A Weekend of Birthdays, Tag, and Injury

3 staff birthday celebrations in the same weekend!  We ended up having a wonderful surprise birthday celebration Saturday for Jenna involving cake, balloons, and a piñata.  I cooked funfetti cake cookies for the event.

A student of Jenna's takes out the piñata.

The day before, most people had actually went down to a restaurant in the city for more birthday celebrations.  Tired from the all-day conference that was held that day, I chose to remain on my couch and watch Band of Brothers with Trent instead.  Richard, came over and joined us for the night.  At around 11pm, we left the house, met up with some of the other teachers and had an improptu game of tag at the playground.

The game unfortunately ended when, while trying to duck and weave my way under a low hanging 'bridge', I came up too early smacking my head on the overhang.   I thank Sarah C for taking care of the wound and doing a good job with it.  I went to the doctor the next morning to see about stitches, but she told me it wasn't deep enough to need them.  For that, I am thankful :)

Honduran Independence Day

Today, September 15, is Honduras's day of celebration in honor of gaining independence as a nation.  As a result, an assembly filled with cultural dancing and singing was held at school the day before, parades were held in the street, and best of all -- I left with a group of other teachers to the northern coast of Honduras in for what becomes a four-day weekend!  Currently I am laying in bed typing this out as the others are sleeping from what was a spectacular R&R day of beach, jungle, and sun.  I suppose I should first back up because the trip so far has been an adventure since its very beginnings.

The trip started yesterday, when the final school bell had rung for the day at 2:40.  Racing out of the classrooms, we rushed to catch a van waiting to take us to the bus station on the far side of town.  There, we were to catch a bus departing at 3:30.  We arrived at 3:35, five minutes too late.  The bus had left leaving us pondering the next move.  Thankfully, through luck or divine fate, an additional bus was leaving 15 minutes later and meeting up with our bus 3 hours down the road.  Hopping aboard, we arrived at the rest area, swapped busses and were once again on the road to Tela!

Our hotel, the Sherwood Hotel, was great.  Although the rooms reserved were closer to hostel quality than hotel, we had beds for everyone, AC, and privacy.  I'll ignore the fact that the floor was dirty and that the shower had no hot water or that the sheets were really not that clean.  And of course, waking up in a puddle of water under a leaky roof wasn't exactly that wonderful, but blessings abound when I consider that there are four guys and six beds;  I simply swapped beds and glorious sleep abounded.  The price is pretty dirt cheap as well.  It's not like the hotel was the big draw to Tela anyhow.

Today, I woke up to Honduran Independence day and, as I sat eating a donut from a pastry shop down the road, I got to watch the parade march by.   Soon thereafter, I caught a taxi with another teacher, Will, and went up to the Botanical Gardens nature reserve in Tela.

Túnel de Bambú

The place was gorgeous and filled with fantastic trees and bird-life.  It was massive too.  At some point during the trek, Will and I got lost following trails and came across a sketchy looking dude with a machete.  After walking deeper into the forest, Will turned to me and whispered, 'hey, just so you know, that guy with the machete is following us!'  I looked behind and sure enough, machete-man was not far behind.  I told Will that we should pick up the pace, so we started scampering up the trail at a quicker trot.  A quarter mile later, I turned briefly.  To my surprise, back at the same distance machete-man was still on our tail.  We soon realized we were headed the wrong direction anyway and needed to turn back with machete-man blocking our path.  Will bent over and picked up a couple rocks.  "Okay Josh, we're going to just book it down the hill as fast as you can and we'll have 'these' if he tries to mug us."  I took a rock in each had, turned around, and one the count of three sprinted down the hill.  No conflict ensued.  Machete-man had mysteriously vanished.  When Will and I finally made it back to the visitor's center, the taxi we had requested to pick us up never showed.  As a result, we hitched a ride back into town on the back of a pickup.  Eventually we made it home and I changed to get some time at the beach.

Botanical Gardens

I am thankful for all the summer tanning prepwork I had done before coming to Honduras.  Many of my group ended up with red blistering backs, but I escaped with only the unavoidable Rudolf red nose.  The beach sand was wonderful and the water was warm - estimated to be in the mid 80's.  Swimming again was something of a nostalgic relaxing dream come true.  I raced my roommate Dan but he really was not much competetion.  However, Dan did show me up in the sandcastle building showdown we had shortly thereafter.

