November 29, 2012
Thanksgiving break arrived upon us in what felt like record
time. While August, September,
October and the majority of November has gone by quickly we were still
exhausted as teachers and ready for a break. We were also stoked because we would get to travel to a real
city! We spent weeks
preparing/reminding each other of all the great things we would get to experience
and see and more importantly all the wonderful food that we would have.
On Wednesday morning we met at our principal’s house who was
going to drive us in his truck to Santa Barbara where, if we were on time, we
would catch a direct bus to Tegucigalpa (known to Hondurans as Teguc), but we
would actually get off at a rest stop about halfway where the Gracias teachers
who were traveling on an Abundant Life bus would meet us and pick us up. This was a great plan, but things
quickly ran off course. First,
Jake accidentally slept in so when we were all ready to leave at 6 am we were
missing him and had to call and wake him up. He got ready quick though and we were on our way to pick up
a few people and things on our way out of town. Just as we got everything and everyone loaded in the truck
started smoking and when the hood was opened we found that the truck had
actually lit on fire. The next
best option was to walk to the main road and catch the 7ish bus out of town to
Santa Barbara. We did this and the
ride wasn’t too bad, but since it left later we had missed our direct bus so we
took a packed mini-bus. There were
no seats left and so we stood in the aisle basically on top of each other
staring at the floor because the bus was just a bit short. This took us to an intersection where
we got off and waited for a mode of transportation that was heading in our
direction. A few minutes later a
large van stopped and said they would take us to the rest area to meet our
group. We once again piled in to a
tight space, but we arrived to meet the Gracias teachers…and Surprise! Their
students too. This meant another
very full bus and with loud students, but the good news was they had gotten us
all chicken sandwiches and fries from Wendy’s. We finally arrived at our hotel in Teguc to discover that
all of the girls (students and teachers) had been placed into one large
bunk room that was just packed with bunk beds…and had only 1 bathroom. After the frustrating day of travel we
had and the screaming students we couldn’t handle it so we had a conversation with
Jake who, bless his heart, was able to get the La Union female teachers their
own room. We took quiet naps and
relaxed before we met for some Pizza Hut and got ready for a benefit concert at
the Vida Abundante church. Of
course as a side note, this is when my body decided to rebel against me and I
was stricken with a cold.
The evening was spent at a concert that was actually a
benefit for our La Union school. I
don’t remember the name of the group but it was 4 young people who played
guitar together and had dancers that danced to a few of their songs. Unfortunately for us it had been a long
day and the concert was not of the super exciting kind so it nearly put us to
sleep. We gratefully retired to
bed after it.
On Thursday we went the Abundant Life School in Teguc and
had breakfast. We also got to see
a bit of the school which was pretty cool and made us La Union teachers a bit
jealous. After the school we went
to the Vida Abundante clinic and received a tour. Many teachers, including myself, also had our eyes
checked. Glasses here are much
cheaper even for designer frames like 50-100 dollars including exam, lenses and
frames. Unfortunately since I am
so blind my lenses are very thick and they don’t have the lens thinning here
so I decided to wait for a new pair when I get back to the states. Once we had seen everything we went on
to lunch at a local pizza place which was really good. In the afternoon we stopped by a
cultural fair that was being set up and took a look around; it was fun because
it was taking place in this really old prison so it was quite unique. We then went back to the hotel to get
ready for dinner.
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The table was all set |
For us La Union teachers dinner was an exciting affair
because we haven’t dressed up for anything and rarely put make-up on or do our
hair. So we got ourselves all
dolled up and joined the whole group for dinner at one of the directors’
houses. It was AMAZING! Her house
was up in the mountains around Teguc and was absolutely gorgeous even by
American standards and was all decorated for Christmas. We spent time talking with everyone and
thanking God for all of the wonderful gifts we have been given in our
lives. The food was great and much
like a typical Thanksgiving at home.
We had turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, fruit salad with candied
pecans, wine and pumpkin flavored flan for dessert. My stomach and I were very content and I was able to sleep
well that next night.
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The water cycle exhibit at the Chiminike |
On Friday, we went to Chiminike in the morning. This is a children's science museum and
yes I was in heaven. It was like
having a kid in a candy shop, everything was soooo cool. I even climbed my way through the
digestive system and got sneezed on in a giant size nose. I have decided one of my life goals
might just have to be to own/direct/design exhibits for a children's
museum. After the museum we went
to lunch at a local place in the what is known as the District. This unfortunately was not the best
experience. There were 3 choices
on the menu and we still waited over 2 hours for food and still they forgot
about one of our orders so we had one person not get food at all (we shared of
course).
The afternoon was spent paint balling, which many of the
teachers skipped out on, but our whole La Union crew was prepared for some
domination. Unfortunately we had 8
people and all the other schools combined only had 6 that wanted to play so we
decided we would give them Jake (he wanted to shoot at all of his teachers
anyway). The others were worried
this would be unfair because it meant that the La Union team had 6 girls and 1
guy while they had 5 guys and 2 girls.
Lets just say that we shut them up quick and while we let them win a
couple we dominated in the rest.
This was my first time paint balling and I had blast; I even came out
with a nice battle wound bruise on my leg where the ball hit and bounced off,
not breaking. After our domination
they let us go back to the hotel and change which was good because I had also
gotten shot in the head a few times and had paint all over my hair, so I was
able to shower. We then went to a
Mongolian type restaurant and had a great family style meal. The food was great including a curry,
rice dish, beef in oyster sauce and chicken in peanut type sauce.
After dinner the group was going bowling, but the La Union
teachers decided to go back to the hotel.
We wanted to keep with our Friday night traditions of watching Downton
Abby, so we took a cab to McDonalds and got McFlurries then cuddled up and
watched an episode of our show, retiring a little early to bed.
Saturday morning we ventured out of Teguc to a place called
valle de los angeles which is a tourist town that has lots of shops selling
local artisan crafts, pottery and other goods. We wandered around a bit and finished our Christmas
shopping. We then headed for the
mall where we had our choice for lunch as McDonalds or Quiznos. I ate at Quiznos and then headed
straight for Wal-Mart. I filled a
cart with practical items that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else,
powdered sugar, febreze, brown sugar, some wine, granola bars, Christmas
lights…all the good stuff. After
the shock of WalMart wore off I ventured through the rest of the mall, but
didn’t find much that caught my eye.
We had a late lunch so at dinner we just ordered a bunch of appetizer
sampler plates and shared those before we all headed to the movies. Some people went to see the last
installment of the Twilight series but I went with a group to see the new James
Bond film and I was quite impressed.
I liked the movie a lot and was happy to be in a real theater with comfy
seats and it only cost me like 4 bucks!
Sunday morning we left the hotel early to catch the 7am
direct bus to Santa Barbara. Of
course as plans go, the bus we thought left at 7 actually left at 8:30 so we
spent some time waiting around. We
eventually arrived back to La Union safe and sound but tired from
traveling. I unpacked and went to
bed early arriving at school the next day a little unprepared but I didn’t
worry much because the break was all worth it. Little did I know though that this week would be crazy…I’ll
explain this weekend with some pictures of the fun things my students have been
doing in science class.
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