100%

God is continuing to bless me in so many ways!  The silliest is probably my great excitement over finding bath towels that match the bathroom and my shower curtain.  I searched for 2 weeks.  Finally when I had given up, I found them on sale!!!! at the grocery store.  They are the perfect color.  In fact, now everything I own is the same perfect color because they shed all over my washing machine and everything I put in it comes out covered in little fur balls of my blue towel.  Oh well, I still love them.

My absolute MOST exciting news is that last week was exam week for my teens.  So far every single one of them has gotten 100% on their English exam!  They are setting a new precedent in their schools.  Nobody seems to do well in English.  (I think because the teachers don't teach it well.  They just write an assignment on the board and leave.)

The kids are so proud of themselves!  I am ecstatic to see them so proud and hopeful for the future.  We discussed it and decided that there is no reason anyone should get lower than a 95% in English from now on.  They are starting to build a basic knowledge of English which they never had before.  Their new sense of confidence is beautiful to see.  A mom told me yesterday that her son, who normally doesn't get good grades, spent the whole evening saying, " Mom, guess what?  I got 100%!"  He was so happy he couldn't keep the grin off his face when I saw him yesterday afternoon.  Although he did try, because it is not cool to walk around grinning all of the time you know.

I am still loving my new place.  I will soon love it even more.  I now have a sticker to put on my car window that signifies I am a resident here.  At one gate the guard seems to have a little crush on me so he always ushers me through and wishes me a good day.  But after three weeks of passing though the gate at the other end almost daily, today was the first time that the guards weren't grumpy to me.  I appreciate that they are not letting people into my neighborhood that don't belong here.  But they are just a little too much.  I always roll down my window and stop because that is what we are supposed to do.  Still they always give me a hard time.  And let's face it.  I stand out a little around here.  You'd think I would be easy to remember.  But they never seem to remember that I live here.  So know that I am safe and well guarded.

Every afternoon when I get home Fany, her daughter and I hang out in the yard.  It is a beautiful garden.  We talk, or read or watch Jetty chase butterflies.  So far we have taken over 20 avocados from the avocado trees.  Too bad I moved in a couple weeks too late for mango season.  We are going to have a type of banana soon.  They are big and green, but not ready to pick yet.  And we have the most delicious fresh limes in the world.  They are called "India" limes.  They are tiny and round and sweet but still limey.  Fany has me addicted to Jamaica juice, which is water boiled with the flowers from a jamaica plant.  We add a stick of cinnamon because we are fancy like that.  It is delish and healthy!

Today was the first day Kristofer did not come to Buen Provecho since Monday.  I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that today the psychologist has office hours.  I am pretty sure the church was going to set up a meeting for him with the psychologist ASAP.  If you ask how he is doing, Kristofer is convincing when he says he is doing well.  He smiles and seems the same as always.  But I guess that makes sense since the rape was an ongoing thing in his life.  Poor baby.  I don't know if he notices that I hug him extra tight every time I see him.  If he has noticed, he is not avoiding my hugs, so that is good.  I love that little boy.  He has one of the most difficult lives of any child at Buen Provecho.  I hate that a sexual predator got to him.  I pray that with God's help he is able to heal.  It seems that the other kids aren't saying much about it.  It probably helps that Kristofer's big brother is the biggest bully around.  Kids will think twice before they say mean things to Kristofer.

I forgot to mention that the rainy season finally started about 3 weeks ago.  It rains every night and most afternoons.  But it is beautiful and sunny and hot most days, so by the time the rain comes it seems refreshing, not dreary.  Since I haven't figured out a way to hook up my dryer (I am being told it is impossible) I am grateful for Fany.  I can wash clothes in the morning and leave them on the line.  If it rains before I get home, I know she will take them in.

