So...it's time for us missionaries to get a rest. That is, we are leaving for retreat on Monday. We will be spending a few days at the beach. It's all the WGM people in Honduras and we will be getting lots of time rest as well as time to get together and special devotions every night. Right now I am in Tegucigalpa at the mission guesthouse. It's so good to have a chance to rest. This last week was exam week and it is exhausting for teachers as well as students. We have to make sure we have the homework graded, write tests, watch the students take the tests, grade the tests and figure out GPAs. I haven't been able to sleep much this last week as well as it being a stressful time in general (it's hard to write tests that aren't too easy or too hard and to prepare the students for them). They have these tests 3 times a year and they are like midterms or finals, so it's a big deal.
It's funny, it feels good to be away from the school because I haven't been off campus (other than day trips to Catacamas) for several months. And it's great to see people I haven't seen yet. But it feels weird to know I won't be back to the school for a week.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
A while ago I wrote a blog entry about my life here, but never posted it because I was waiting on some more pictures. By now it has become outdated enough that I decided to start over.
A week in my life:
Sunday- Morning-church, afternoon-hang out with the boys (sometimes there is a softball game-I just watch), evening- more hanging out.
Monday- Morning and afternoon-work with Kelly on various graphic design and photography projects, as well as working on things for my English classes (like planning and grading), evening- hanging out with the boys.
Tuesday-Friday- Mornings are mostly spent teaching English classes, afternoons are same as Mondays,
Tuesday evening-missionary prayer meeting
Wednesday-Church night-either a service or discipleship group depending on the week
Thursday-teach English class to school Employees
Friday-hang out
Saturday- Morning and Afternoon- I got to Catacamas with Kelly to hang out, go shopping, and just kind of get off the farm for a few hours. Evenings I cook supper for Steve, Kelly, and Nick and sometimes a few others.
This schedule is of course subject to change-and it does regularly.
Days here start early- I have classes starting at 7:40 or 7:00. Lunch is at about 11:30, which isn't too early, but supper is at around 4:30, which is kind of odd. I dont have a set bed time at all, but it tends to be earlier than when I would go to sleep in the US. The boys have to be in their dorm by about 8:30 every night. It seems strange, but really the whole day is just shifted forward and hour or two.
I eat breakfast and lunch in my apartment and during weekdays I eat dinner at Steve and Kelly's. This is a great arrangement since I live alone and cooking for one person gets tiring really quickly.
Several people I used to hang out with have come and gone. For the first 4 months I lived with Charith Dunbar, who taught school to the Mks (Missionary kids) out here. We had a lot fun and together and I miss her company a lot. The Gouge family was here for the first few months I was here too. I got to meet them when I was here last year and I miss them a lot too. More recently we said goodbye to Scott, another VIA, and Luke. They were both a lot fun.
Right now at the farm there is another VIA, Simon, who is helping me with English classes (whoo-hoo! Help!). He studied linguistics and does a good job with the teaching and he speaks Spanish, which is nice.
I've mentioned the Solheims too. Steve and Kelly and their 13 year old son, Nick are here for a year as volunteers. Steve works on computers and helps with electricity stuff and work projects and Kelly does graphic design, the school's webpage and the communications stuff in general. I spend a lot of time with them as Kelly and I work together and I eat my suppers with them.
Also on the farm are Jerry and Sherri Murphy and Jeremy Umbaugh. Jerry and Sherri are full time missionaries with WGM. I wrote about them in a previous entry. I don't see quite as much of them as I do of Simon and the Solheims because in general we our jobs don't cross paths as much. However, when I need teaching advice I go to Sherri and I sometimes help her with translation that needs to be done. Jeremy is a volunteer, but he has been volunteering for song long (about 9 years I think) that he is like a full time missionary in many ways.
My Honduran friends:
Gaby:
Is the events coordinator out here. She's very energetic and is rather ornery. She's learning English, but she's very shy about it, so we speak Spanish, which goes fine until she gets excited about something and starts talking really fast. She lives in Catacamas, but she is out here a lot.
Eddy:
Is the electrician out here. He speaks some English, but refuses to use it around me, except in the Thursday night English class which he attends. He's always joking and sometimes his jokes get him in trouble. We also talk about things seriously and he is helping me with my Spanish a lot as I can understand about 98% of what he says to me Spanish.
Omar:
Is the grounds keeper out here. He's always running off somewhere and has an amazing amount of energy. He rooms with Eddy and they have a running joke about which of them is the “woman of the house”. He's always coming up to me and saying something (unimportant) that I half understand and then leaving, thinking that I understood. He has two bunnies, whom he talks about a lot.
