Do you hear what I hear?

Besides the name of this post being one of my favorite Christmas songs, I honestly want to post about what I hear. I've been struck by the meaningfulness of sounds recently and wanted to share my thoughts.

I hear children reciting scripture in Spanish and English. Never underestimate the importance of memorizing scripture. We teach them the meaning of the verses too. God is present in our school.

I hear motorcycles and taxis race past my house. I live in a city. It's a small city, but this is a first for me (except for a few months spent in London). I'm surrounded by people all the time, I see at least 5 people I know every time I walk to the Centro. It can be hard to find time alone. Time with God. But I make a point to do that.

I hear Christmas music. This season of celebrating Christ's birth has been different in many ways that I would typically celebrate. I mean, you should see our crazy decoration. :D I'm filled with thankfulness though. Starting new traditions with friends, teaching the true meaning of Christmas, having the chance to go to the US for Christmas.

I hear laughter. From small children. From my friends. Laughter is hugely important to me. I love to laugh hysterically with my friends over silly things. I love to hear my students laugh when I say and do ridiculous things.

I hear the voices of my friends and family on Skype. Keeping in contact with my friends and family is important to me. It can be really hard at time, but Skype call is always worth my time. I am content where I am and I don't desire to be home more that I desire to be serving God here, but man, is it good to hear their voices and see their faces. Living so far from home has certainly brought it's challenges.

I hear water running very slowly. That is my washing machine. I fill it with buckets of water. It's one of many appliances that only sort of works. The list is long, so I won't bore you, but trust me when I say flexibility is one of those things you learn fast and are constantly challenged in as missionary.

I hear dogs barking and men working. These are the two most annoying sounds to me. No joke. First of all, we have about a million dogs that live in a 1 block radius of our house. They love to howl at night and bark all day! The auto body shop that is just over our back wall is run by the most hardworking men in Honduras. They work from 6am to 8pm sometimes. ESPECIALLY ON SATURDAY. Guys, just stop.

I hear rain on the roof at night. I love to sleep when it's raining. We have actually had fantastically sunny and warm weather that last 2 weeks (odd for december here). Making it through the 2 months of cold and rainy before that tested my patience. you expect to always be warm in a tropical country, even when taking a cold shower, but that is jut not the case here for November and December here. You can go weeks without seeing the sun and without feeling warm.

I hear children yelling "Teacher! Teacher!". This alternates between annoying and adorable. When my 1st graders run at me in a pack for a group hug while yelling "Teacher!", it's adorable and I love it. If my 2nd graders are working on an assignment and are yelling "Teacher!" when they need help instead of raising their hands....that's annoying. My response to that is "Don't "teacher" me right now!" I love my job and I love my students. I am blessed and thankful to have the chance to teach here this year.

I know this is a short post for me, but that's all I have to say for now. Check out my face book page for some recent adventures and Christmas pictures. I wish you a great Christmas filled with family, friend and Jesus.

"Said the shepard boy to the mighty kingDo you know what I know?In your palace warm mighty king.Do you know what I know?A child, a childShivers in the cold.Let us bring him silver and gold!"

A Story Worth Telling...

Here goes take two! My first, nearly finished post got erased! That's the worst! Anyway, now that I've checked that at least this little bit is saved...here goes again!

I was very fortunate to have the Thanksgiving weekend off. Since we're a private school, we can kind of pick and choose which Honduran and which US holidays we celebrate. It was a much needed break. On Tuesday night, we tackled the mammoth task of cooking an almost traditional Thanksgiving meal for our fellow Honduran teachers. We were cooking for 20! We brought it to school Wednesday and it was enjoyed by all! You should be impressed at our culinary and transportation skills. (: The next night we cooked up a storm again, preparing for the Thanksgiving potluck at our pastor's house. I made potato soup and eggnog. All the food was delicious and the fellowship was great!

We're obviously starting a band.

Jungle River Lodge

Early friday morning, Amanda M, Jenna, Kaley and I began our La Ceiba Adventure (aka Thanksgiving Break 2012) with a....light rain and a long walk to the bus station with heavy backpacks weighing us down. We were lacking the proper excitement for a beach trip, so we took turns giving pep-talks about how awesome the trip would be once we got out of cold, rainy, Siguatepeque. We took a bus called a "rapidito" to San Pedro and scarfed down some breakfast baleadas while waiting for our next bus. Mirna bus lines provided us with a cheap, sketchy, direct bus ride to La Ceiba. Gotta loves buses! Once we arrived in Ceiba we wandered for a little while and were fortunate to find their rather large mall. We opted for American food for lunch because we knew lots of cheap, Honduran, street food was in our future. Subway was my choice. Is there anything more delicious that a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie? No, there is not!

