Busy Bee...

As expected, the holiday season is upon us (even in tropical Honduras), and that means fewer blog posts. It's ironic though, because in the time when there's more to share - there's less sharing. Haha. Sorry about that.

Time for a rewind... I already posted about my Thanksgiving day. Honduras doesn't actually celebrate Thanksgiving because you know... the Pilgrims didn't settle a colony here or give thanks with these Native Americans. Anyway, no Thanksgiving = no Black Friday. However, a group of about 12-15 of us went back to Valle de los Angeles for some Christmas shopping. I'm flying with Delta two weeks from today, and I'm starting to think I'll have one 50-pound suitcase of things to leave at home after Christmas and another 50-pound suitcase of Christmas gifts for friends and family. I'm so excited... :)

That was also the day of the Iron Bowl, and I got home during halftime to a score that really surprised me. I had been preparing myself for a slaughter. Then I was only able to watch the third quarter because we were leaving again - but I enjoyed seeing my Tigers beating the Tide for a little while...

That evening, Twana, Hannah, Christa, John, and I took the rapidito (smallish bus that costs fifty cents to ride from the mountain into the city) into Tegus and squeezed into a taxi to go stay at the guest house owned and run by World Gospel Mission. Twana's aunt and uncle are missionaries here and part of their job is running this small compound. When they have teams in town doing ministry, they all stay there. However, we had the place all to ourselves! We hung out, played games, baked cookies, watched Fried Green Tomatoes, and slept... It was really nice because it felt like a relaxing getaway, even though we were just in the middle of the city. For those of you who know me really well, you know that I prefer to sleep to the sound of a small tabletop fan that sounds similar to a jet engine. The Lord surprised me with such a huge blessing in a small package when I walked into the room that Twana and I would share, only to see a fan exactly like the one I have at home sitting on the headboard of my bed!

We went to the mall that Saturday afternoon and purchased things for an operation shoebox that our faculty is putting together... It's for a school in the dump. Can you believe that? A school in a dump? It serves 138 children - and we're hoping to bless each and every one of them for Christmas.

That night we played speed Scrabble (seriously, my new favorite game) and enjoyed a pizza dinner with Twana's aunt and uncle before they brought us home.

Last Sunday was election day. Overall, it passed very peacefully. The last president was from the liberal party, and now the pendulum has swung to the other side and the country has elected the candidate from the conservative party. Unfortunately, that news was also followed with claims that he is even more corrupt than the guy he's replacing. Welcome to Honduras...

While Birmingham dealt with high temperatures in the 50's or something like that last Sunday, we were laying out and sweating at Twana's house. :)

Monday was declared a national holiday because of the elections, so we didn't have school. Instead, I went with six other people to a local national park called La Tigre. It's in a cloud forest (somewhat similar to a rain forest) at about 7,500 ft. elevation. We hiked for two and a half hours to a beautiful waterfall... Unfortunately, there's nothing quite like a trail marked "dificultad fuerte" (strong difficulty) to show you just how old and out of shape you are... even when you're just 25. Also, when half of a trail goes steeply downhill on the way to your destination - that means half of your trail will go steeply UPHILL as you try to return to your point of origin... My knees hurt for the next 24 hours!

This school week has been fine. As usual, the kids are getting hyper and excited about the holidays... I still think my favorite moments in the day come during reading class. We're reading Number the Stars together, and they're so sucked into the story. Then the moments when they spread out and read are so quiet and peaceful. :)

It was a busy workweek because progress reports went home yesterday. Many of them are disappointed with their grades. Thankfully, they will have two weeks between now and Christmas and two weeks after to try to improve.

I think my favorite kid-quote of the week was, "Miss... My breath smells. Like cheese." :)

Wednesday night, my care group met at Ben and Joy's apartment for dinner. Their place is so warm and welcoming (unlike mine) and it's also decorated for Christmas. It was so nice to watch them cook together and join together for some good food.

Thursday night was even more of an adventure. I attended a fancy Christmas dinner for parents and teachers at a really nice restaurant called La Cumbre. It's here on the mountain and looks out over the city. It was decorated for Christmas and approximately 120 of us sat around one LONG table. Something about it and the dim lighting felt like medieval times... Or maybe it just reminded me of feasts at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. :) It was nice to get all dressed up and to eat a yummy dinner of salad, turkey, ham, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, and a roll. Unfortunately, Hondurans eat really late. Our dinner started at 7:30 and we didn't get home until 10:30. That was way past my bedtime!

Last night I just relaxed in bed and talked on Skype. Now I'm in for a day of grading papers and watching the SEC championship... And possibly packing to come home! I need to figure out which things I haven't been using here so that I can take them back to Alabama. I'M COMING HOME TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!!! =D

And in closing, here's a cheesy and yet true quote I heard the other night...

"God + Nothing = Everything."

Chew on that for a while... :)