jour·ney [júrnee]process of development: a gradual passing from one state to another regarded as more advanced, e.g. from innocence to mature awareness
The week of April 19-26 was one to remember. My home church sent down a construction team. Having people from your home church come visit is an honor to any missionary. Being able to share my experiences with people from my home church was great. My aunt, uncle and cousins were able to come down with the team. Also, Beck Webb, an old friend was able to come down. I loved getting to know all the other team members, they were a blast. There was constant laughter the whole week. The team worked hard and played harder! One night, Andy Green, a fabulous cook headed up the kitchen. With the help of the rest of the team and a couple girls they prepared a wonderful meal for the whole Ranch. I think that I can speak for everyone at the Ranch when I say that we loved the meal. It was a great idea, and everyone at the Ranch was blessed by it. We really liked the green beans! I was able to take the team down to the waterfalls, which anyone who has read my blog before knows is one of my favorite places to go. The teams seemed to have a lot of fun playing in the waterfalls. Really the team seemed to have fun doing everything they did, from card tricks, to putting up walls, to eati
ng cookies, playing soccer and football, going to church in the community, and visiting the medical brigade. They were such a joy to have. The teams main job was to work on the staff housing, they put up the porch (shown in picture) and I think some interior walls, along with plastering and sanding. My aunt and cousins got to visit my class, they picked berries, they applied polyurethane, sanded, and picked up sticks out of the coffee field. Not only was the team fun but they were a blessing too. I was sad to say good-bye to them. It was a great week and I was so thankful they were able to come.
The other day I was reading to the kindergarten class when I noticed one of the kids sticking a metal hair clip into the electric outlet. I of course took the hair clip from them immediately, and started explaining the dangers of sticking stuff into electric outlets. I told them how it could really hurt them. They asked me lots of questions about how it worked and what might happen to them if they did in fact try to stick something in those fascinating little holes in the wall. I answered all of their question and felt that I made it very clear that getting shocked hurts very badly and they didn't want to mess around with it. Then Junior looked at me and said "I have superpowers so it wont hurt me if I stick something in there." I told him that unfortunately it still hurts people that did have superpowers and not to stick anything into it. I thought that Junior's response was such a classic human response to someone warning us against something that could be harmful to us. To some degree I think most humans think that we are invincible. We pick and choose what advice we listen. We might even listen to what someone says and say, "yeah they have a point, that might be true for someone, but I think it's OK for me." As we get older we have less and less people telling us their opinions about life, but God's word stands for all of us and there are lots of commands God gives us that we do not heed to. We think "but that is such a little thing...it doesn't matter." The thing is though, if it didn't matter to God then he wouldn't have said it in the first place. Listen to Junior's response made me laugh initially, but made me really think about myself and the way I as a human respond so often to advice given to me.
That's how many ticks we pulled off her!
Gross right? That's what I thought. She obtained these little friends rather quickly. With the help of Ron we got them all out. I soaked her in tick and flea spray. Hopefully the ticks will leave her alone.
Here are two precious pictures. The first picture is the alphabet written on a white board by Jennifer. She did almost every letter by memory. She likes making her letters and was quite proud of herself. Although some of her letters are backwards I think she did very well. Jennifer is a very smart little girl. The second photo is mostly the same as the first. It is once again the alphabet, only now in Daniel style. You can see Daniel holding his white board. Daniel is much more shy about his letters than Jennifer, so he wanted me to write most of the letters on a separate board for him to copy. He is a sweety! I'm proud of both Jennifer and Daniel. I love looking at their
shakey letters that they worked so hard to make. I enjoy having them in my class and watching them learn new things everyday. I love to watch their delight as the learn how to do something new. What cuties!