Then of course there are my students:
They are all so great. Some of them I get along with better than others in the classroom, but when we leave the classroom, they still seem to have a certain amount of respect for me, but we can talk and have fun and talk when we hang out in the evenings. Mostly hanging out involves watching while some of the boys play soccer. Occasionally it involves helping with homework, but there isn't a lot I can help them with as only their English homework is in English. There is a small soccer court where the boys get together to play pick-up games and there is the big soccer field where they play actual games against other teams that come and I like to go watch both types-but more for getting to spend time getting to know my students than for the actual game. They don't seem to play much basketball this year, but they have a small court and last year it got used quite a bit. As I said before, they play baseball (well, softball) sometimes on Sundays. They don't know anything about football, but I think it would be hilarious to watch them try to play.
A week in my life:
Sunday- Morning-church, afternoon-hang out with the boys (sometimes there is a softball game-I just watch), evening- more hanging out.
Monday- Morning and afternoon-work with Kelly on various graphic design and photography projects, as well as working on things for my English classes (like planning and grading), evening- hanging out with the boys.
Tuesday-Friday- Mornings are mostly spent teaching English classes, afternoons are same as Mondays,
Tuesday evening-missionary prayer meeting
Wednesday-Church night-either a service or discipleship group depending on the week
Thursday-teach English class to school Employees
Friday-hang out
Saturday- Morning and Afternoon- I got to Catacamas with Kelly to hang out, go shopping, and just kind of get off the farm for a few hours. Evenings I cook supper for Steve, Kelly, and Nick and sometimes a few others.
This schedule is of course subject to change-and it does regularly.
Days here start early- I have classes starting at 7:40 or 7:00. Lunch is at about 11:30, which isn't too early, but supper is at around 4:30, which is kind of odd. I dont have a set bed time at all, but it tends to be earlier than when I would go to sleep in the US. The boys have to be in their dorm by about 8:30 every night. It seems strange, but really the whole day is just shifted forward and hour or two.
I eat breakfast and lunch in my apartment and during weekdays I eat dinner at Steve and Kelly's. This is a great arrangement since I live alone and cooking for one person gets tiring really quickly.
Several people I used to hang out with have come and gone. For the first 4 months I lived with Charith Dunbar, who taught school to the Mks (Missionary kids) out here. We had a lot fun and together and I miss her company a lot. The Gouge family was here for the first few months I was here too. I got to meet them when I was here last year and I miss them a lot too. More recently we said goodbye to Scott, another VIA, and Luke. They were both a lot fun.
Right now at the farm there is another VIA, Simon, who is helping me with English classes (whoo-hoo! Help!). He studied linguistics and does a good job with the teaching and he speaks Spanish, which is nice.
I've mentioned the Solheims too. Steve and Kelly and their 13 year old son, Nick are here for a year as volunteers. Steve works on computers and helps with electricity stuff and work projects and Kelly does graphic design, the school's webpage and the communications stuff in general. I spend a lot of time with them as Kelly and I work together and I eat my suppers with them.
Also on the farm are Jerry and Sherri Murphy and Jeremy Umbaugh. Jerry and Sherri are full time missionaries with WGM. I wrote about them in a previous entry. I don't see quite as much of them as I do of Simon and the Solheims because in general we our jobs don't cross paths as much. However, when I need teaching advice I go to Sherri and I sometimes help her with translation that needs to be done. Jeremy is a volunteer, but he has been volunteering for song long (about 9 years I think) that he is like a full time missionary in many ways.
My Honduran friends:
Gaby:
Is the events coordinator out here. She's very energetic and is rather ornery. She's learning English, but she's very shy about it, so we speak Spanish, which goes fine until she gets excited about something and starts talking really fast. She lives in Catacamas, but she is out here a lot.
Eddy:
Is the electrician out here. He speaks some English, but refuses to use it around me, except in the Thursday night English class which he attends. He's always joking and sometimes his jokes get him in trouble. We also talk about things seriously and he is helping me with my Spanish a lot as I can understand about 98% of what he says to me Spanish.
Omar:
Is the grounds keeper out here. He's always running off somewhere and has an amazing amount of energy. He rooms with Eddy and they have a running joke about which of them is the “woman of the house”. He's always coming up to me and saying something (unimportant) that I half understand and then leaving, thinking that I understood. He has two bunnies, whom he talks about a lot.
Then of course there are my students:
They are all so great. Some of them I get along with better than others in the classroom, but when we leave the classroom, they still seem to have a certain amount of respect for me, but we can talk and have fun and talk when we hang out in the evenings. Mostly hanging out involves watching while some of the boys play soccer. Occasionally it involves helping with homework, but there isn't a lot I can help them with as only their English homework is in English. There is a small soccer court where the boys get together to play pick-up games and there is the big soccer field where they play actual games against other teams that come and I like to go watch both types-but more for getting to spend time getting to know my students than for the actual game. They don't seem to play much basketball this year, but they have a small court and last year it got used quite a bit. As I said before, they play baseball (well, softball) sometimes on Sundays. They don't know anything about football, but I think it would be hilarious to watch them try to play.
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