Finally caught back up!

6/21
This morning we had 10 kids in class – everyone that was here yesterday as well as one new student. We started this week’s topic – superlatives – with tall/taller/tallest, short/shorter/shortest, big/bigger/biggest, and small/smaller/smallest. After learning the new words and making sentences with them, we played the wheel game with some of the new words.
After class, Heide gave me a bunch of her food that she had left, and we went over to the pulpería to get more saldo for her phone, and then walked over to Funez so she could say goodbye to them and I could catch the bus with Danny. It was so sad saying goodbye! And now I’m the one in our house that’s been here the longest – hard to believe it’s only a couple of weeks til Mom and Derek get here!
Danny and I took the bus to Ceiba and then a taxi to the university. It was cool getting to see the campus – it’s really pretty – really green and lots of palm trees. After that, we took a taxi to the mall and got lunch there and then took a taxi to the terminal and got the bus back to Porvenir right away.
Around 4pm, I was walking home and Melisa came out when she saw me, and said that the race (one of the events for the feria this week) was today at 4:30 (I was thinking it was Thursday). She said she didn’t think any Hondurans would be coming since they aren’t really runners, so it would just be volunteers, so I called a few volunteers to see if they’d be interested in participating. Michelle said she’d do it with me, and when we were about to start, we saw Shannon, and she said she’d do it too (she’s a competitive runner). We had to run 5 times around the paved part by the campo – so kind of like around the campo but a block longer on two sides. They used one of those big fireworks (kind of like a roman candle only way louder) to start the race, but we just ran together. When we’d run by the little crowd of people by the starting point, they’d cheer us on, and at the very end, we sprinted to the finish – but of course I was last!
After showering, I went to Charlie and Amalia’s to use the internet, and got to chat with Mom. I went home when it got dark and was going to make a cup of tea to have while I worked on catching up on journaling. I wasn’t sure if my milk was still ok and couldn’t tell from the smell, so tried a little – and realized very quickly that it was sour!! I couldn’t find my water bottle anywhere and then realized I had left it at C&A’s, so took a while to get water, and man, was that disgusting!

6/20
We had 9 kids in class today. Since we hadn’t gotten this week’s topic from Iris, we reviewed parts of the body and ailments (“I have a stomachache,” “He has a toothache.”).
After class, Heide and I went to Nic’s to use the internet for quite a while and I finally got to Skype with Pauline!
When we got back, we had lunch (pasta with a flour/butter/cheese sauce that Heide made) and then went to Ceiba with Courtney and Stephanie. From the terminal, we walked to the central park and then to Mangy’s, the store we wanted to go to yesterday, and I bought a dress. From there we walked to Ki’bok café and got coffee and exchanged some books. We took a taxi back and then went to dinner at Mario’s with the rest of the volunteers and Charlie and Amalia. During dinner, everyone introduced themselves/where they work and live/etc and then a few of us talked about the different programs, safety in Porvenir, transportation, etc. At dinner, Eddie announced that it was my birthday yesterday so everyone sang “Happy Birthday,” which was nice. Amy and Eddie gave me a great birthday present, and I thought it was so sweet that they got me something  They gave me a card and on the inside said that they were sorry it was so tacky – they looked for 20 mins and it was the best they could find – but I thought it was great just to get a card!! They gave me a couple of Cadbury bars and a bunch of Yorkshire tea bags --- so good!!!  Now I have enough that I can have at least one cup of tea a day!
After dinner, Amy, Eddie, Heide, and I went back to the house and played Jungle Speed. We made a cake but ended up not eating it since we were so full from dinner.

