To Roatan and Back!!

So last week was a week long of spring break!! Which means I went to the Carribean, an island off of the northern coast of Honduras called Roatan. Last Friday, we had a teacher's training day before we left, and we all learned how to make better lesson plans and played some soccer and basketball with all the teachers. Saturday I packed and ate out at a Restaurant. We left on Sunday morning at 7:30 AM, and got into the biggest coastal town of Honduras (La Ceiba) at 2:30.

When we got there we got a taxi to a hostel and put our stuff down in the rooms. Somehow in between the bus and the hostel, my camera and my spanish-english dictionary vanished. Which really really stinks. Everything was closed on Sunday though, it was crazy how many little shops were in the city, and everything was closed except for a few restaurants on the beach. So we went to one restaurant on the beach that had hammicks to lay in. My friends and I got some drinks and chilled on the beach for a few hours and then went to bed after eating at a different restaurant.

In the morning we took a cab to the big ferry which was leaving at about 9:30. Everyone was really worried about getting sea sick except for me. I bragged about how I had never thrown up, and therefore I would not be taking any drammamine. It was about an hour and a half boat ride and the waves were alot bigger than expected. Anyway to make a long story short I vommited about an hour into the boat ride. It was one of the worst feelings I've ever had. We got there and grabbed a cab down to the West End of the island. The island is 15 miles long and about 2 or 3 miles wide.

When we got to the West End, we rented a cabin for 35 bucks a night for 4 people. So it was pretty sweet. There was all kinds of cool different restaurants there. They had a few native Honduran places, a Switzerland place, a Thai and Vietnamese place, tons of other places. Plus a fish and chips little trailer was there owned by a British dude named "Chippy Banger," he was definitely the coolest guy that we met. He invited us into the trailer it looked like he had a Honduran girlfriend or wife who ran the place with him. In his amazing accent, he boasted about the only fish and chips place in all of Central and South America. Then he commented on how clean his kitchen was and said he had lived in Honduras for 35 years (he was about 60). Then he told us that he had 11 different kids. And finally told us about the people who really understand the Carribean culture of a slower pace of life. He said Americans didn't really understand.

The rest of the week was pretty fun too, we stayed in this place called the Mermaid Cabins, 35 dollars a night for a cabin, 2 double-sized beds, a mattress on the floor, air-conditioning, a refrigerator and a hot shower. And it was about a 2 dollar water-taxi ride from West End, where we were, to West Bay, which is the really really nice beach. Or it's a 45 minute walk from our cabin. We took the walk gladly, on the beach, up and back every morning and night.

I got really burnt the 2nd day from being in the sun all day, so the rest of the week I had to make my resting place on the beach under some palm trees, which was fine with me. I finished reading Desiring God, while I was there, it was well worth the amount of time it took me to finish it. I was convicted by so many things in that book, it was crazy. We went snorkeling too in West Bay, the water was unbelievable, but the fish were even better, the colors of the fish were amazing. All we had to do was swim off shore about 50 yards and there was a mine-field of coral reef there. Huge caverns and caves to swim through, it was really cool, and everywhere you turn there was another school of fish swimming through. We had a decent amount of frisbee time too.

We went out to eat every night at different places, usually spending about 5 to 6 bucks on our meals. We ate at a Thai place, a few Honduran Restaurants, an Italian place, I think that about covers it. They have some of the best Scuba Diving there in the World but that wasn't in my budgets, it was only about 25 to 30 dollars for each trip out, but on my salary that's alot of money. So that was pretty much it. It was a great time and the girls I was with got me sucked into an old TV series called Gilmore Girls, I still can't believe I got sucked into it. It was a good time though, and very very relaxing, probably the best place to just chill that I've been to.

El Picacho

Well last weekend, on Friday I went to the market and bought some oranges and mini-bananas. On Saturday, I went with some of the girls to the huge Jesus statue on top of one of the largest mountains in Tegucigalpa. It will a really cool spot overlooking the whole city, I’ll post some pictures of it on here. Jesus is really big….I mean the statue of course. The true Jesus is bigger than big. The statue was very large and Jesus has his hands out like he’s preaching to people, but then his feet are in the position like he is being crucified. And both of his hands had the scars of the nails on them. So, it was a very interesting statue. We had a super-bowl party over at our house last Sunday, unfortunately most Hondurans don’t really care about American football. One of my friends, (Aben) came over to watched and was talking on the phone for a lot of the time. And in the 4th quarter, the most exciting part, he fell asleep!!! Right in front of the TV.

The past week was pretty normal and chill. This past weekend I went to the market again to get some more fruit, and on Saturday I went to a country club that we go to sometimes and listened to a Tim Keller Sermon, which I’m beginning to listen to much more. And I’m getting exciting about getting his new book that comes out in 2 days, unfortunately I won’t be able to get my hands on that until I get back to the States.

I’m still plowing through Desiring God, and it’s still really good although I have to go through it kinda slow. I’ve definitely been really convicted through that book and it’s been good to have some edifying material around me since I don’t get too much at church these days. The internet has been really nice for that reason.

More Opportunities

Well, last Friday was continental night at school, every grade represented a different country from 3 o’clock to 10 o’clock. All the countries that were represented were in North America and Central American, except for the obvious China and Italy, which are easy countries to get food from. So every grade was making and selling food from these countries in order to raise money for their class. There was also a little representation of each country on a stage. And in between those times, there were blaring music, it was so loud almost the whole time, that I had to shout in order to be heard.

I was helping out 11th grade (the seniors) who had the country of Honduras. They also have this country because it always raises the most money. And we all know how much seniors need money. It was pretty fun, I actually didn’t have to help that much because parents were so involved, it was more helping with the setup.

Saturday I went back to a little village called San Buena Ventura to continue building a church there. We are making a little stage now and trying to fill about a 3 by 10 foot gap with dirt. We are also flattened the ground in a lot of area of the church. My back was killing me the next day, actually for the next few days.

This week we got back to normal school, which was very nice because I’m teaching basic hermeneutics to all my classes. Which means I only have to prepare one lecture for all my Bible classes. Also this week I started helping coach the 8th and 9th grade soccer team. Right now we are just conditioning, so, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We actually go to this place called the Olympic Village, it’s where the countries best track runners are, as well as other athletes. There is a soccer field, in which there is a really nice rubber track circling around.

We run about 2 miles every practices (coaches included). There is so so much complaining!! When I played soccer in 10th grade, we ran 2 miles just to warm-up!! And there is a pretty good amount of bad attitudes as well. Our best player may end up getting cut because he is so disrespectful, we will see what happens next week. But I’m pretty excited about helping coach.

Right now, as I’m writing this blog, it is report card day and so that means no school for the students, but for me I have to talk to parent for 4 hours.

Oh, and the mission trip that my brother (Tim) in leading is going to be really really cool. It will be on March 1st – the 7th. There are going to have so much to do that it might be better for them to stay 2 or 3 more weeks! If only that were possible. I’m really excited about it though, and I’m trying to get a few days off of school in order to hang out with them. We will see how that goes.