The Rio...

The next leg of our journey was a jaunt into la selva (jungle). We hired a taxi for a staggering price of 17$ to drive us about 1/2 into la selva to a place called Jungle River. A small, slightly odd hostel that is actually located on a river! This taxi driver was an expert at fording rivers, avoiding cavernous potholes and talking. Do we know Raul's life story? You bet! Jungle River was beautiful and relaxing. We hiked down the river some for a swim and some hilarious risky moments. That night we all took freezing cold "showers". Can you really call a faucet in a dark closet a shower? Not sure. Dinner was delicious Honduran food. Our room was delightfully odd. It was tiny, but had a loft with a bed in it. We squished 4 ladies into 2 beds and shared a bathroom with no door. Definitely a fun experience. We woke up early again, knowing that the bus back to town was coming pretty early. As we were paying, the owner told us it was coming any second! We made a mad dash for the road and got to the bus stop just in time. After the bus stopped, the back door opened and revealed to us a very full bus. We stood in the back, where a couple seats had been removed to make room for luggage, bags of beans and coffee, 5 men and 4 gringas who are always looking for adventure.

We took this bus as far as we could and caught another bus to Sambo Creek. We had plans for a day on the beach. Clouds did not deter us! We were sure that once we got to the beach, it would be sunny. A little naive, but don't doubt our power to wish a sunny day into existence.We got off the bus right next to the "Bienvenidos a Sambo Creek" sign and walked toward the ocean. We reached the beach and asked directions to the hotel we were headed for. This is a direction quotation "There's no road there from here, you need to walk down the beach about a mile". This wasn't the best news we'd heard all day, but a walk on the beach is always fun. Unless it's raining, and you end up having to cross a river and get your jeans soaking wet. We did successfully find our hotel.

We're also pretty good at Spanish and we know what "Cerrado" means. Closed. Great. Luckily there was a swanky hotel next door that told us for the low, low price of 30L ($1.50) we could hang out for the day. Gracias! Muy amable! (Very kind). We donned our trajes de bano and prepared to enjoy the ocean. The sun slowly made a glorious appearance and we were able to fully appreciate that we were standing on a beach, on the edge of the jungle, looking at a majestic mountain range. Awesome. God's world is incredibly beautiful. We wrote crazy things in the sand, swam like fishes in the ocean and sunbathed by the pool.


Around lunch time, we hiked back to the highway and caught a bus back to Ceiba. This bus ride, like all bus rides in Honduras was eventful. We got on the bus, noticed how nice it was, and held on as the driver sped off. Maybe the brake pedal wasn't working, or maybe he just enjoys driving like a maniac. Either way, he barreled down the highway, passing every car, bike and truck, especially on turns. Amanda and I exchanged many terrified looks on the short ride. We were thankful to get off and head to the hostel Jenna knew about. She assured us that despite horrible reviews, she'd stayed there before and enjoyed it. We ditched our bags in another small room, with another cold shower and head out in search for lunch. Asking locals about eateries is always a good choice. We were pointed to a delicious typical restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed our baleads, pastelitos, enchiladas. Yum!!


We enjoyed some ice cream next and did some mandatory souvenir/ Christmas gift shopping, then went back to the hostel to change for dinner. We decided to dressed up and go to a nice Honduran restaurant at a water park nearby. I recognize how strange that sentence was, but I can't change the truth. The whole night was fun and relaxing.


We woke up early Sunday morning (WHY must you always wake up early whilst traveling?!) and went to the bus station. If you've been counting...this is the 6th and final bus. It took us about 5 hours to get home and we were so glad to see the "Bienvenidos a Siguatepeque" sign.

I am thankful and blessed to have great friends who double as co-workers and travel buddies. I'll do an update about my life soon. For now, enjoy this story and these pictures!



"My heart says of You, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek."

"Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart    and wait for the Lord." 

  ~Psalm 27: 8, 14