Not Again

This week has been pretty normal, in some ways. Monday was very long for those of us who travelled over the weekend. We were all swamped with work and had very little energy, but we prevailed. Tuesday morning, I woke up with the stomach virus- YAY!! I stayed out of school for three days, hoping that the things would get done in my classroom. I was relieved knowing that my aid would be there to hold down the fort. Tuesday night I found out that she was out and would be for about a week because she had emergency surgery. Thankfully, two women substituted for me and did a fabulous job! They were great with the kids and taught to perfection.

Friday and Saturday were filled with ACSI conferences. We are all thankful that it is over, not that we did not enjoy it! :) On Saturday night, five of us went to the Sushi Bar downtown. This was mine and Aaron's second time there and the other three's first. Two of the three did not like the sushi they had eaten in the States. At the end of the night, however, they were ready to make this a monthly tradition (it is too expensive for our salaries to do more). Aaron and I were kind of proud of a successful night. We really love the Sushi Bar and the owner was extremely helpful this time!

Three prayer requests: First, that my stomach would get stronger and that my immune system would get stonger. Second, Aaron managed to break a rib in class the other day (don't ask), so please pray for healing and comfort with the pain. Third, please pray for my aid, Karla, that she would have a quick recovery. Tomorrow will be interesting without her! Thank you for your prayers! Love to all!

Amapala

We just got back from Amapala. Ten of us teachers stayed on an island this weekend in South Honduras. Aaron organized the trip, and he did a fabulous job!! It was just gorgeous every where we turned;we were amazed at the beauty of God's creation. The island is basically a dormant volcano, so the sand on the beaches is black! There are only two hotels on the island, so we stayed at the better of the two. I know what you are thinking-You stayed at the best hotel on the island?? :) We payed a lot for it, too: $25 a night (for Aaron and myself-the 6 singles shared one room and payed a lot less)! It was great! The hotel was definitely not the nicest we have ever stayed in, and I don't think that they would stay open in the States, but it is Honduras!!! We overlooked the bugs on the walls and got wonderful rest every night! I was a little worried at first, but we all had a great time and laughed at the things we could have been upset over. The beach time was fantastic, and we had the FRESHEST seafood ever! Some of it was interesting, and our stomachs weren't exactly happy with all of us, but it was a good adventure.

As we drove into Tegucigalpa, a lot of us expressed the nice, but odd, feeling of coming home. Sometimes it takes a vacation to make your house feel like home. For some of us, we think of home in the States as our home. There is a feeling of going home that we will get when we visit our families that we will not get here, but for the first time, I felt like I was coming home when we drove up to the apartment. It was a good feeling, but it was weird. I feel more and more comfortable with this foreign land with every day that goes by. Like I have said before, Aaron was "home" the moment he stepped off the plane, but it has taken me longer to feel comfortable here. I told Aaron and a couple of other teachers today that I now LOVE kindergarten. It took me a little while, but I cannot see myself teaching any other grade next year. My kids are adorable and EASY to love, my aid (Karla) is amazing and I can't even imagine her not being there, and I love the flexibility of kindergarten. It has been hard with the language barrier, but my kids and I are working with each other. They are understanding, and they get so excited when I say something in Spanish. I try to give them special attention when they say something new in English and they love it! I am definitely having fun with them, and I think they are having more fun now, too!

I now see why people like to take a "vacation" after a vacation. We are exhausted now. Aaron drove the 15 passenger van through pretty rough mountain driving, and I was tense the whole drive! :) Thankfully, we have a four day week this week. We have ACSI conferences this weekend, and the kids don't come to school this Friday because of it. After this Friday, we won't have another day off for a while. Alex and Andrew are coming towards the beginning of October, then I go home soon after that for a week. Time is flying by!

We hope you all have a great week!

A Praise from the Hutton and Halbert families

I cannot help but write a note about our good news. We received news through reading my sister's blog (www.caringbridge.org/visit/catherinehutton) that her cancer has gotten smaller in every area!!!! It has shrunk in her liver, lungs, and bones! After praying so unceasingly for complete healing, it is so encouraging to see the Lord's answer to our prayers. For those of you who know me, you know that my brother and sisters and I are very close. It has definitely been a rollercoaster for our family since May, but the Lord has blessed us in ways we never dreamed of. Our family is closer than ever before, and we are thankful for the grace He has shown us. I hope that you will join us in praying for COMPLETE healing of Catherine Hutton.

