet Roatan: Banana Donut Man

Okay, so a long while ago, I said that I wanted to start doing a series I would refer to as "Meet Roatan".  It was going to feature the CPBS staff/teachers as well as the many friends/characters we meet on the island, and well I completely failed in doing that. But after an encounter with the Banana Donut Man the other day, I'm re-inspired to actually start this series up, so thank you Banana Donut Man. Without further adieu:

Meet Banana Donut man, also known as Milton. He lives in Sandy Bay. He is a sweet man originally from mainland, he's been on the island for 3 years now and from what I can tell, he spends his days walking up and down West Bay beach selling his famous Banana Donuts. His wife home makes them and he carries them around in a cardboard box and walks around singing "ba-naaaa-naaa do-nuuutt, ba-naaaa-naaa do-nuuuut". I was suckered into buying them one time and they are quite delicious. One of the other teachers here also bought them and basically fell in love with them. The other day while we were in West Bay all she could think about was Banana Donuts and she waited all day for him to come walking by singing his Banana Donut song, but he never came. It was quite sad. UNTIL, on our way home we caught a bus, and no other than Banana Donut Man was sitting in the bus! We got to chat with him (hence how I know so much information about him) and we kept asking him if we could make the donuts with his wife. Not sure he understood what we said, but we did buy a donut and Ingrid captured this epic picture. Also, as he was getting off the bus and saying goodbye he ended with saying, "I love you" in his precious accent and waving gracefully, so I think we're friends now. It was awesome.

Hello blog world out there. My apologies for the long delay in posting, life has been BUSY to say the least. We have started going to fitness classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, put on by one of the Moms from our school. On Tuesday we do weight/strength training and dance/zumba on Thursdays. It's been a lot of fun, although I got my butt kicked last Tuesday, I felt like I could barely walk the rest of the week, but I'm excited to get back into shape! The only downside is now with tutoring on Mondays & Wednesday and our fitness classes Tues&Thurs,  Monday - Thursday I leave the house at 6:45am and don't get home till approx. 7pm which makes for really LONG days. I get home and I'm pooped and then I have to get up and do it all over again the next day. It's been rough, but I think I'll learn to adjust and it's forcing me to plan ahead which is a really good thing.

Aside from really long days during the week, three of us teachers have started taking an Open Water Scuba certification class on the weekends!!! We've been taking it really slow and have only gotten in the water once but it was so much fun! It's pretty unreal and crazy, and a part of me is still a bit uneasy about the whole thing, but I'm stoked to get in the water more and get more comfortable with the whole thing. Everyone keeps saying how it's one of the best spots in the world to dive, so I'm pumped that (1) we're actually doing it and (2) that we're doing it so early on. One of our good friends Jonathan is our instructor so that's also a fun plus side.

I also had my first parent-teacher conferences this past weekend. It's basically a day for parents to pick up the report cards from last quarter and talk with me about any concerns they or I may have about their child. I was a bit nervous about it because (A) most of my parents only speak Spanish and (B) well I just never know how to be serious teacher lady. But to my relief they went really well. I managed to communicate through my broken Spanish, charades, and sometimes the 2nd grader translating on our behalf. It was swell. I was really thankful for how supportive the parents were in really understanding the things I had to say and usually agreeing with the faults/difficulties I've noticed with their children. Overall it was a lot better than I was expecting.

Anyways, sorry for the lack of pictures, it's just been raining constantly here and we just haven't really been taking many pictures. I guess the newness of capturing each moment has faded. But I will try to be better. Love to you all.