6/19
We got up around 6 (I think) and packed up our stuff and then walked out to the main road and waited for a bus. We had to wait by the side of the road for quite a while and then caught one back to the terminal in Ceiba. When we were waiting on the bus in Ceiba, we got baleadas – they were really good! These ones had beans (of course) and actual cheese (not the powdery kind normally in baleadas), plus a slice of avocado.
When I got home, Heide was home and we chatted for a bit and then went to use the internet at Nic’s for quite a while – I got to Skype with Mom and Nana.
When we got back, we had lunch – Heide had some pizza dough mix, so we made some funny looking pizzas (we didn’t have a pan so used foil, but didn’t grease it, and the dough was pretty runny, so it ended up being a funny shape and stuck to the foil. It was tasty though!
After lunch, we went to Ceiba with Courtney, but the store we wanted to go to (like most stores since it was Sunday) was closed, so we walked around for a while and then went to Quinta Real and got ice cream (chocolate and pistachio). While we were there, it started pouring again. Lately it’s been raining every day! I guess that’s a good thing since there were a couple months where it didn’t rain at all, but I much prefer days without rain! It took us a while to get a taxi, so we got super drenched! When we got back, I took my laundry off the line since I had hung it up to dry before we left – it was much wetter when we got back than when I hung it up! Heide and I went over to the Funez’s for dinner, which was fun.

6/18
We went to Pico Bonito in the morning (me, Danny, Marlon, Michelle, Natasha, Seth, Joe, Shannon). We took the bus to La Posta and Marlon, Danny, and I dropped our stuff off there and then we took a bus to Pico Bonito. We walked through pineapple fields to get to the entrance, and Shannon picked a little pineapple and carried it with her. We went to an entrance where we paid $6/L114 and then hiked up to a waterfall. On the way, we saw a lizard, some frogs, a false coral snake, and a little bug that is the only one which can pollinate this one plant, and then goes inside the plant and lives there. We saw that a couple of the bridges were kind of falling apart and Danny said that after the coup d’état in 2009, a lot of organizations cut their support, but now that Zelaya is back in the country, they have started up again. It had rained the day before so things were damp and it reminded me a lot of the tropical rainforest house at the zoo at home (Pico Bonito is a sub-tropical forest). When we got to the waterfall, we went swimming – it was so cold! I didn’t go up to the waterfall because we were in one pool, and to get to the waterfall, you had to climb up these huge slippery rocks to get into the next pool where the waterfall was, and it looked really difficult to get there and to get back. While we were there, Seth cut up the little pineapple and we all got a slice – so tasty! We hiked back down and heard a white-faced monkey, but didn’t get to see it – Danny said last weekend they saw a group of about 30 of them – so jealous! We stopped at the lookout on the way back and you could see pretty far, though the lookout wasn’t that high up since it was pretty close to the start of the trail. On the way back, a few of them picked a few more little pineapples and ate them on the walk back.
Danny’s professor picked us up at the gas station (we took a bus there with the tourism people we saw before) and drove us back to Porvenir, where we dropped off everyone but Shannon and picked up Leah and Jenny. We then drove to Ceiba and picked up Cristian, and then headed to Sambo Creek. When we got there, we set up the tents and it started POURING (we stayed on someone’s property so were kind of in their backyard). While it was pouring, we went in the pool (pretty small and only a couple feet deep, but nice) and the guys picked coconuts from the trees there so we got to drink some coconut milk and eat super fresh coconut! When it stopped raining, we went into the village for dinner and got dinner at a place on the beach. I had fish (which surprisingly came with tartar sauce), salad, tajadas, and rice/beans – the rice/beans were made with coconut and you could really taste it – very good! When we were leaving, there were people downstairs watching the game (Honduras vs Costa Rica) and it was down to a shootout, so we stayed to watch – Honduras ended up winning by one  After that, we walked through the village for a while. Their feria is going on right now, so there were people dancing in the street, and there was a little tent with popcorn and foosball, so Danny, me, Cristian, and Jenny played a few games of foosball – and Jenny and Cristian won every time! After walking around for a while, we went back to the property and hung out there for the rest of the night.

