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.

Room 118

Today was a very very long long day. Lots of information to soak up. I got to get started working in my classroom. It is quite overwhelming to start off with a blank slate and try to figure out how to fill up all the white walls. But it's exciting and everything is feeling more and more REAL each day. Here are some pictures of my classroom:

My door

I have quite a bit of work to do, but it's been fun, exhausting but fun.

In other news, Roatan has done something to me. I have now willingly gone on 2 runs. For those of you who know me, know what a big deal this is, haha. It's kind of a challenge because there are no sidewalks but all of us teachers have been doing it and it's kind of a peace time in a odd way. I'm trying to work on my self-discipline and to keep at it even though I'm already pretty over it. I made the mistake of sharing that with the other teachers so now they're keeping me accountable to keep at it, which is good, but ya know kind of a pain.

I really am losing track of all the days, it's hard to believe that we're just now ending our first week. Today was quite exhausting and I felt a bit defeated today, but I'm learning to pick myself up and stay in a place of joy. It really has been an incredible time. I have really fallen in love with this place and these people. Yesterday was the first time all the teachers (foreign and local) teachers got together. We had a sweet time of worship and a devotion led by a local pastor. All the teacher then gave a short testimony of what brought them to CPBS. It was fun to hear everyone's story and to get to know each other better. Everyone has such beautiful servant hearts, it's pretty amazing. I really do feel like they are my family here and it's a sweet feeling. I have also grown a love for the Spanish language and I'm dying to know more so I can communicate better with the teachers that don't speak English. It's so fun to sing worship songs in Spanish and during our meetings Ms. Nina (the school administrator) is always saying everything is Spanish and English, it's pretty cool.

Well, I think that's all for now, PLEASE feel free to pass on any suggestions or ideas for my classroom, I'd love to hear them!!

Today has been a day and then some (what that means I'm not sure but it sounds good). We had an eventful morning with Ernesto and the adventures just continued.

After our morning rain adventures, we all just hung out and did whatever. During this down time I somehow managed to get a welt on my forehead. The welt is now nearly gone but it was quite a hilarious moment. I was just sitting in my living room on my laptop when I heard my roommate moving things around in her room, I thought I should help so I got up and went to her doorway and asked her if she needed any help. As I was asking her I noted that I felt sort of light-headed (I frequently get head rushes when I stand up too quickly). Well light-headed maybe was an understatement, because soon my head was spinning, and things were going black, and wHACK my head hit the door, while my body made its way to the floor. It was such a weird moment. I didn't lose consciousness or anything but I guess I fainted? My roommate came over and jokingly asked if I fainted, but alas it was no joke I did! haha. I was confused and disoriented for a few seconds but once I realized what had happened I couldn't stop laughing. My roommate and I basically laid on the floor laughing for a couple minutes. We discovered the welt on my forehead and laughed some more. I'm completely fine now and everything is A-Okay. But of course such things would happen to me, I seem to have a knack for getting myself hurt, just the beginning of this year's adventures I suppose.

Later in the afternoon, we decided we should go exploring, we didn't let the rain stop us. We all put on our best rain gear and hit the road. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked and probably walked some more. It was supposed to be a short walk but we went pretty far. We ended up at a nice resort a couple miles away and the sign for the resort is quite misleading because the actual resort is tucked away pretty far back behind it. But we had fun seeing more of the island and being together. Here are some pictures:

View Point #1

A zoom of that last picture, and also where we ending up walking to!! CRAZY, although we went around, not through the valley.

Our final destination: Parrot Tree Resort 

They have a man-made beach, pretty gloomy because of Ernesto

We got a little feel of the water

Group shot 

I have seriously been in a world of bliss with all these people. I kept saying how I couldn't get over the fact that we've all only known each other for less than 3 days, it feels like we've known each other forever. I'm so incredibly thankful for everyone here and we've all been enjoying each other so much.

Tonight we all had dinner together and got to worship together afterwards. There's a lot of love and Holy Spirit among us, so it's pretty sweet. I feel very blessed.

Tomorrow we'll be back at the school and diving into orientation and into our classrooms! I'm so excited to get started putting my room together, pretty surreal!

A couple random notes:
1. Bugs LOVE me, I have been bitten so many times it's a joke. Not to mention somehow all the bugs follow me, twice tonight huge bugs have come and attacked me and no one else.

2. geckos make the most insane loud noises. I'm listening to them right now, outside my window just going crazy. I guess it's their communication? but they have not stopped for the last 15 mins, it's pretty wild. Never knew they were so loud.
**EDIT** apparently it wasn't the geckos making the loud noises, although geckos do make a funny sound, it was frogs!

3. The power went out tonight for the first time, got to use my sweet headlamp, but it came back pretty quick.


I think that's all for now. Adios, hasta luego amigos y familia!