Hasta Luego

Hasta luego (see you later): the phrase I finally decided on telling people as we parted ways. Because, really, after my Masters/Credential program is finally completed (expected date: by Oct. or Nov.), I will contact IST and see if there are any job positions for the winter/spring partials. If not this year, then the following fall, I’ll return as a teacher to Honduras to complete the last year of my 2 year contract.

As I leave Tegucigalpa, I have mixed feelings. Though excited, thrilled even, to see family and friends, to regain my independence, and have a world of possibilities at my feet, I am sad to say good-bye to close friends, especially the N.A. teacher community which served as my family for this year.

As I find myself on a plane once again, I remember the flight down to Honduras at the beginning of the year. I was bright eyed and hopeful, surveying the people on the plane, wondering whom I would be teaching with and living daily life with. I reflect on first impressions of people, which seem hilarious in retrospect, now that I actually know the person. I remember how we met up in Tegucigalpa, loaded down with suitcases filled with clothes, school supplie, and precious memories of home that would carry us through the year. How my housemates and I got locked out of our house on the first day we got the key, and it poured rain. And a neighbor offered us fajitas on a paper plate as a gesture of welcome.

That day seems long ago now, even though it’s only 11 months in the past. Over the past year, I have grown closer in trust and proximity with these people.

I was deeply impacted and I would even say changed through these special gringos, sharing a year of living and teaching together:

laughing over first day stories, being squeezed together in a taxi which we finally got a good price for, venturing down the street to the pulperia or buying mangoes from the Fruit Guy, spending Sunday mornings at the same church (almost always followed by lunch and Frisbee), being a shoulder to cry on after regretfully, inevitable muggings, sharing first experiences of seeing the country (Ceiba, Copan, Lago, Yuscaran, Amapala, etc) or others (Guatemala!), learning whom are morning people and whom are definitely NOT by sharing the 6:30a school bus, picking their brains for teaching/classroom advice, pulling out the mattresses for movie night, leaving Loarque to hit the mall/get a granita at the airport/go out to dinner/appetizers, having crazy, costume parties or teacher spelling bees, going to see the opera, sharing anxieties and finding solutions, and sharing in Bible Studies, teacher devotionals, and (my favorite) worship nights hosted in someone’s home.

Thank you to everyone who encouraged, inspired, challenged, and even just walked alongside me this year. Thank you especially to those at home (in the U.S.) who held us in prayer. God taught me many life-changing lessons and helped me begin to see truth amongst injustice, grace amidst discipline, patience amidst frustrations, peace amidst chaos, and His steadfast love and constancy amidst it all.

So, as I move on to what’s next (for now house/pet-sitting in Santa Barbara and presenting the Masters of Education on July 5^th!), I remember that my life is ultimately in God’s hands, that my heart belongs to Him, and my days have a sovereign purpose, that is bigger than anything I could plan for myself. Again, I make a commitment to pray, “Not my will but yours be done Lord.” I’ve realized that this is a dangerous prayer, because as we pray it, not only does God work on our hearts to make our own desires closer to His, but also He stretches us by putting us into situations where we have to completely have faith that His will is best.

I recently heard the song, “Faithful God,” by Laura Story, and I have to echo the lyrics here, as her words have resonated strongly with my experience in Honduras this year:

“Faithful God, every promise kept
Every need You've met, Faithful God
All I am and all I'll ever be
Is all because You love faithfully
Faithful God

May the love that caught my heart to set it free
Be the love that others see in me
And may this hope that's reaches to the depths of human need
Be the song that I sing in joy and suffering”

May we remember God’s faithfulness whenever, wherever, and with whatever He calls us to serve.

The Last Day of 4-B

"Why does school have to end?" were the surprising words out of student's mouth as we wrapped up the school year today.


We had a marvelous day:
-Students acted out a devotional on Solomon asking for wisdom from God; memorized the class verse.(Jer 33:3)
-Class wrote letters to future selves (5th grade)
-Created T-shirt memories, signed t-shirts and a tiger stamp

-Class Awards (funny, because, in the description, everyone knew who the award would go to)

Then, Ms. Castro (my assistant) sat the whole class down in a circle, and called each one up to a chair across from her to share special memories or individual thank-you's with them.
She was spot on with the affirmations of their character and helped to give them a vision and hope for the future. She started getting teary, then the students did, even my toughest boys, then I couldn't help it. For all the crazy times we had together, there will never be a class quite like 4-B. They taught me and stretched me, and I will miss them next year.

Following this, the students presented a hip-hop dance routine, which they had prepared to thank Ms. Castro. It was phenomenal and hilarious. (Videos to come.)
And we showed her a video we had made about what she had meant to us..finishing with the class singing the song, "I've had the time of my life."
It was bittersweet to watch them go.

But then, we joined the P.E. teacher in a class prayer and split up into teams for kickball--my class's favorite sport to play all together! At the end, we came together for a class cheer: 1-2-3...4-B!!
I know they will make fantastic 5th graders next year and am excited for whoever their teacher might be!

As we were stacking up chairs afterwards, a student asked me, "Why does today have to be sad?"

I didn't know quite how to explain it, but I offered: "Because it is the end of something wonderful and the beginning of something new."

God bless 4-B.

No parada

I think I can..I think I can...I think I can!

We were literally chanting the bus up the hill yesterday. It was moving forward, which was good. But it was moving inch..by inch..by inch.

