Good food, good friends

Rain. Cold feet. Wet feet. Wet pants. Messy hair. Bright yellow shirt. Today I slipped around in my Crocs all the way to school and arrived with an unhappy face. A cheerful, "Miss Emily!!" shouted by a first grader caught me mid grimace, and I realized I would have to get over my bad attitude before I faced my first class of 26 energetic students. Thankfully seeing my students completely brightened my day. One of my kindergarteners gave me this Barbie sticker today. She's the little girl named Emily that I mentioned in an earlier blog. Guess what? When I finally got the class roster I found out her middle name is Nicol. What a funny, strange, adorable coincidence that we both have the same first two names. Her last name starts with an "M" too!

After a long day of school and shopping, there is no better place to be than sitting on my bed. So peaceful. I mostly took this picture so you could see the unfortunate shade of yellow I have to wear each Wednesday. It flatters a lot of complexions...But let's just say it's not a shade I would ever choose to wear! lol. I can never decide--bumble bees, sunflowers, or egg yolk? ha :)

The logo

Our very large dinner tonight! We had two kinds of spaghetti, grated cheese, garlic bread, a huge salad, homemade dressing, garlic green beans, homemade lemonade, and fresh pineapple and yummy apple cobbler for dessert. What an excellent way to spend Wednesday night.

Ashley, Emily, Kadian, me, Nelly, Cia, Melissa (David was really late, but we were nice and saved him a little of everything--even Melissa's delicious Honduran style spaghetti)

Melissa, Cia, me, and David

Ashley, Emily, Kadian, and Nelly

We Emily's really love having our hair played with...*ah* :)

Emily looking super cute with her hair in flat twists.

David didn't want to be left out of the fun ;)

Me with my first hair style courtesy of Cia. The princess look.

Then Nelly got some practice in...They are going to be braiding hair for Las Champas tomorrow! Las Champas is a big celebration of the different parts of Honduras. The schools all have different kind of fundraisers for it. Maranatha is having food, cultural dancing, and many other things I'm sure I'll find out about tomorrow!

David looks like a different person!

This completely changed his look from nice guy to bad boy. lol

Maybe he'll let the girls braid again tomorrow for Las Champas? We'll see :)

Emily wanted to practice too. David was crying for mercy in this picture. Too bad you can't tell through all that smiling.

She practiced on my hair too. Everyone says she pulls too hard, but I promise you, this is not a pained smile. I was still enjoying having my hair played with! :)

Nelly's finished-for-now hair style. So neat!

I'm excited to see what we'll end up doing in my hair for Las Champas tomorrow. We are all going to have some exciting hairdo's! Needless to say, despite my dreary start this Wednesday turned out pretty great :)

The pumpkin predicament

Cia had been talking about making pumpkin soup pretty much since she arrived in Honduras. We were all very supportive of this plan, but not sure where to find pumpkin. After seeing what appeared to be pumpkins several times at Jumbo, Nelly and I decided to surprise Cia by bringing a pumpkin home. We had no idea the amount of surprise this pumpkin would bring. Early Sunday morning Cia was already at work in the kitchen. Problem number one: none of our knives could cut through the pumpkin. That seemed easy enough to solve--I just suggested we stick it in the oven for a while. Nelly and I went to the market; thus, we missed the gruesome sight shown above. In Cia's words, this experience was "Horrifying." and "The order was quite putrid." Somehow Cia after calling to Kadian for much needed help and courage, manged to clean the smelly muck out of the pumpkin.

It looks deceivingly docile and pleasant in this picture. Don't be fooled.

Despite all the adventure, we all enjoyed delicious and sweet pumpkin soup for supper Sunday night :). I think we're going to stick to the canned pumpkin from now on though.

The last thing you want to do.

