Beginning of year update letter

¡Hola Todos! (Hello Everyone!)
I have now been in Honduras for 16 days and I am still loving it! I thought I would send an email every now and then to all of you, all at once, to make it much easier for me. I am keeping very busy here, so I don´t have a lot of time to email everyone individually. If you are receiving my email, it is either because you asked me to write to you or I thought you might like to hear from me!
So far, everything is going very well. I arrived in Honduras on Wednesday, August 10th. I was fortunate that I even made my flight! The night before, the Roth family dropped me off at a hotel in Chicago. I hadn´t slept at all the night before, so Iwas VERY tired! I set 3 alarm clocks and didn´t hear any of them! Thankfully, the hotel wake-up call woke me up! I then made the shuttle bus with only 5 minutes to spare! I was allowed 2 pieces of luggage with a maximum of 70 lbs. each--one of mine was 68 lbs! I finally relaxed once I was on the plane. I met up with 2 of the other American teachers in theMiami airport. We talked for a long time before boarding and we went through customs together. David, the Director of English, was waiting for us at the airport. He greeted each of us with a friendly hug. He bought us lunch at a Burger King in San Pedro Sula and told us it would probably be our last American meal for quite a while. He then drove us 2 hours up into the mountains to the city of Siguatepeque. Later that evening, David also treated us to dinner at a Honduran restaurant. All of us American teachers comment about how nice and helpful David is. He is very attentive to our needs. He makes sure we have everything we need and that we know everything we need to know. He is very thorough and organized. After one meeting, we all thanked him for being so helpful. He said that before he came 5 years ago, there wasn´t a Director of English for the American teachers. They had to just figure things out for themselves! We all said that we couldn´t imagine that--there is so much to learn!
The first week (Wednesday-Sunday) was a pretty relaxing week. We unpacked our things and decorated the teachers´ house as best we could with what we had. The teachers´ house is much bigger than I thought it would be. There are 2 apartments, though we are keeping it open as one. There are 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 double bedrooms, and 2 single bedrooms. There are 5 of us girls living there now and one more is coming on September 15. All of the girls are very sweet. We all get along very well. I am rooming with a girl named Tabitha. We´ve also been shopping and cooking together a lot. We´ve gone shopping at a few supermarkets, some small stores, and 2 open markets. We took our first taxi home which only cost 15 Lempiras each to go anywhere in the city one-way. In U.S. dollars, that is only 75 cents! The exchange rate here is very good. It is about 20:1...20 Lempiras for 1 U.S. dollar. I was concerned before arriving in Honduras that the monthly income the school pays us would not be sufficient to live on. But, now I know that it is. We receive free housing, water, electric, and trash. They pay us (in U.S.dollars) $250 a month. $250 U.S. dollars actually goes a long way in Honduras. I´m excited because nowI think I can afford to go on some excursions and trips with the other teachers. We do not have internet access in the house, but there is an internet cafe right around the corner. It only costs 15 Lempiras an hour-which again is only 75 cents an hour! However, we don´t think we are allowed to download anything there or open any attachments. A sign says,¨Ask for permission.¨ So, we´re going to ask. We just saw the owner of the internet cafe at the same church we´ve been attending, so maybe he´ll understand that we are missionary teachers and he´ll allow us to. So far, only 2 of us girls have laptop computers (thanks to Don and Sheryl Stevens who let me borrow theirs!). We are sharing the laptops with the other girls. They really come in handy. Tabitha has a digital camera, so whenever she takes a picture, she saves it on my computer too. David also loaned us 2 printers to use. They only connect to my computer. We are all so happy and thankful to have computers and printers! (Thanks again Don and Sheryl!)
The next two weeks have been MUCH more busier. We have had staff meetings everyday. Most of them are all in Spanish. If the speaker talks clearly and slowly, I can generally understand what is being said. And, if the speaker hands out written material or writes on an overhead projector, for example, I can read it and follow along. Other times, it is extremely difficult and I really struggle to understand what is being said. Hopefully, with time and practice, I will pick up more of the language.
Preparing for classes has been very confusing and overwhelming at times...but also interesting and fun. The most difficult part is not knowing what is expected of us or not knowing important information. For example, I just found out what I will be teaching and at what times--and ¨Back to School Night¨is tomorrow on Friday and classes start Monday! David said that flexibility is the key. The Honduran culture is very slow in getting around to things and things change ALL the time! I will be teaching English to the Kindergartners and assisting with teaching English to the Preschoolers in the morning. In the afternoon, I will be teaching 2 Science classes in English. One class is 3rd grade, the other is 5th grade. I also will be helping children with remedial work. I don´t have my own classroom for any of my classes. I am sharing the Honduran teachers´classrooms for Preschool and Kindergarten. I am also sharing two of the American teachers´classrooms for the 3rd and 5th grade Science classes.
I really like the church we have been attending, but we are also going to visit other churches. The church is very friendly and the doctrine seems sound (from what I am able to translate!). When the pastor saw us the first time, he immediately found some Hondurans who spoke English to escort us around. Their church service is set up, in many ways, like our service in our church in the states...only in Spanish! First, we go to a Sunday School class. Next, we go to the sanctuary. They have the announcements, some singing, greeting each other, more singing, prayer,the offering, the sermon, etc.
I will wrap up this email with some interesting facts about the Honduran culture. Many things seem¨backward¨from the American culture. For example, preschool in Spanish is called ¨kinder¨and kindergarten is called ¨prepa¨or ¨preparatoria¨. That was very confusing at first! Also, on the water faucets the ¨c¨is hot because it stands for¨calor¨which means warm. When people pass you on the street, they say adios which means good-bye. It´s funny when Hondurans try to speak English to us and they say ¨Good-bye¨or ¨bye¨when we are passing on the street, not realizing that we say ¨hello¨ instead. When someone invites you over to eat, you should leave food on your plate or they will think they didn´t give you enough. Relationships are more important than projects or appointments. Therefore, if someone had an appointment, but met someone on the street while walking there, they would stop and talk to them and not feel as if they need to give any type of a reason or apology for being late to the appointment. Many things also grow much bigger here than in the states. We had a moth the size of a bat in our house! Also, geckos are common household pets. People like them because they eat bugs. Siguatepeque is surrounded by mountains on every side and it seems like the scenery changes all the time because the weather is always changing. When there is a lot of fog, the mountains seem to disappear!
One more interesting piece of information is that last week, a couple from the school invited us over for dinner. The husband, Peter, is American and teaches high school philosophy. His wife, Mylene, used to teach at the school, but now helps the American teachers with classroom management. Anyway, they were asking us how we came across this opportunity. I told them that it was Dick Watterson, our host from last year´s mission trip, who encouraged me and made all the contacts for me. I said that he had a big impact on me and I am very thankful for him. Peter said, ¨I know him very well...he´s my uncle!¨ Also, Tim and Donna Wright (our other hosts from lastyear) live right down the street from us, though they have not been here since we have been here. Donna substitute teaches at the school when needed.
Well, I think I have given you all plenty of information in order to fill you in on how things are going here. I hope and pray that all is well with all of you. Please continue to pray for me while I am here. Take care and God bless!