Teaching

Yes, I know I struggle with updating this, but I've been surprisingly busy. I'm still working on grad school applications, looking into other countries to live in, and just generally trying to figure out what my next step is going to be. On top of that, I have also started teaching Sunday School to 4-6 year olds, which is an absolute blast. It's fun to hang out with the little ones every once and awhile, because I only teach 12-19 year olds during the week. On Saturdays I am starting to teach classes for Compassion International, which is an group that sponsors children and helps them get financial support and an education. While I was living in Texas I sponsored a girl from Guatemala, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had an office here in La Unión. So, on Saturdays from 8-12 I am helping out with the 12-14 year olds. Basically, my life involves a whole lot of teaching here, and I couldn't be happier.

You can count on me...

I'm coming home for Christmas! My parents love me far too much and bought me a plane ticket home. I will be in Michigan from December 19th to January 2nd. See you then!

Halloween

So, here in rural Honduras, Halloween is quite a taboo subject. I figured it wouldn’t be celebrated at school since it is a Christian organization, but I didn’t realize how strongly people actually felt about it. The Thursday before Halloween, at our weekly staff meeting, one of the teachers went on about how Halloween is satanic and that it is for those who worship the devil and are witches, and how the culture here did not accept such things. It was quite awkward, so I mentioned that we don’t actually believe in the those things in the United States and it’s just a fun holiday to most people, but she didn’t really acknowledge what I said and continued bashing the holiday. I guess I kind of understand where she was coming from, but last I check I didn’t believe in witches or devil worship. Our school even put out a newsletter with 7 reasons why you shouldn’t celebrate Halloween. It was quite intense and awkward, so what did we do? The gringos had a little Halloween shindig.

Bret made a fantastic vegan cake, and said the other gringos were coming over for a small Halloween celebration. We all scrambled to pull together costumes. Holly was Bret, Bret was a birthday cake, Bryony was a pirate and I was a Honduran coffee farmer. Yes, I realize these costumes were lame, but it was thrown together in just a few minutes. The 2 kids we live with got a pretty big kick out of. The boys definitely didn’t have costumes on, but it was still good fun. Andrew, Amelia’s boyfriend who is currently visiting from Michigan, even brought some real chocolate (not the awful Honduras stuff) and had us trick or treat on his door.

So, if you ever wondered what Halloween was like in Honduras, there you have it. If you enjoy celebrating Halloween, I would recommend staying in the states.

And on a completely unrelated note, if you or someone you know is interested in teaching for 6 months in Gracias, Honduras (which is actually a beautiful, legitimate city), let me know. We need someone to teach ESL to students who have not been enrolled in a bilingual school before so they can start at Vida Abundante the following fall and not be behind. They would start in January. It’s a pretty sweet gig. Think about it.