Day 260 April 24
I woke up around 6 and couldn't go back to sleep. I went to breakfast at ViaVia with Sierra and Liz after a long chit chat in the living room. I went back home and showered. I cleaned up some and read. It was very hot very early in the day, so everything felt strenuous and dragged out. I spent most of my day cleaning, doing school work, working on my notes, and doing laundry. I took a break to watch Shutter Island with Sierra and Liz.
At some point I fell asleep, but even with both fans going, I woke up several times just disgustingly sweaty. I was also in and out of sleep because the neighbor's kids were playing futbol in the hallway and my window is the goal. I was too out of it to move downstairs or wake up fully. I felt gross when I woke up.
At some point I headed downstairs and did more of the cleaning. Judie came by to pick up her laundry and gave me a little grief for spending my Saturday evening cleaning, but it was really nice. Cid came over a bit after 7 and we watched Blindside, after which, I went to sleep.
Day 261 April 25
Today was even hotter than -even hotter than yesterday! I was up at 7 and showered, cleaned, made breakfast, finished my laundry, and got the house ready for a lot of guests. I went shopping with Abby and Allan and then we finished getting ready. Folks actually came on time and everything, cooking included, went on schedule. I hoped over to a plaque near Casa de Cafe with Megan for some information for her paper (which she is almost done with so I can start spending more than 15 minutes at a time with her again!)
Urban Promise has a crew in town for the week and so our “church” went from it's usual 4-7 people, to 17. It was intense, but fun. Francisco brought balloons which we used to replinish our tinseled strings and then just let the rest float all over the floor of the house. However, it is hot, so the full ones would burst at random as they expanded. The guests decided they wanted to organize the program, so they picked the song and gave a little talk and lead the prayers. It went nicely. When it was done, Noah, a tourist, taught us a Hebrew praise song. Before she left, I planned a new coffee date with Rachael.
We all ate lots of food and I think everyone left feeling generally satisfied.
Once they left, I cleaned up. Balloons were still popping everywhere. I then worked on my computer some, which is experiencing a little bit of trouble, until it started storming and then I ran out to grab my still mostly-dry laundry from the line.
Chris had just gotten back into town from Cofradia and was meeting some bikers in Picame who would be sleeping on his couch that night. When the storm started they came in my house for a while and I let both the bikers take hot showers before they went to Chris' for dinner. It was fun to talk to them. They had a two person bike and had come all the way from Alaska.
Cid came over a little after 7 and we watched the Love Guru, which reminded me a lot of Austin Powers, which I haven't seen in forever. Shortly after, I went to sleep.
Day 262 April 26
I woke up, showered, and made lunch for the day. I had ripe mango for the first time since the last mango season and it was heavenly. Sierra came by and asked if I wanted a ride to school with Josue, which I accepted. We picked up Chris and Alex on the way too.
We spent a good bit of the day starting our units on fractions, which my kids are excited about because 5th and 4th grades are also working on fractions right now, and energy. We're having fun so far. My productive streak from last week has carried into this week and it's making for better plans, more energetic lessons, and better prepared work for the kids.
Since the Ceiba flowers have popped open into this cottony substance that attracts and hatches small red insects that appear to be hemipterans, my students claim that if they bite you, you will die. I was alarmed, but also noticed that the insects were all around our feet and no one was running or panicked. I asked if the bites itched or hurt and the kids say hurt, but no one can really explain it to me. They call them chinches, and there is apparently one variety of chinches that can carry chagas disease. That's the best I got right now, however, I don't think this species of chinches carries chagas, but I will avoid being bitten anyway.
After school I had tutoring, which went well. Before I went home, I checked my e-mail and I had received and e-mail from my friend Tony, informing a group of us that a friend of ours had a missing boyfriend, since Friday, and that yesterday they had found a suicide note. We were asked not to contact our friend for the time being because she was not up for talking. I can't even imagine the kind of grief that would give. To know what had happened, but be unable to move forward and mourn because there's still that hope.
I took my make-up ITBS tests to John and asked if I could grade them because that kind of mind-numbing checking seemed right up my ally for the mood I was in. I walked home with Megan and went to tutoring.
Tutoring was pretty uneventful, except that Goofy the dog took a leak on my backpack and now I have to be careful of every other dog who comes near my backpack.