Waking up before 7 am on a Sunday is starting to seem normal. Dawnelle and I went the market to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables for week as well as a few other items. We came back carrying a huge papaya (the size of say, 2 footballs), fifteen bananas, plantains, tomatoes, oregano, green beans, rice, coconut milk, as well as some other things I'm forgetting to mention. We spent the rest of the morning cleaning our house from top to bottom. A little before noon we finally left to go to Pastor Trundle's daughter's, Nichole's, eleventh birthday pool party. None of us felt like swimming, and we were terribly confused about the invitation. It said something about "impartir" and "Mendel's". I didn't even read the invitation, so I didn't really even understand what we were confused about and was even more confused. Apparently they asked a student and got the impression that the invitation meant that we were supposed too meet at Mendel's (a department store near the school). However, just as we were leaving Miss Joline came over to tell us that Jessi was waiting for us. After walking to the Trundle's and not seeing anyone there, we decided to head over to Mendel's. Luckily Jessi drove by and picked us up, and we all tried to sort out our mutual confusion. We learned that when "impartir" is on a birthday invitation it means the gifts the birthday girl wants are separated from the other items in the store. Who knew? The present is going to have to wait until tomorrow lol. Jessi took us to a lovely pool where we enjoyed the cool breezy weather and green coconut tree scenery. We had a good time chatting with Miss Melissa, Miss Myla, and Pastor Trundle about different languages and other topics. Two best quotes:
"Girl, God gave you five spoons. Use them!" <-Miss Melissa to Miss Myla (her sister) when Myla said she didn't have a spoon for her cake and ice cream.
"Real Scottish men don't wear anything under their kilts." <-Kadian educated us on some interesting European culture. lol
They had a yummy meal as well as drinks and cake and ice cream. Nicole managed to avoid getting her face shoved into the cake (as is a common tradition in a lot of Latino countres, I think). Nevertheless, after she took her first dainty bite someone picked up a finger full of bright yellow frosting and smeared it all over the right side of her face. We rode home in the back of Miss Loyda's pickup truck. She had a baby at the beginning of the year, so today was the first day we officially met her. She seems really nice; I'm looking forward to getting to know her better.

When we got home, I needed a moment. I was tired, and I really just wanted to take a nap. Instead, I cut, filed, and buffed my nails in the wonderful peace of my room while I listened to the mix cd that Steven sent me. Then I started planning. Last week they decided to give us this coming Friday off instead of the following Monday, so I had to re-plan my lessons for the next two weeks before starting on the next two. When I finally finished revising the first ones, I was not feeling incredibly inspired about the new ones. Part of the problem was probably that I was sitting on my bed. I'm the kind of person that needs a table top and quiet to get much of anything done.

Sometimes the idea of facing tons of boundlessly energetic little kids that hardly understand you is the last thing you want to do, especially on a Monday morning. Following an Sabbath school quarterly made for kids that speak English with ESL students can present its difficulties. How do you explain a little boy coming back to life to a bunch of children that don't even understand the words to "I Just Want to be a Sheep"? Hearing that story for the first time is strange even to someone that does understand it. I have a hard time trying to explain idols and monuments when my students haven't even heard familiar stories like David and Goliath or Noah and the Ark in English. Today I got just plain right frustrated with planning and started missing Steven. After looking through pictures and moping for a while, I prayed that God would take these feelings from me. It's okay to miss him, but being miserable is not a feeling that will help me serve these kids.

Sometimes the last thing you want to do, is the very thing you must do. When that's the case, all you can do is pray for an attitude change. Currently: still praying.

No words needed for this beautiful Sabbath.

A cozy stroll, masterpieces, and the jellybean potato.

Thursday afternoon the sky was overcast as we started our walk home. It started sprinkling moments later, but we decided to stop at Jumbo anyway. We kind of had to since we were out of bread and oil. I'm starting to think that we will go to Jumbo everyday (or at least more days that not) no matter how much grocery shopping we do on Sunday. Something always comes up, whether it's cookies for students, jelly, or the ever disappearing bread--the people at Jumbo definitely know our faces. We think they may be placing bets on whether or not we'll come in every day. lol. When we were ready to check out at Jumbo, it was raining pretty heavily so we decided to kill some time. We looked around for a good ten or fifteen minutes until the exhaustion from the long day and week settled down firmly upon us. Cue look outside. No more heavy rain. We were witnessing a torrential downpour. We debated our options, counted our dwindling lempiras, and came up with a plan. Kadian and I sent Cia & Nelly home in a taxi with all of our bags. Then we cozied up under Kadian's England wind ravaged umbrella and began sloshing our way home. You should have seen the people's faces! lol. Some women just stared at us like we were the strangest thing they had ever seen, while some men looked amused. We must have been quite the spectacle to behold. A tall English Jamaican girl and a shorter (but still tall here) white American girl laughing (rather hysterically) as we dodged rivers forming in the streets, whimpered as our shoes filled with water, and bemoaned our grand adventure--all while in each others arms. That is until Kadian decided to abandon the small refuge of the umbrella and try to jump over a particularly large river forming on the side of the road and run down half the street. I bounced after her, jumping and landing in part of the "river", thus soaking the rest of my skirt, carrying the umbrella and laughing all the way. Both together again and under (or mostly under) the umbrella, we walked the final stretch to the house. Needless to say, we were ready to get into some dry clothes. Soon after, the rain died down and then stopped completely.

