Day Twenty Four

Mmmmm cold pizza, that is what I'm currently savoring as I write this post. It's a nice change to the usual tortillas with beans. Good ending to a good day. Today was our second Sunday of teaching English to the adult class, it was a different group this time. Again they seemed interested and paid attention, I'd rate it a success. After class we headed to mass and afterwards we went with a couple of the "internas" to a nursing home, they too are volunteers and help out Fridays and Sundays there. They clean, pray, and talk with the elders living there. It was a really nice experience to go visit, I met a lady named Maria who is 75 years young and talked with me through her snack time, they had cake and "atole." She told me a lot of volunteers stop by there we had just missed some Canadians that had left last week. Maria was quite the talker I was very appreciative to be there and listen to her while I could.

I took my camera over and as soon as the girls saw it they started to pose. They LOOOOVE taking pictures! Every time they see me with the camera a photo session begins. Today I took at least 100 pictures of various of them just posing. They are not shy by any means in front of a camera. Some of the elders at the home also wanted me to take pictures of them, so now I'm guessing its a culture thing, not sure, but no one has ever shied away from me taking a picture that's for sure. I'm really enjoying my time here so far though, cannot wait for whatever new ventures are to come.

Day Twenty

Today we started off the day by getting our ashes at morning mass held here at the school with all the girls. This year I was thinking of getting into full vegetarian mode by giving up all types of meats for lent, we'll see how that goes I figured I get enough protein from the beans so I should be good. We worked on files all morning and after the girls got out of class we played ninja and freeze tag during recess. Overall we had had a good day but then unfortunately we received a call that our director, Sor Mirna's father passed away in the afternoon. She had already been out of town for a couple days in Mexico but now all the sister's but two headed out to El Salvador for the funeral. Tomorrow another one is heading out as well so that will leave me, Nicole, and Sor Roselba to be in charge of all the girls. They know the routine and how to behave so I doubt we'll have any problems. My prayers go to Sor Mirna and her family during these tough times.

Day Sixteen

Yesterday was fun, me and Nicole went out and tried to find places to go to in town. Turns out there is not much to do, we did however find this really cool spot called "Mass" we decided that is going to be where we will celebrate our birthdays. Its a very loungy, hip place, that has indoor soccer, american music, and pasta=SCORE!! Our birthdays are just three days apart Nicole's is on April 23rd mine is on the 26th. We also watched the movie "bridesmaids" love that movie!! But today was our first adult class, I'd say we did pretty well, we taught the verb "to be" and a couple of vocab words in english. They all seemed to be paying attention and eager to learn. During lunch time we had to help sell them snacks and surprisingly they spend more than the young girls! That's one thing about Honduras, their people love chips, candy, and coffee. Most of the money the girls spend is on those three things. Try to stay away from it by eating tons of bananas, they're really filling and get the job done. Oh and another thing today, we ran out of water, no running water in our showers or toilets. Sad days! It's going to be fun showering tonight on cold water from the well...

Day Fourteen

Wow how this week has flown by! My short time shared here has truly been a blessing thus far, I feel like I already appreciate little things so much more than I did before. I'm starting to really get into the routine of things and warm up to the girls and so have they. One in particular, her name is Yenni, she is too funny!! She always has a joke to tell me and during recess time she loves to stand by a window and pretend she's on the phone and say things really loud while people pass by so they think she's talking to them, they fall for it all the time lol! For Valentine's day she made me the sweetest card saying she loves me and wishes to remain friends even after I leave. Valentine's day here is pretty much as it is in the U.S. the girls exchange cards and buy little gifts for one another. After school was over that day the girls also had a bunch of games and activities prepared for vday/"la bienvenida" the welcoming. They played pin the tail on the donkey, "come hilo" which basically was a piece of candy attached on a string and a girl at each end of the string had to eat it to get to the candy first, bobbing for coins, and a game where they had to put a pen attached by string to their waist into a small bottle behind their backs. After the games they came out with funny skits such as covering the top half of their body and clothing the bottom half so it seemed as though midgets were dancing, and coming out in ridiculous outfits modeling down just like in a runway. Its been really fun so far, today is movie night which I am looking forward to :) We'll see what new exploring me and Nicole get into this Saturday.

Day Eight

Today was mine and Nicole's off day woo-hoo!! We went to Esperanza Intibucá, Honduras about 3 hours from where we stay. We went to a church they had there it was pretty cool because one had to climb these really steep steps to get there and there were tons of people because today they celebrated the Virgin of Lourdes, so they had fireworks and everything. We also met some of the girls parents there, the people there were very indigenous later we learned they were from the Lenca population. After we went to Gracias Lempira, Honduras and visited the Fuerte de San Cristobal an ancient battlefield ground. And also visited a couple of churches there. Had Mexican rollitos which were basically flautas, with some jamaica yummm!! Next time if we have time we definitely want to visit el Parque Nacional de Celaque they say its a really good hike. Oh and I finally learned how to hand wash my clothes outside too, hung them up to dry on a clothesline and everything :)

Day Four

Waking up at 5:20am is no joke...first day we did it which was yesterday really didn't hit me but today it kinda did like a ton of bricks! Should be in bed as we speak, but I wanted to add another entry since I haven't thse last two days. Plus I love these girls so its all worth it. They are so humble, yet outgoing, and love to laugh! They're always wanting to know how to say things in English. So one of them asked me today what the word kapish meant. I told her well technically it isn't English but we use it all the time, and its basically used as understood in question form and when you understand one replies back kapish. If you don't "no kapish." So they kept repeating you kapish or no kapish, that couple arguing in the street they don't kapish. It was pretty funny to see how they adapted the word into their own. They really are a joy to be around. Classes at all grades seem to be at the same learning level so that makes it easy for us to go over English with the girls. We haven't yet done math or computer skills though that will probably be a bit more challenging. But as one of the sisters Sor Martha told us today we should always find joy in everything but especially in difficult times.

Day Two

So I will definitely have adjustments to make in order to get used to nights here. Our rooster wakes up around 4am and doesn't stop crowing until around 10...I'm not sure if it was lack of sleep or still feeling woozy from the flight but I woke up feeling nauseated this morning. Figured a shower might do me some good, but the water was unbearably cold to add to the nausea. Luckily it went away in a couple of hours and I felt good enough to go venture the town. It is very small but also very peaceful. (pictures will be coming soon) unfortunately because it is a Sunday everything was closed. So I'm sure we will go out again tomorrow. After a couple of hours of doing that we came to the school, prayed, had holy hour, and then dinner. I finally tried pupusas and they are so delicious!! I can see why Salvadorians eat this everyday. One of the sisters told me we'd have to go try the real deal one of these days because they are the best. We then had recreation time with the girls where they exercised and we danced bachata and duranguense. They play quite a bit of Mexican music on radio stations here. Great day can't wait until tomorrow when the rest of the girls will get here, there will be a total of about 60. And I will get my first taste of teaching a class!!

Day One

So today was an extremely long day...slept about 2 hours last night and was freaking out about missing my flight this morning due to thunderstorms in Houston. But luckily my flight didn't leave me and it was smooth sailing after that. I love this country and its people. They are all so nice and outgoing and the scenery is beyond words. I feel like all is very peaceful and tranquil here in Santa Rosa we are literally living up in the mountains and although I haven't really had much of an opportunity to explore, the drive here served more than enough to get me pumped! I didn't get much of a chance to interact with the girls but they all seem very nice and the salesians sisters are all very charismatic. I am so glad I have Nicole here to guide me through this. Seems strange but I very much feel at home. Cannot wait for these upcoming days will make sure to keep you all posted.