I was aware of how bad I smelled because of the heat, but immediately after tutoring, I had a date wit Rachael. I was surprised to see Luis sitting in the office when I went to pick her up, maybe he'll have time to talk later. Rachael and I went to San Raphael to order 80 pounds of coffee for an emergency business transaction for her friend who sells coffee in the States, but his usual source in El Salvador was robbed of all of their coffee.
When then went to a chain coffee place because it has AC and we were sweltering. However, the power went out, so we stayed until it had warmed up enough/gotten dark enough for us to move on to the park and then Cafe Welchez.
We stopped by the office to see the tarantula they had caught and they I started to head home. I got an invitation out while I was headed home, so I just turned and went to Barcito for about half an hour before turning back and going to bed.
Day 263 April 27
I woke up to discover that there was no water. This was not good news. I still smelled terrible from the day before. I took my first bucket shower from my pila water and hoped for the best. I also knew it would only amount to so much since the temp predictions were between 42 and 45 C (I imagine this was for Tegus, because it never got that hot here, but it was hot.)
I had a wonderful day of spills. I spilled coffee on books and papers and the kids spilled glue on a desk and books. Excellent.
My day took a turn when I got word of Ian Smith-Christmas. His body had been found. I tried to keep my kids from feeling my mood shift, but I don't think it worked.
We did, however, have a good end to the day. I told them a series of vocab necessary jokes, which I explained the necessary vocab in advance, like “What do you call a fly with no wings? A walk.” They loved it.
It tutoring I discovered that my low student is even lower than he realized. He didn't know the days of the week in English, so I asked him to give them to me in order in Spanish and he gave them to me in the wrong order. I don't even know where to begin.
I walked home and jumped in the shower, though there was no power. I didn't care, we had water again. Half way through my shower, the power came back on so I had heat, 5 candles, and a lightbulb.
I trucked to tutoring in a downpour. I ate with the Mormons, who were marooned at the restaurant in the rain. The power was in and out, but the rain was constant. Isaac and I read a book.
I went home and wrote for a while before cooking a lot and doing my dishes. I put my prepared lunch in the fridge. Shortly after, Cid came over and Hsuan came over for a shower. Cid and I went through my music library and talked about it for a while until I decided I was dead and needed to sleep.
Day 264 April 28
I slept in half an hour, but still got to school in decent time. We had a relatively easy day, though Ferjardo wasn't there and I discovered this 7 minutes into the PE class I had come with a stack of journals to grade, but oh well.
It was almost as hot as yesterday, but I was thrilled when I saw that one of my kids had picked out an old favorite from the library. The Great Kapok Tree is a book I haven't thought about in a long time, but I read it to the kids in the same voices as it was read to me. Most of my kids really liked it and were actually disappointed when I stopped so that we could go to lunch.
The story sparked in my the realization that there are tons of books I read growing up that I adored, but that have slipped from my memory. Since I've been working with kids, books like Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel have resurfaced and I don't want to forget them again. Someday I hope to have kids and I want them to be able to read these books. I started a list.
We ended our day by practicing our mother's day song with Beth's class: Baby Beluga. I sent the kids off and was going to tackle those journals that I didn't get to do during PE, but Juan wandered into my class. He usually isn't very talkative and kind of avoids me, but he was hanging around my desk. I asked him what music he likes and we listened to some. He said he liked it all and I tried to explain that it's okay if he doesn't. After a little while I asked him he wanted me to help him with his homework and he said yes. So, we had a surprise tutoring session. It went well.
I caught a truck back with Megan, stopped by the bank with her, and then we swung by Cafe Welchez for granitas. I headed back to the house and ran into my buddy from the orphanage, Marlon, and his friend. Though, when we asked him what his friend's name was he said, “He's not my friend.”
I went out with Sierra and Liz for smoothies and internet. Mango is so fully back in my life that I had a mango smoothie and it was heaven. I now know what heaven tastes like. While we were at Yat Balam, Megan, Cid, and Josue all passed by.
I finally heard from Luis, so I headed home to get ready to go out and get baleadas with him. We met at Guacamaya, and because I had no saldo on my phone to respond, I made sure I was there early so he wouldn't slip away thinking I had stood him up. We headed to Katia's mom's place, where I saw both Katia and Edgar and pestered them about their homework.