This past week and weekend have been so eventful. It was our first full week of school in a while, and we were all exhausted by the end of it. On Monday, we had "Day of the Child" celebrations for our classes (well at least in elementary). This is a day in Honduras where the children are honored. One Pinares high school student put it this way: It is the celebration of the future of Honduras. I believe it is a good celebration, although many parents and children take it a bit too far.
Tuesday was my 23rd birthday. I don't think that I have been told "Happy Birthday" so many times on one of my birthdays. My children were so excited for me. They sang for me about 8 times that day as well! Aaron surprised me with flowers while I was teaching, and my aid and one of my students' parents surprised me with flan and ice cream. After school, Aaron and I made our way down to my favorite restaurant for a nice dinner. Little did I know, Aaron had planned a surprise get-together with all of our close friends, and they were there when we arrived! It was a fun night, and I had a lot of fun. The best part of the day, however, was when Aaron told me about my present from him. He and his parents have planned for me to go home for a week in October. Mrs. Halbert is coming here during her fall break to substitute for me. Most of you already know about my sister, Catherine. She was diagnosed with cancer in May and it has been very hard to be away from home during such a trying time for our family. Anyway, I am flying home October 20 (I think) and staying for a week! This is by far the greatest gift Aaron could have given me this year. As much as I am beginning to love Honduras, my heart often yearns to be back with my family in Mississippi.
Those of you who will see Renee and Andy Halbert soon, please give them a hug for me!! Mita is sacrificing her whole fall break for me, and Papi is flying with me both ways!! My family and I are so thankful!
The rest of the week went by quickly and ended with Independance Day on Friday. In Honduras, if a holiday falls on any day other than Monday, it is still observed by schools and some businesses on that following Monday. So, we did not have school today even though the actual holiday was Friday.
One of our fellow teacher's parents came to Honduras to visit this weekend. We spent a lot of time with them. The teacher and her roommate are two of our really good friends, so they wanted us to get to know her parents. They stayed at a very nice hotel across from one of the malls here, and we took advantage of the nice pool there this weekend! We did not feel like we were in downtown Tegucigalpa!

We hope that y'all have a wonderful week. Thank you for keeping up with us and for praying for us.


ps. I know that some of you would like to know ways to help us here. If any of you are interested, our elementary school is looking to update their video collection to all DVDs. Videotapes have problems with mold here and they are not always reliable now. If you are interested in sending children's videos to Academia Los Pinares, you may mail them to Andy Halbert 9913 Tierra Verde Drive Knoxville, TN 37922. He will get them to me in October. We are looking for all kinds of children's videos: Christian (like Veggie Tales), educational, or entertainment. They can be short or long. It will be for Pre-K through 6th grades. Thank you!!!

Doing Well

We are thankful to report that it looks as if the storm is over!! The Lord answered the prayers of His people and protected us here in central Honduras. I have not heard of the extent of damages on the coast of Honduras, but I do know that Nicarauga was hit pretty hard. Please pray for the families there. It rained steadily all night and into the morning, but nothing like the 25 inches they predicted for us. The storm apparently slowed down a lot when it reached the mountains here in Honduras. They were afraid that it would have picked up speed and then stopped here in Tegucigalpa when it reached our mountains. (That is what happened in Mitch) If you look at a map of Honduras, you can see how the mountains curve. What happened in Mitch (and what everyone was afraid would happen again) is the storm slowed down at the first part of the mountains, went over them and picked up speed, then stopped at the next curve of mountains right over Tegucigalpa for a couple of days and dumped 50 inches of rain on the capital. With Felix, the storm slowed down and broke up a lot before moving on. It also moved through here rather quickly. It does not seem like we were even in a storm now that I look outside and see the sunshine. We are very thankful!! We are also thankful and surprised that our power only went off for a few minutes about 5 different times last night and this morning. The Lord is so gracious!!

Aaron is currently downtown with a fellow teacher, Adam Trout, who owns an army-like SUV. They ventured down the mountain to see how things were since the sun was shining up here. He just called me and said that everything is great and that there "is NO chance we are getting out of school tomorrow." We teachers are thankful for the two days off school, but we are all falling behind with our schedules!! It is indeed time to go back, even though I have enjoyed the mornings to sleep in.

Thank you all for your prayers. We will try to keep you updated as we find out any details of the damage done. You may find out more on your news channels, though. Have a great day!

Hurricane shift

The hurricane has shifted and as of right now we are in the path of the eye. We are extremely safe up here on the mountain. It will be a tropical storm by the time it hits us, so we will experience rain. As we said before, our building is completely concrete (no exaggeration) and we are on a flat spot on the mountain. Therefore, we believe we are in the safest place we could be. Our prayer right now is for all of the poorly built small homes in the country. They will not be able to stand very much. Pray constantly for the lives of those people because many of them do not have money to go anywhere but their homes. Our hearts go out to all the people here who have no hope of a God that will forever protect them. We have a peace that only comes from the Lord, and we pray that the Lord will save not only lives but souls as well. We hope you will join us in praying for the safety of our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as the lost.