This is the picture of me that my little student in kindergarten drew of me. He is such an excellent student! And it has nothing to do with the fact that his name is Steven :)

So sweet! I got this first thing in the morning, what a beautiful start to the school day. Andrea Carolina is such a sweetie.

Supper tonight = amazing. Sauteed fresh green beans, corn, veggie meat, and rice and peas (peas are beans. Don't ask me to explain. It's a Jamaican thing. And yes, I was very confused when I first heard the name lol.). Cia spoils us. Oh and fresh lemonade, a frequent treat around here.

Me, "Let's get the small ones, those big ones are way too expensive." Kadian, "Oh you hate me, don't you?!" What was I thinking. Ten to twenty lemps is a dollar or less difference. We had a potato peeling party tonight.

Nelly hard at work. Cia wasn't invited to the party. ;)

Then I met the jellybean potato. Seriously? This thing was smaller than one of those poofy orange circus peanut candies.

We decided on scalloped potato casserole. More like I decided, and everyone agreed to go along with it. things were going well until Kadian got to the part about needing 5 cups of milk as she was reading me the instructions. We only had a half cup of Original Silk left and a newly bought cartoon of Vanilla Silk. Hm. Well, it doesn't taste very vanilla-y, nothing like the stuff from home. Maybe it will be okay. We didn't have a lot of other choices and hoped for the best. We added a whole lot of seasonings, but there is an undeniable slight vanilla flavor going on. I am really, really hoping that baking takes some of that out. Who knows. Potluck could be interesting tomorrow. lol. We are also bringing some veggie meat and salad, so there are other things to fall back on if this fails. I was so looking forward to some yummy scalloped potatoes, such a comforting homey food. Next time: original soy milk and big potatoes.

Today

Today I found a huge spider on my bed when I got out of the shower. I'm getting better at facing my fears.
Today I wore a bright yellow shirt. It's not even close to my family of colors.
Today I sprayed hairspray on my neck like it was perfume. I think I was a little tired.

Today I tried to teach preschoolers about Jesus. I'm not sure they understood, but they seemed happy.
Today a little boy drew a picture of me. My heart melted.
Today my afternoon prepa class was a bit of a nightmare as usual. I am not sure what to do with them.

Today my throat really hurt. I probably shouldn't have eaten so much sugar on my birthday.
Today the school switched one of our days off. I have to re-plan tonight.
Today we talked about parent meetings on Friday. We all came home pretty stressed.

Today I didn't feel like doing anything when I got home. I made myself go to The Hogar.
Today I participated in dance class. I felt myself relaxing and smiling at my mistakes.
Today I learned a few more steps. I am still very lost, but it's fun.

Address Update!

So apparently it might just be best to send things straight to the P.O. Box.

Here it is:
Maranatha Adventist Bilingual School
c/o Emily Morris
P.O. Box 322
Comayagua, Honduras

But I have successfully received things that were sent to the school address. This one is just a lot shorter and easier seeming :). Either way, think it'll work.

Random notes, thoughts, and updates since turning 20

1. Today a little kindergarten girl put tried to put her mouth over my watch. The thought that watches might taste good has never occurred to me. Maybe it looked like a lolly pop or something--it is pink.
2. I am blessed to be surrounded by incredibly loving people. Birthday happiness: bed in breakfast, birthday sign, birthday cake, birthday balleada, birthday banner, birthday party, birthday candle, birthday ice cream, birthday questions, and over 100 birthday facebook comments/messages (WOW). Basically, my birthday rocked.

Admiring my beautiful jello cake.

Look at my beautiful birthday banner!

Ashley made it. So yummy!

They made me a cute little slide show. Awwww. I loved it!

Ashley, Kadian, Emily x 2, Cia, Nelly, and David

3. I love Funyuns. And sometimes the best thing you can do after a long Monday is treat yourself to a bag of Funyuns. Even if they are 50 lempiras. Which is only about $2.something, but on our salary--It's a lot! lol
4. Today I got my first package and card in the mail. BEST part of my week including the days that haven't happened yet. I can't believe how sweet Steven's parents are. They sent beautiful place mats that we enjoyed tonight, a giant singing b-day card, neat things for school, some treats, and best of all--letters, a cd, and a t-shirt from Steven. Let me pause for a moment and gush. My boyfriend wrote me a note for every Sabbath that I am here. How adorable is that? I love him :). I still haven't heard anything since he left for Woja, but I emailed the principal on Majuro. He is going to pass any news he hears along, and he is hoping to hear from Steven tomorrow!