After we had talked for a sufficient amount of time, I headed home and did a lot of cooking. Cid called in the midst of it because he was out with a friend from Santa Rosa, and I went out to meet them later, but by the time I got there she was gone. I didn't stay out long then, because I was really coming to meet her, and as always, I was exhausted.
Day 265 April 29
This morning I was greated with an notice that Lucy Crook is engaged! She sent me a message so I wouldn't just find out on Facebook, which I appreciated. She also asked about Cid and I filled her in.
I had a very productive Thursday, and most of the day went well, but the afternoon was hard and I got impatient quickly. I need to hone back in on my patience. I started tutoring but quickly realized that my lack of patience was going to be detrimental to them. Instead, I helped them with their home work and sent them off.
I did work in my room and then swung by Chris' room to see the beautiful and large lizard he had just captured. I walked home with Beth which was nice. I headed straight for tutoring, where I tried to regain my patience. We did a Where's Waldo activity, which seems to help his vocabulary. The boy has perfected non-verbal communications so forcing him to communicate with words is a struggle.
I got home and did all my laundry for next week. I know I won't have another time to do it and I will need these shirts for work. I headed over to Chris' to swap music and make liquados. After a while, Cid came over and we all made spring rolls for dinner. We ate and planned. With enough of the detials hammered out, I went home, packed, and went to sleep.
Day 266 April 30
I woke up half an hour late again, but managed to snag a ride with Dona Olga. Win! I had all my stuff for the trip with me, so I'm sure I was a sight walking up to school. However, when I got to school I discovered that there was no coffee and the caseta coffee I was so excited about tasted very...off. I didn't even finish a cup and the coffee maker in the teacher's room was never fixed.
One of my students gave me a wonderful smelling flower that I put in my hair and continued to forget about all day. My kids were the worst they'd been all week and so when two of my boys claimed stomach troubles, I wanted to call paja. However, a few moments later one approached me with a very distinct, “I'm going to vomit” walk and said, “I'm going to vomit.” Oh, well then, lets get you outside. He retched, but was not ill. The other boy was also holding his stomach. I left the room in search of Nilvio's mom, as he sat outside trying to empty his stomach, or Gilda who's kind of the school nurse these days. I found them both in Norma's room. I told them and got some pepto and went back to deal with my now out of control class.
Fact learned: They had a gatorade drinking race. They were sick from it. Ugh. I went back during PE to tell Norma that her son was fine, just stupid and the boys and I talked about not playing games like this anymore.
I had all my worksheets done yesterday to be copied for Tuesday and today I had all my grading done before lunch. Though, my own stomach was starting to feel unsettled, which made me nervous as I was about to venture by bus across the country to go hiking up the largest mountain in Honduras, with cold, due to elevation, and rain, due to it being a cloud forest. I do not want to be sick.
When I got back from my lunch break, my kids had written me a variety of love notes, thank you notes, and we're sorry notes for the behavior earlier in the day. However, the last period was still not good. We cleaned up, during which time one of my girls bumped Isaac into the sharp corner of a chair and his eye brow was split open. I sent the two of them to sort it out with Gilda. We then sang Baby Beluga until Chris came to my door at 1:40 and then we bolted to catch a taxi down to the bus station.
I ended up with two tickets for the bus as both Chris and Cid bought me one in the rush to make sure everyone was situated. We got one returned and away we went on the bus. I actually slept on a bus.
There were some tourists on the bus who were headed to Santa Rosa, so we let them follow us to the next batch of buses. We chatted a while on the bus.
When we got to Santa Rosa, we found out when the last bus out to Gracias would leave, in 40 minutes, and went to the grocery store to get our supplies for the trip. Katie hadn't arrived yet, so if she came in time, we'd go to Gracias, and if she didn't, we'd stay in Santa Rosa.
Cid's father came with the tent and his brother came with the sleeping bags. I got to meet them both, but only very briefly. We were busy shopping and rushing to a bus and they were taking just a few minutes out of their days to meet us in our tight time frame.
Katie arrived, we checked out with our camping food, and hopped on the bus as it was pulling out. We arrived in Gracias around 6:30 and then had to search for a hostel. After a while, we settled on Corazon de Jesus. We later discovered that they had no water, no fans, warm rooms, cold showers, and were noisy.
We headed out to dinner, ate, and went to sleep. I was still feeling sick.
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