Hey! So I figured I should probablllyyyy keep up with this, I'm just so lazy!  Even though teaching has not been so time consuming.  I'm finally molding into my lessons, and am at the back end of "the first year" experience.  It is exciting, but now we come home and have nothing to do haha.  I've started running again, out past the ruins because it's flat, and I run with a couple other people so I feel safe.  A couple of us are going to train for a half marathon in Guatemala! I'm excited for that because it's at the lake we went to for Thanksgiving, Lake Atitlan!  Besides that, not much has been going on.  Last week the 5th graders took a trip to the ruins for Social Studies, so we got to go as chaperons. The kids are liking the new teacher, Dave.  I think having a male influence for alot of the boys will be really good for them.  Except they'll randomly still ask about Ivy, the last teacher.  So the ruins were pretty awesome.  I'm not really into ancient history kinda stuff, but it was definitely cool to see.  I of course forgot my camera, so I have to steal the pictures still.  So that was last Friday, and then the weekend was pretty awesome!  We hung out with a kinder student because his mom works at one of the bars in town as a travel guide kinda person, so his dad and him go eat dinner there.  The little boy is so adorable, he always says hi to me and mandy, and his dad is the owner of zip lining.  So we sat and played some drawing game with the boy and the dad invited us to go on the new zip lining course for free!  We of course took the invite.  It was awesome!  However, it wasn't as fast as the other course, but it is still worth it.  We could see school when we went down one of them.  We were so grateful for that opportunity.  We also helped get the orphanage in town ready to be painted this weekend.  We sanded all the walls, I told the other teachers it was probably the most manual labor I've ever done in my life.  They were very grateful for what we did, we went through like 7 layers of paint.  They just kept adding paint over the old layer, it was in pretty bad shape.  Speaking of the orphanage, a couple of the teachers are trying to raise some money so we can buy some supplies for the kids.  Like cleaning supplies, new mattresses, diapers, etc.  We have bought some things, but we're still considered volunteers so we share as much as we can.  So for any of you feeling daring, they have a website for donations, just a thought. ;)  (I'll put it at the end).  So after that depressing sob story, I have one funny, random story, not a week goes by without one!  So Mandy and I were sitting eating dinner, or just finished dinner on Sunday I think it was.  And all of the sudden this random cat shows up at the door purring and meowing.  Well theres a giant dog in our complex so we think this cat is pretty brave.  Then it just goes away.  A few minutes later we hear a child, maybe 10-11 year old boy yelling, but in a creepily manner, donde estan mis hijooossss? (where are my children)  and this voice keeps doing it.  It was so creepy! It probably lasted a couple rounds, then stopped.  It was just odd this random cat came, then a voice yelling that.  (Keep in mind we don't have children that age live down here) So we don't really know what that was all about, but it definately added to the crazy, fun weekend we had!  So have a good rest of the week, in the snow, and here's the link! ........Miss you too!

http://www.indiegogo.com/Project-Home 

So that's the link, it tells you a little about the orphanage and what they want to do to it.  It really is for a great cause and completely, all the money is going toward it.  I know it's rough times back home for some, but even if you can spread the word, that would be just as awesome!


PPS pictures of the weekend will be up soon

Back to Copan

Heeelllllooooooo. So we've been back in Copan a week and not much is going on.  I woulda had the Hot Springs to write about, but the girl who was going to take us is sick, so we are stuck at home tonight.  So we got into Copan last Friday about 6:30-7, with 3 other teachers and showed the new teacher around town.   It's still a little strange seeing him and not Ivy everyday, but the kids like him, so I think it'll be good.  The kids have surprisingly gotten back into the swing of things and were excellent this week.  The school is taking one kid from every grade to the capital Tegucigalpa to compete in a big spelling bee.  The top 3 spellers from 5th grade are in my class, so I was really proud of them.  I've started training again for a half marathon, that we're going to run in May......in Guatemala!  It's by the lake we went to over Thanksgiving so that will be awesome! It's so pretty there.  Then this morning I woke up to Mandy's aide, Ffarah, yelling our names outside the house because she brought us pancakes.  It was a nice wake-up call!  They were delicious!  They always feed us, we are very lucky to have them.  But she made them because she feels bad we can't go to the hot springs.  So that's about it for the week, nothing too exciting.  There are alot of tourists in town though, I guess Europe is still on holiday, so there's alot of Europeans around.  Hope all is well back home, and you're enjoying the snow as much as I'm enjoying the sun & warmth! baahahahahahaa