It took at least 3 minutes to pass each house, and we saw the neighborhood watchyman chuckling as it took at least 3 minutes to pass by him. The construction workers stopped to lean on their shovels and stare at the bus full of gringos, roaring its engine and creeping up the hill as if being slowly lured by a greater cause.

My housemates and I sat and surveyed the situation; we quickly came to the conclusion that the bus would never be able to summit the steep incline of our street. But we were going slow enough now, that we could easily just step off the bus. The bus could keep crawling along at this slow rate, dropping off the next set of teachers, as long as it didn’t stop.

“No necesitas parada.” (trying to say: You don’t need to stop.)

Then, we felt the bus lurch, and we were thrown down the aisle towards the door. Everyone groaned. The bus was now stalled. (Puchika)

My housemates and I scurried up our hill, ashamed that it was us who caused the halt in the bus’s momentum. Halfway up, we glanced back and saw to our surprise that the bus had somehow found a way to revv its engine and, not only make it to the top of the next street, but turn a corner, which, if you know Honduran buses and streets, can be a feat in and of itself. We cheered it on and waved to the rest of the teachers, on their way home.

**Epilogue: The bus was unable to complete its route, but thankfully, the school has a multitude of buses to dispatch and come rescue the broken ones.

Dr. Diaz

One of my teacher friends just got her first pair of contacts down here in Honduras.

When, I heard that the eye exam and eye-ware were cheaper in Honduras than the States, I thought, “It’s my last 2 weeks here, so why not?”

So yesterday, after school, she and I paid a visit to the mall’s resident eye doctor. We had to wait 20 minutes for the doctor to be available, but there was no appointment necessary. Plus, we enjoyed the time comparing prices and trying on different pairs of glasses.

Just as I found the perfect pair, the doctor came out and invited us in. My friend sat by to help translate. Fortunately, I could say the letters/numbers on the screen in English. Turns out, I needed to have taken my contacts out a half hour before the appointment, so I had to say “hasta luego.” Perfect time to hit up the Espresso Americano.

When he returned, he asked me a series of questions, like where am I from, what am I doing here, etc. He scratched his chin: “Oh..you’re Norte Americana.”

Exactamundo. I thought.

He continued. “Mi appellido es Diaz tambien. Pero soy de Espana”

Wait..did he just say his last name is Diaz, too?

We had a good laugh about this commonality, and I have to say gracias to Dr. Diaz for bearing with my Spanish and for the new prescription!

Sin Agua

(Without Water.)

Psalm 63:1
"You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water."

I took a nap after school today; either I'm getting sick or the last days of school are just wearing on me. When I awoke, I was incredibly thirsty. But, as I walked to the kitchen, I found not only was there no more fresh water, but that our entire water supply in our house had run out! No dirty water either! My housemates and I were incredibly frustrated--so many things we need require water.

But then I stopped and thought about this verse. Thinking about how God provided for the Israelites in the desert, how there are several people in the world who don't have water everyday, especially clean water..I pray that God will give me a grateful heart despite daily upsets or unexpected lacking of what I deem necessity. So, take a minute and pray with me for the world that 1) people can get the water they need, 2) they will thirst after God, like someone in the middle of a dry desert. That God would fill us with His Living Water and be our Oasis, where we can refresh our souls.

Greene Day

(inside joke: our principal's name is Mr. Greene.)

In celebration of God's creation around us and as an encouragement to take care of the world, IST held its annual Green Day program last Friday.

Here's the basics of the day's schedule:

1) climb a mountain
2) have a dog show (yes, a real, live dog show--at school)

Recap (pictures to come):
Imagine taking your 20 students, plus the rest of fourth grade, plus fifth grade, plus the entire middle school, plus all the 9th and 10th graders up a mountain with narrow passes and some of them carrying their dogs, and you will get a glimpse of the chaos that was "summiting the IST peak."

All together, we scaled the slippery slopes; thanks to the help of our bus drivers and Honduran boy scouts who pulled us up onto more solid rocks. However, there was a long stretch of waiting as we all had to pass through this upward maze of mud; where, of course, my class got separated, but that was to be expected. Because students got a prize if they were the first up and down the mountain, several were pushing and shoving their way forward. I had to console a few 4th and 5th graders that they were not going to fall off the side of the cliff, but I motioned them away from the edge, just in case.

As we climbed steadily toward the top, we could look out and see an incredible panorama of the green mountain scenery contrasted with the city below. You could even see the teacher's neighborhood! It was a warm day, the dew condensing into moisture which made the air muggy, and add to our sweat. Several times along the path, I caught students sitting and texting-so ironic on Green Day of all days-so they had be herded along, just like their dogs.

Just when I thought we were almost to the top, I realized we weren't climbing one mountain, but two! We had to go up, over, down, and up again. Ahh...no wonder there was so much sitting.
I even ran into a past student of mine-Vicky! She had left 2nd partial to go to the States, but here she was coming just for Green Day to climb the mountain. It was fun to hear from her and hear how her family was doing; I think she will be back at IST next year.

The craziest thing I saw though, was a 10th grader in front of me, carried his medium-sized, over fluffy dog the entire way up the mountain. Ridiculous. Though seeing the dog show after, made me realize how much fun it is involving the dogs in this day. The dogs competed for speed, obedience, agility (obstacle course complete with hoops and a cart), and looks. It was the most hilarious scene I have ever witnessed at IST.

Finally, it was time to go home. I think everyone had had their share of excitement for the day, yet exhaustion soon set in. We gave worn-out good-byes and greeted the weekend.