6/17
This morning Juan and Vilma showed up at quarter to 8, so I went over to school with them and played tic-tac-toe and hangman til 9. We had 12 kids today, and I was really happy because Diego and Kennet came, and they haven’t come in a long time. Since today’s Friday, it was a play day so we went to the beach and then the campo to play. We went back to the classroom to get their stuff a couple minutes before 10, and then went back to the campo to play. After that, Juan, Vilma, Diego, Kennet, and Nayeli came over to play – Juan and Vilma stayed til about 10:45, and the rest til 12 when a relative came over and said they had to go home. When they left, Kennet gave me a big hug and said he wanted to give me a birthday hug since he won’t see me on Sunday – so cute! After that, the other two wanted to, too, so I got a few good hugs today 
After they left, I ate lunch and caught up on journaling, and as soon as I finished, Oscar, Selvin, and Angie came over to play until we had to go to class at 1:20.
I covered the 1:30 class today for Iris and Eddie, and we did an activity where the kids divide a sheet of paper into 6 boxes (though a couple did more boxes) and in each box, write a sentence in English using what they learned this week, and draw a picture of what the sentence says. It was pouring during class, so it was really hard to hear for a while (since the roof is metal) and there are two leaks in the roof. It’s been raining on and off since this afternoon, so I really hope it stops by tomorrow so we can still go!
After class, I walked around Porvenir with Stephanie and Courtney to show them where a few things are, and then went over to Nic’s to use the internet – so nice to finally have internet and get to chat with Mom, Nana and Derek, though the connection was too slow to upload photos.

6/16
We had 12 kids in class today, including one completely new student. We learned two new verbs – to mop and to sweep, reviewed writing sentences using he/she/I/we/you/they is/am/are, and then played the wheel game with questions and sentences from this week. After class, Maryeli got to choose a prize since she had 30 stickers, and then the kids had a watermelon snack.
After class, I caught up on journaling and worked on the stuff for the Tela volunteers some more and finally finished it – I hope I am able to get internet access soon so I can send it to them!
Around noon, Oscar, Julieta, Gaby, and Angie came over to play, and ended up staying til 2:15 since they didn’t have class today (Iris kept them longer on Weds and said there wouldn’t be class on Thurs – which ended up probably being a good thing, since it started pouring and kids rarely come to class when it’s raining hard).
At 2:30, the girls from VH2 came over and we went to Ceiba to go grocery shopping. There was a traffic jam so the bus there took an hour! When we went back, I went over to Charlie and Amalia’s to see if the new volunteers (Stephanie and Courtney) were there, but they’d gone out with Amalia, so I stayed and waited for a while and then had to go back to get ready for class. I ended up seeing them on the way to the house, and they said Charlie would bring them over later. They came over while I was in class, so I just let them in and showed them their room and went back to class.
We had 8 people in class today and reviewed the jobs that we learned yesterday and added “What do you do?” “I’m a/an…” and “What do you want to do/be?” “I want to be a/an…”. After that, we reviewed clothing and “I’m/She is/He is/You are wearing…” and then added adjectives (“I’m wearing long jeans.”)
After we finished, we played the game where you toss the little balls into the cups arranged in a pyramid. After class, I went over René’s English homework from the university with him– it’s odd, they teach them to say “I have not a house for my family.” instead of “I do not have a house for my family.” After that, I went back and talked with the new girls a little bit – when I told them I’m from Seattle, Courtney was like, “I loooooove Seattle!” and listed a bunch of stuff in Seattle that she loves – it’s always good to hear that! ;) After that, I went to get dinner with Danny at Golosinas Jared. The plan for Saturday is to go to Pico Bonito and then to Sambo Creek to camp and swim and barbeque. During dinner, Jared (one of the students that started a week ago) came over and talked about the homework and how he hadn’t done it yet and was going to get up super early to do it in the morning. Some of the kids didn’t want homework today, so I told them they can have 2 stickers tomorrow if they do it, and just made it a bit longer than usual.

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