God is keeping my heart full and my hands busy.  I am happier than ever and feel so blessed to be serving in a way that really makes a difference.  Every day when the kids pray, they thank God for me and for my class.  Wow.  That is amazing.  I remind them often that it is only because of God that I am here.  In fact today we talked about how I was living a normal life in the US and suddenly God said, "Now I want you to live in Honduras."  What a crazy idea!  I am so grateful to God for sending me to Honduras so I can know each of them.  They are beautiful, this place is beautiful and I love it here.  I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Every day lately I pray that others could feel as happy and peaceful and fulfilled as I do right now.  I can't stop giving thanks for the love and joy I feel.  I wish the same for each of you.

One last thing - as I walked into the grocery store today a group of uniformed police officers were leaving.  I have never seen anyone searched as they leave the grocery store.  However, the stores' security guards were patting down the police officers, opening all of the pockets on their uniforms and checking to be sure their receipts matched what was in their bags.  Also, besides the little old man who watches cars outside the gym, there is now a military man armed with some sort of huge weapon standing on the steps.  I keep meaning to ask why he is suddenly posted outside my gym.  Sometimes things are a little strange in Honduras.

Old new house

Hi folks!  I bet you thought I could never top my Honduran fire fighter story and had stopped writing.  Well, not exactly.  Between dropping my computer and breaking it (when it was only a month old!) and moving to the city, I have been busy.  Plus, I managed to mess up the computer I use at the church, so for a while I was completely off the grid - computerwise.

Two weeks ago I started painting my new place in the city and last week I moved in.  Thank God for my neighbor Fany.  I have known her since I first moved to Honduras because I lived in the sane house in the city when I first moved here.  She lives in the front and we share an awesome yard with a garden.  I have a little house in the back.

Fany and I painted the house beige and olive on the inside.  It looks great, especially now that I have all of my stuff moved in.  This week I took Jetty to the vet and got her updated on everything so she can go outdoors now!  Sometimes she lounges around or sniffs things.  Other times she races from one corner of the yard to the other in a huge loping gait.  I love watching her do that.  She seems really happy.

Jetty the outdoors cat!

We both sleep really well here.  In fact I sleep too well.  The girl who used to wake up with the sun at 4:30 is now sleeping until 8:50 a.m. if I am not careful!

Lots of stuff has been going on.  Almost all of it is good.

My friend who is sick with Lupus is doing well.

The class T Buen Provecho with the teens is excellent.  They trust me more and more and have started to share on a deeper. more personal level in the class, which I appreciate.  They took a test (actually I called it a "contest" because they all freaked out when I mentioned a test) to name 50 body parts in English.  All of them did really well.  Four got perfect scores and won a candy bar.  One who had never been to the class before got a perfect score with no misspellings, which was better than any of the students in the class.  Turned out she cheated, which I figured out quickly when she couldn't name any of the body parts when I asked her orally a few minutes later.  But...  The good thing is that she admitted that she cheated so I thanked her for her honesty in the end.  Moral of the story - some kids will do anything for a candy bar.

One of our boys was raped.  I really can't talk about it.  It hurts too much.  It is a boy I am close to and have written about here.  First the community went after the offender with machetes and pistols.  The cops came 2 hours later and returned to the offender's house in the middle of the night trying to catch him at home.  Last week they actually caught him.  We were all shocked to hear that.  It is very common for rapists of children to be killed in prison if they get that far.  I have not seen my buddy since all of this happened.  His older brother comes to Buen Provecho, but he has not been to the church since the day before all of this occurred.  His report to the police was that it had happened numerous times  The news reported there were eight other victims ages 8 and up.  I really want to see my little guy and even more, I want to hug him.  I hope he is getting some support at home.  He lives only with siblings.  There is no real parent in the home.  I am worried about how this could change him if he does not get help soon.

Last week I spent Friday afternoon and evening, then Saturday from 8-12 at the pool teaching swimming lessons.  It was fun.  It is harder work when I don't know the kids.  Two hours is a long time to fill when the kids are just beginners and can't do much yet.  But one of the trainers told me I can show up at the pool any day of the week and he will help me become a better teacher.  So I plan to spend more time at the pool, now that my move is done.