Our power will probably go out soon, so please do not expect a post any time soon. Please do not worry if there is no post for a couple of days. We are expecting to be out of power for a while.

Hurricane Felix

Hello to all,

I have had several comments about the hurricane down here. As of right now, we will only have some rain. It would have to come a little more south for it to really affect us. We will most likely lose power, but that is expected in a situation like this. Please pray that the Lord will not only protect us and keep the hurricane from our area, but that He would also protect those in the path. There are many poor people here in Honduras whose homes would not stand strong winds and rains, especially on the mountain slopes. We would most likely be okay because we are high up and in concrete buildings. Many of their homes are not even built on concrete slabs, let alone with concrete walls. The north coast is supposed to get the most damage, so please pray specifically for them. We will update you as soon as we know more. Thank you for your concern!

Hello from Honduras

First of all, let us apologize to anyone who we have not talked to since we left. We have been very busy and our internet has not been exactly stable until lately. We have Skype, which works only with internet!! We are starting this blog so that we can at least let people know what is going on and how to pray for us. We hope that you will enjoy reading!!
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We are now starting our fifth week in Honduras, and I must say that it has been an adventure. We arrived in Tegucigalpa on July 31st at about noon. (Honduras does not change times ever, so we are on Mountain time now, but once you have your time change, we will be on Central time.) Aaron and I came with our four suitcases loaded to the max and our cat, Polo, as my carry-on. Polo was a trooper, I must say! I think he is hoping that he never has to leave the ground again. Little does he know....

Aaron's parents and a couple from Knoxville came along with us. We were able to get a lot of things accomplished while they were here, including painting our apartment. The walls were mostly a dingy white, and I was anxious to make it look like our home. It has been so fun to decorate with Honduran accent pieces. We live on a mountain in a town called El Hatillo. It is much cooler and more peaceful up here. We have about a thirty minute drive down the mountain to get to the actual city. That is where we do all of our shopping on the weekends.

The Halberts and Fleenors stayed for about five days. A few days after they left, I became sick with a bacterial infection in my stomach and stayed in the hospital overnight. What a welcome to Honduras, huh? There is no telling what made me sick. I have not had any unpurified water yet, so it must have been something that I ate. Noone else got sick, so I guess I have a weak stomach!

About the time I got out of the hospital, all of the other teachers came in. We started orientation and soon after that the kids came! We have now had two full weeks of school. I am teaching kindergarten and Aaron is teaching World Geography and World History to freshmen and sophomores. We will both be helping coach a few sports as well. The first one: track. I will be coaching long jump and Aaron will be coaching shotput and high jump.

Aaron is having such a fantastic time teaching and getting to know his students. Teacher-student relationships are very different here. Relationships, in general, are extremely important here. For those of you who know Aaron, you know that he is VERY outgoing and social. I can say this because I am his wife: the kids absolutely LOVE him! I have been hearing so many people say that Aaron is one of the favorite teachers!

As for me, I receive LOTS of hugs and kisses from my kids. They are so adorable. I even had a couple of girls tell me that they loved me this week. (This was extra special since they do not know very much English) The first couple of days at school were kind of hard because my kids just stared at me. I would tell them to stand up and they would just sit there!! I laughed a lot at how silly I felt those first days of school. Now, my kids are more comfortable with me. They understand A LOT more than they speak. I have a wonderful aid who is a native Honduran. She has been my life saver in the classroom, and not just because she translates for me!! I teach in English, and the kids are learning a lot. Like I said, they understand more than they speak, so my teaching does not need to be translated.

Other than going to school, Aaron and I have really enjoyed the malls here. One of them has a movie theater. We can both go to a movie and get a coke and popcorn for under $10! The movies are about 3 weeks behind the US, but it is fine! We (mainly me) also really like the Espresso Americanos. This is a coffee shop that is a lot like Starbucks and is everywhere! I can get a small "granita de cafe" (a frozen coffee drink) for under a dollar! :) I figure that the calories are balanced by all the walking we do here!

Tomorrow we will be going to our church here in El Hatillo. It is a small Spanish speaking church. We meet in the pastor's home and there are usually about 80 people that come. The pastor's wife translates for all of us teachers who do not speak Spanish. We have really liked it!

So far, I am enjoying Honduras. Aaron has come home, so it has been really easy for him to adjust. I have had a little culture shock, but it is very normal. We are both content with where the Lord has placed us. We have wonderful friends and we work at a great school. He has blessed us tremendously!! Thank you for all of your prayers!