To end the day, tonight I got pizza from an Italian lady who has a shop in Tela and walked along the beach under the moonlit, royal blue, star-ridden sky listening to the gentle waves of the Carribean waters massage up against the shore.  It was a wonderful closing to the night as I lifted up my eyes to the heavens and praised God for the wonderful blessings in life.

ALP's Campus

With some of the spare time I didn't have, I threw together a map describing the layout of ALP's campus.  I live in the housing located across the street from the school, and work in the high school building found on the far left.  Enjoy.

ALP's Campus

Over the Initial Shock

For the first time since beginning my classes, yesterday I found myself in a far more tranquil state than I had been in the past.  Perhaps it was the combination of medications and self-imposed 9:00pm bed-time, but ultimately through God's providence, when I showed up Thursday morning, I felt strengthened to work for the day.  This is a huge answer to prayer considering where I was just a week ago.  I think the comfort spawned from the words of wisdom given to me from a fellow teacher.  That is, to think of my time here as being given to the Lord.  When I think of time no longer as 'mine', 12 hour work days don't seem so bad.  I can be thankful for the moments when I do get to go out and play a game of soccer or watch a movie with my coworkers or spend a quiet evening to myself.    I still struggle to see my placement here as a ministry opportunity, perhaps because I distract myself in all the noise of school or perhaps I forget all the blessings Christ has bestowed upon me.  However, while in class yesterday, students asked me to take prayer requests which I gladly accepted and brought before Christ.  I only hope that my heart is in the right place, because sometimes I feel like I'm only going through the motions.

My largest obstacle now is the controlling of my classroom.  I often feel incapable of being the assertive teacher that I need to be.  That's not to say my expectations for the course work or student behavior have been lowered in any way, but rather, I simply don't force the kids pay attention when attention is required.  This is often to the frustration of other classmates and to myself as talking persists in the classroom.  Why then do I put up with such disrespect?  Why do I not command the kids and lay down the consequences that follow?  My best guess is that it has to do with fear.  I am by no any means an angry person, and for me to lay down consequences leads me to feeling almost like I'm giving retribution.  I have no need for vengeance, but I do need the students to understand that I mean business.  Ultimately I will need to get my habits changed or I will be fighting my classes all year long.

First Week of School: Complete

Wow. What an experience.  This whole past week has been one huge enormous blur.  As stated in my last post, I had grossly underestimated my preparedness for the roller-coaster week I was about to endure.   Dizzied by the shock of working in a new culture, I have spent the past few days feeling frustrated with students and situations, overwhelmed with the level of work, sick to my stomach, unable to sleep, and upset at myself for not being able to cope.  And yet, in spite of these things, God has put a wonderful thing into my life.  I had never before this week had students who would tell me how much they love the class, perform secret handshakes with me, feed me a Double Stuf Oreo, and reaffirm that which I'm doing in the classroom.

I think Wednesday night was the real turning point in my week.  It seems like so many blessing started trickling my way.  For instance Wednesday night I was blessed to be invited over to a friends' apartment for a delicious dinner and dessert where I was able to commune with friends and catch a breath.  More blessings - yesterday I was observed in my classroom by the Principal and told that my instruction style was spot-on.  To top it off, when I went to take a shower last night, the hot water was working again!  Last night, Suzie and my roommate Dan led a group of us teachers in worship and praise to the God Almighty and in self-reflection I came to the realization of what a blessing the Lord's faithfulness to us is.    Psalm 105 verses 5-8 read:

 ⁵ Remember the wonders he has done,
   his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
⁶ you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
   his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.
⁷ He is the LORD our God;
   his judgments are in all the earth.
 ⁸ He remembers his covenant forever,
   the promise he made, for a thousand generations.

 I read this passage to my students this past week for devotions as required by the school, but it holds personal weight in that God will always be there for me, no matter the circumstance.  In the face of discouragement is encouragement.  In the face of hate is love.  I cannot tell you just how wonderful it has been to have a family of believers here to work right along side of and support me when I'm down.

Couldn't make a post without a picture.

This will still be a tough year and I still have much catch-up to do this weekend, but I am encouraged to see God's love and kindness displayed through my fellow coworkers and the various blessings that have occurred since I got here.  Though the roller-coaster may continue for some time, I am confident that God will be faithful and I'll make it off the ride in one piece.