It has been really interesting to move back into the same house I lived in when I first came to Honduras.  I am such a different person now in so many ways.  I am not as timid or worried about pleasing people.  My Spanish is better, which means I can have deeper friendships.  I am a lot more independent.  I think I know who I am more now.  And I like who I am.  I am really happy here.  This little house is more simple than where I lived in the mountains.  No hot water, no flushing toilet paper and no clothes dryer.  But I am happy.  I feel very peaceful and content.  At the end of each day my heart feels like it is brimming over with love.  It's nice.

Also, I was reading over the previous entry about the fire.  When I got to the part about having taken the towels (which I thought I brought to breathe through) I realized how God had equipped me to fight the fire.  He equips us for everything.  We just have to step out in faith.

The day I became a Honduran Fire Fighter

Wow.  I just did something I never in my life imagined myself doing.  In reality here it is very common.  Too common.

Yesterday I was thinking about the lack of beans, which led me to think about the lack of rain, which led me to think that we have been amazingly blessed there are not more forest fires.  There is NO water around here.  The rainy season simply never came.  It sprinkled a little at night a few times in June and July, but it was never the rainy season as I know it.  (Last year the rainy season lasted from May until late January, I swear.)

Today started pretty normal.  It was free day at the Breakfast Program.  I really enjoyed working with Marlin in the kitchen.  She and I have not been as close as we used to be.  We have both made efforts to fix things, but...  Anyway, she and I had a super good day cooking and talking.

Then my friend Jose called.  He said he needed me to be quiet and listen.  I could hear panic in his voice.  His 6 year old daughter had been left alone.  The bus is supposed to make sure her babysitter is there before it drops her off.  But the new babysitter wasn't there and the bus left Dana on the side of the road!

At one point I had Jose talking to me in one ear by phone and his wife talking to me in the other ear while I stood outside the gate of the church and a man I never met before said, "Are you Mary Lynn?"  That caught me a little off guard until I saw Dana and her sister Valery in the car with the man.  He let them come to me and we relaxed at the church for a while until the whole situation was resolved.  To put this in context - imagine, I am not allowed to walk alone outside.  And the bus left a 6 year old girl all by herself on the side of the road.

Okay, so after that I was a little out of sorts.  Something didn't feel right.  I was supposed to go teach swimming, but I wasn't officially obligated to do it today.  Something was pulling me to go straight home.  So I did.

As I was driving up the road I saw smoke.  This happened once before but the smoke was on the other side of the mountain.  Today I knew it was our property.  I knew it with no doubt.  So I opened the gate quickly and left it open (which you never do, even for a few minutes) in case the firemen were coming.  I still couldn't see the fire, I could just tell the smoke was coming from above on the property and it was heavy.

I pulled up the driveway more quickly than I have ever driven on that road.  As I pulled into my parking spot I could see the fire above me.  And there was Guillermo, my landlords' son.  He is 17.  He was fighting the fire with a shovel.  Bashing it down.

There were no other cars and I could see no other people.  I yelled to Guillermo what can I do.  He said come help.  I said I have to put on shoes.  So I ran into the house and put on my heavy hiking sneakers and socks.  But I left on the tank top I was wearing.  (Note to self, next time long sleeves and take out the contact lenses.)

I grabbed 2 hand towels and a bottle of water, thinking Guille and I could put the towels over our faces and drink the water if we needed.  I learned when I first moved here, fires are not put out with water.  But I never really learned how they are put out.  We have had several fires, but I have never been home for one before.  Once as I was leaving the day after a big fire there was a spot burning on the side of the driveway.  I tried to stomp it out, but it just got bigger.  So I had no clue what to do.

I also called my Mom and asked for prayer, then sent texts to my friends Jody and Kim asking for prayer too.  My Mom said to please call her as soon as I got done fighting the fire.  I said I would.