We finally discovered that vegetables do exist here. The good ones just aren't always in Jumbo (the close grocery store).

5. Yesterday a little boy from prepa named Jafet gave me a homemade flower. So cute! It completely brightened my day.
6. We made a menu plan for the week. It's awesome. But somehow we have still had to go to the grocery store for one thing or another every day so far, and we have to go again tomorrow.
7. I tried to be sneaky about my cleaning, but eventually my roommates noticed I was cleaning on my birthday. Despite them insisting I relax (which I did ALL morning!), I managed to get the shower scrubbed down. Haha. Best part? I didn't find any worms.

8. I'm currently trying to find a solution to being tackled by hugs from over twenty kids at once. Both the prepa classes about knocked me over today. I need to find an alternative form of endearment. Blowing kisses? Hm, not sure.

9. Store boxes are free in Honduras too. A guy from a school supply store gave me a free box yesterday, and I really thought he was the nicest person ever. lol
10. I went to the market for the first time yesterday. I like to buy things from the poor cute little old ladies, because I feel bad for them. Apparently this is not good market shopping technique. Kadian is threatening to never let me go back, but none of our purchases were really bad, so I think she'll reconsider.. ;)
11. I find it very disturbing that I brush my teeth with water that we won't even wash our fruit in. I try not to think about it.
12. I'm starting to become slightly less concerned about killing every ant I see. You just can't win 'em all.
13. Hearing Alejandro Josue say "MOON!" when I pointed to a drawing of a moon today before we had even reviewed made me ridiculously happy. With the pre-k kids, sometimes I feel a little hopeless. It was so exciting that he remembered!
14. I'm going to try to not chop my hair off this year. I'm not expecting much, but I'm kind of interested to see how long it'll get.
15. Parent teacher meetings this Friday. My biggest fear? Not knowing who their child is when they ask how he or she is doing. I think I have most of their names down, but I'm fuzzy on a few of the kindergarteners.
16. If you have any good vegan recipes, send them my way! Especially protein dishes. We have one kind of tvp (dried veggie meat) here, but it's getting old fast. We also have silken tofu and a whole lot of beans. We cook every night and always have dinner as a family. I think I am really going to miss that when this year is over.
17. My busy, somewhat uptight about time,  American attitude is slowly being chipped away at. And y'all thought I was late to a lot of things. Come to Honduras! :) lol
18. I now understand why my dad hated it so much when we stuffed the garbage can. Let me tell you, it's even worse when the garbage has been sitting in non air-conditioned Honduran weather.
19. I now clearly see that God had a purpose in my first hectic week trying to teach pre-k. I was so stressed trying to teach these little tikes that weren't at all used to sitting in school and didn't understand a word of English, I didn't see much good in the situation other than the fact that I was learning their names. Now I realize what a blessing my time in pre-k was. Since I was with them at the beginning and the kids got to know me so well, they all love me now! :). It makes teaching their Bible class a lot easier, and because they are so young, this year will have a big impact on them.
20. The frog that frequents our porch area has been named Sherwin.

P.S. 20 isn't so old.

Have I mentioned I have the best roommates ever?!

Delicious oatmeal, fresh lemonade, rambutan, hard boiled egg, cheese filled dumplings, and coconut bread!

I was feeling a little strange about the whole 2-0 thing. I felt like I should spend my last few hours as a teenager doing something childish. Instead, I worked on lesson planning and went to sleep before midnight like a responsible person. This morning, however, being twenty doesn't seem so bad.  No, not bad at all :).

My absolutely best ever roommates brought me a delicious breakfast in bed! I was so surprised, I couldn't believe it. One of the first things I said was, "Get my camera!". :) They even made a 'happy birthday' sign and welcomed me to the 20+ club lol. Honestly, it made me feel so great. This is my first birthday away from home, and they made it so special for me. I sat happily munching on my breakfast, enjoying ever last bite. Then they brought me my computer, because they knew I would want to blog right away! I had to catch up on the weekend, but now I finally got to brag about my awesome roommates. They say I have to relax today and won't let me come grocery shopping or anything. We'll see about that ;), but I am having a wonderful birthday.

Thank you girls! Kadian, Cia, & Nelly--You are the best roommates ever!