The first part of this month I was so blessed to have one of my friends, Kelsie, come down to hang out with me and see what I do. I loved having her here. Kelsie is a great friend and we go way back. Kelsie and I always have lots of adventures together. You really never know what to expect when we get together..and honestly neither do we! Kelsie seems to think that it's my fault, but I have never been locked in Target when I was by myself, but I have been with Kelsie. No matter how it happens, it does, and being in Honduras that is really no different. I drug Kelsie around with me showing her all the important things, and we had lots of fun togeher. We got to go to a water park while she was here, Valley of the Angles, and Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, where I do all my shopping and such. She also got to met my screaming delights (yes, my preschoolers) and see the Ranch. She helped me make a beautiful flower garden in front of my house, she tasted interesting food, and we stayed up late talking. But I have to say what sticks out most in mind from when she was here is getting my first flat tire. Yes that is right I got my first flat tire with Kelsie...coincidence? I think not.I really wanted to take Kelsie to some waterfalls not to far from the ranch while she was here. They are one of favorite places. I love to go down to the waterfalls, swim and jump of the cliffs. So one day
after school we took a van down about 3 miles to where some really good waterfalls are. Jae, a fellow teacher, went down with us and we had fun splashing around in the cold water. Kelsie named it as one of her favorite things she did while in Honduras. After we had our fill of waterfalls we headed back up to the top of the waterfall where the van was parked, only to discover that diving home right then would not be happening. The tire was flatter than my hair. Fortunately, my daddy had taught me how to change a tire, and Jae knew how too. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the spare tire out from under the car. We struggled with it for some time and really got nowhere. After a while some really nice men came by and helped us out. It took them a while to figure out how to get the tire off, but once we figured out the trick we had (or I should say they had) the tire changed quick. It all worked out in the end, but definitely qualified as Keslie's and my adventure for the week.
writ·er's block: situation when writer cannot write: an inability on the part of a writer to start a new piece of writing or continue an existing one
This is a diagnostic I don't think I need to go to the doctor to get. I have writer's block. I have sat down about 12 times to write this blog. Every time I sit down I start writing about something different mostly because what I see typed before me is ugly so I think that if I start a new subject I might have better luck...so far I have not found that to be true. Maybe part of my problem is that I have a lot I want to write about and I don't really know where to begin. Mostly those are fun subjects...and just about my adventures of late. I will write about those things very soon. I promise. Then there are some other things that have been on my mind lately and I don't know how much to share. I feel a little bit strange just putting down my feelings on a blog that anyone can read. Anyways, be assured I am alive, I have many things to write about and I think just getting this blog out there is going to help me overcome my slight illness called writer's block. It's a sad way to start my venture back into the writing world, but I figure it's like starting to exercise, it's better to wake up and go that first morning and look awful, out of shape and feel like your going to die after the first ten minutes than to not get out there at all. Give it some time and it gets better. So after this blog my next one should be better....right?
Check out a recent photo taken of me with the kindergarten class (whom I taught last year) and my class. Aren't they precious?
The week of April 19-26 was one to remember. My home church sent down a construction team. Having people from your home church come visit is an honor to any missionary. Being able to share my experiences with people from my home church was great. My aunt, uncle and cousins were able to come down with the team. Also, Beck Webb, an old friend was able to come down. I loved getting to know all the other team members, they were a blast. There was constant laughter the whole week. The team worked hard and played harder! One night, Andy Green, a fabulous cook headed up the kitchen. With the help of the rest of the team and a couple girls they prepared a wonderful meal for the whole Ranch. I think that I can speak for everyone at the Ranch when I say that we loved the meal. It was a great idea, and everyone at the Ranch was blessed by it. We really liked the green beans! I was able to take the team down to the waterfalls, which anyone who has read my blog before knows is one of my favorite places to go. The teams seemed to have a lot of fun playing in the waterfalls. Really the team seemed to have fun doing everything they did, from card tricks, to putting up walls, to eati
ng cookies, playing soccer and football, going to church in the community, and visiting the medical brigade. They were such a joy to have. The teams main job was to work on the staff housing, they put up the porch (shown in picture) and I think some interior walls, along with plastering and sanding. My aunt and cousins got to visit my class, they picked berries, they applied polyurethane, sanded, and picked up sticks out of the coffee field. Not only was the team fun but they were a blessing too. I was sad to say good-bye to them. It was a great week and I was so thankful they were able to come.