With my mountain climbing shoes on I ran as fast as I could for where Guillermo was and cursed myself for not going to the gym since June.  This whole property is perched on the side of a steep mountain.  There are goat paths to walk along, but in the last fire someone fell, slid down the mountain, and tore most of the skin off his leg and stomach.  I live in a beautiful place, but it is some serious terrain.

Meanwhile Guillermo's grandmother spots me and starts calling to me by name.  She said her phones were disconnected and she was locked into her property, which is part of our property.  She said I needed to call her sons.  But Guillermo yelled that he had already called his father and his Uncle.  He said they are not coming and neither were the firemen (unfortunately that part is not surprising).  I didn't want to tell her that so I yelled something to her, but she told me she couldn't hear me.  She is very hard of hearing.  I turned and ran up the mountain, feeling terrible that she kept yelling to me and I was ignoring her, but I couldn't answer her anyway.

When I got up there I had no idea what to do.  I had 2 towels, a broom and a bottle of water.  Just then a man came along.   He was moving along the fire line beating down the fire with his shirt.  He was wearing sandals but moving like a mountain goat.  I watched him for a second, put down the broom, grabbed the towels that were supposed to be for our faces, and started beating down the fire.

The hard part is that actually you have to beat the fire up the mountain, back into itself, which is a hard angle.  I went along the line of the fire and whacked at it with the towel.  The man was behind me saying "FUERTE!  FUERTE!"  So I whacked harder and harder.  He had this shirt, I swear it had to have been magic.  One whack and the fire all around him went out.  My little towel was putting it out inch by inch.  But...  we were making progress.

By this point Guillermo was shot.  He was exhausted.  The man told me, "Quemado" (burned) and sat down for a second at which point I understood it was HE who was burned out, not the fire.  Ten seconds later he was back up and at it.  He told Guillermo where to work and kept me with him, yelling, "FUERTE!" the whole time.  We both slid down the mountain once.  I slid a little less far than he did.  We chased the fire to the property line and then he disappeared over the fence saying he needed water (to drink).  I went back to where I had left my water.  I think I took forever.  I could hardly walk.  I was so tired and it was so steep, but I desperately wanted to get water for the man who had saved us.

I got the water and made it most of the way back, then stopped and told Guille I had the water.  He knew I couldn't walk any further.  He had been in my shoes several times over the past hour.  Without saying anything Guille came to me and got the bottle, climbed over the fence and took it to the man.

The woman who cleans for my landlords had been working at the other end of the property.  The three of us met up in the laundry room where we grabbed water.  She vomited from inhaling too much smoke.  I felt horrible for her.  At that point I had inhaled what I thought was a lot of smoke.  But little did I know, I had not experienced what it really is to inhale smoke.

Let me pause here to say there are several stages, or at least for me there were several stages to fighting a fire.  The first was  I can't get to it fast enough.  The second is, okay, I am here.  Now what do I do?  The third is Wow.  This is working.  But I am getting tired fast.  And the sparks are flying up and burning me.  And every time I cock my arm back to hit the fire really hard, my towel whips back hits me in the back and it is full of burning embers that burn me.  And if I stand facing this way the smoke gets in my eyes, nose, mouth.  But if I stand facing this way my shoulder and arm are going to burn off from the heat of the fire.  Shockingly, I became desensitized to the heat of the fire eventually.  But never to the smoke.

And there is the stage where you stand there.  Because you can't move.  Although you want to.  And eventually you learn not to feel guilty as you stand there with the fire burning around you because you have seen others just standing there too.  Now you know why.  Sometimes all you can do is stand.

I fell.  I got burned.  I scraped up my knees.  But we beat that darn fire.

Guillermo said he needed to drink water.  I did too.

I went into my house to drink water.  But I was so shaky it took two hands to hold it to my lips.  I was at the point of tears for a minute.  Completely exhausted.  I drank and drank.  The water slid out the sides of my mouth but I didn't care.  It tasted so good.  I couldn't get enough.  I felt guilty thinking I should go back out and check to see how everything was but I wanted more water.

I watered down my towels, which were now covered in soot, and found that Carlos was now home.  Guillermo was back up on the mountain and yelling that his Uncle's property was burning fast. We needed to come up there in a hurry.  We had to go the long way, climbing steep trails because the house was all locked up.  But finally we made it inside.  After checking on "la abuela" (the grandmother) as we call her, we climbed the mountain.  Guillermo was right.  The fire was burning very close to the house.  I said I think we should start here and pointed to a spot.

Carlos agreed, but his manner of fighting the fire was different than the miraculous shirt man.  I started beating it out and he started "cleaning" to prevent it from spreading further.  He sent Guillermo up one side and he went up the other side cleaning all of the dead pine needles out of the way.

I should have said this a long time ago.  We live at the edge of a rain forest.  The trees here don't burn.  I think they are too moist or something.  They only smolder for days at the roots.  But they don't actually catch fire which is a huge blessing in a forest fire.  So what we are fighting is really a ground fire.  Everything that can catch fire on the ground.  Dead fallen trees, lots of pine needles and this one kind of wood that you absolutely cannot extinguish.  It smells delicious when it burns, but it is the worst hazard of all.  For some reason there are small pieces of this wood scattered everywhere.

Okay, so Guille and Carlos are climbing up the sides of the fire and I am below, only a few feet from the buildings of Guille's uncle.  Trying to stop the fire from spreading down the mountain any farther.  I cleaned away the pine needles below and beat out the fire to the best of my ability, but it was not going out.  So I started cleaning.  At several points the smoke enveloped me until I absolutely could not breathe.  Carlos kept calling out to Guillermo and me to make sure we were still okay.  I understood for the first time in my life how it would feel to die in a fire.  All I can say is it would suck.  Your lungs hurt like you can't believe and your eyes and your nose.  But I always felt God with me.  I was never scared.  Sometimes I wondered if I was stupid not to be scared.  Especially in those moments when the smoke seemed like it was never going to let me breathe again.

Finally we controlled the fire.  We stood for a second looking at what we had done.  I saw another part that had spread below and again, I couldn't move.  I pointed it out to Carlos and just stood there.  He looked at me and said, "You're tired."  I said yes.  He went and put out the fire.

Then we listened.  The fire had originally come from the other side of the mountain, above and behind the houses.  It climbed the mountain on the back side, summited, and came down on our side.  It was still burning so loudly on the other side of the mountain, I was worried it could pass through areas that hadn't already burned on our property.

I said, "I hate that sound."  Carlos said, "That is my mountain, where I walk.  It is burning."  We all climbed up and looked around.  The fire was burning hard on that side.  They didn't clean as well as we do.  My landlords spend lots of time cleaning dead debris from the property and pay a boy to come every Saturday to clean the property from anything that could burn.  That is part of life in the mountains of Honduras.

I started at the fence and went around the property line raking all of the pine needles away.  As I did that, and actually a few times before, I felt the presence of my father with me.  I knew he was proud.  My Dad was a fireman.  My brother is a fireman.

One really strong memory I have of my father is entering a burned down hotel (bar with rooms for rent) that kept reigniting for days after it burned.  I was really young.  We went inside together and looked around at the skeleton of the building.  I remember the stairs were still leading up into nothing.  And I felt a sense of life in there, even though the place was far beyond repair.  There was a sense of life from the time that people had spent there and memories they shared.  I don't know why I will never forget going inside that burned/smoldering building with my Dad.

So I raked and enjoyed my father's presence.  Tears came, but I pushed them back because I didn't want to freak anyone out.  It would be hard to explain in the middle of this whole experience that I was crying because I felt close to my Dad at that moment.  They would think I was scared.  But I did tell them later and they took pictures.  Of me, the Honduran fireman.  They said I worked hard and they were grateful for my help.  I said God wouldn't allow me to move down into the city without this experience.  It is a part of living in the mountains.

We went back and talked to "la abuela".  She is hilarious.  She is always hilarious.  Even in the middle of a fire.  She was very angry because her son and daughter-in-law had left her with a huge list of phone numbers she should call in case of emergency.  She was more upset about the innavigable amount of numbers than the fact that she said the phone was disconnected.  She had no idea which number to call and this was a "grosero" she kept saying, which means it was very rude and unacceptable.  Oh boy.  That was funny.

I went home and called my Mom as soon as I walked in the door to tell her I was safe.  Then I took a shower and blew my nose repeatedly.  I kept thinking I heard thunder, but it was really loud and long.  So I wondered if trees were falling down or something.  The sun was shining brightly through my sky light.

I called Guille to ask if that was thunder.  He said yes, it might rain.  I said I hope so.  He said don't take a shower.  I said too late, I already did.  He said you are going to catch a cold.  I said no, that is a wives tale and when I don't get sick we can tell everyone that I took a shower when I was sweaty and hot and I didn't get sick and then everyone can know the truth - that it is okay to shower when you are sweaty and you won't get sick.  He laughed and said he hoped it was going to rain.  I said I hoped so too.  And then, with the sun shining brightly, it rained.

God was with my today in a way that He isn't always.  He was right there.  Walking with me in the fire.  Sending rain when the sun shone bright.  Letting me feel the presence of my father when I needed to.  It was a hard day, but a beautiful one.

Carlos made rounds of the property throughout the rest of the evening.  At one point I opened a window and asked how it was going.  He said the fire was completely out.  There are a couple of areas that he thinks might spark up again, but everything is under control, thanks to the rain.

We talked about fighting the fire.  He told me the man who passed through was a professional soccer player for the Honduran team.  (That explains why he can climb steep mountains in his sandals and why he kept pushing me to fight harder.)  The man has kind of been outcast because he got caught with drugs in his system before a big game.  He went from being famous to being an outcast.  I told Carlos that he seemed like a good man to me.  He definitely saved a lot of our property.  I am not sure what would have happened if God had not sent that man to fight the fire with us.

I told Carlos I was glad I experienced that.  I told him about feeling close to my dad.  I said it was exciting at the same time that it was exhausting.  Carlos said yes.  It is exciting when you are beating the fire.  It is not so exciting when the fire is winning.

Thank you God for rain.  Thank you for strength to fight.  Thank you for not just walking with me today, but for letting me intensely feel your presence.  And thank you for allowing me to spend some time with my Dad.  Thank you that everyone is safe and the homes are fine if you don't mind a little smoke.

I am now officially a Honduran fire fighter.

This is AFTER the fire.
What you can't see is that I am covered in soot literally everywhere

Cleaning - you can see the smoke from the fire
on the other side of the fence behind me

Groundfire

Smoldering

Descending after the fire
It's steep!

Burned ground  :(

Electricity

I am covered in speckles of olivey-grey paint.  And I am happy!

Yesterday my friend Fany and I had fun choosing paint for my new home.  Then we got started, Fany doing the detail work and me with the roller.  Today we finished the bedroom and most of the kitchen.  Tomorrow the (big!) closet and the bathroom.  Then the dining room and lastly the ceiling.  I am not looking forward to that.  It is individual tiles that don't quite connect.  We have to do it with a hand brush.  Thank God for Fany's help!  The colors look great.

Fany's mom told me there would be rolling black outs.  They were supposed to be this morning at 11 a.m. and at 6 p.m.  I left Fany's house at 6:38 pm but the electricity was on.  As I followed a caravan of cars up the mountain I suddenly realized that everything was black except for our line of headlights.  I thought about turning back to the city lights and finding something to eat down there.  But restaurants are not in my budget, nor is the gas to drive back down and up again.  So I kept going.  What could I eat that didn't need electricity to prepare?  Bread.  That was my only option.  Unless I called a neighbor with a gas stove.  Or if the little market had a generator.  Then I could buy milk and eat cereal.

I kept telling myself there were people in Honduras hungrier than I.  But I was pretty hungry.

The mercadito was closed.  Well, it was actually wide open with a car shining its headlights into the front door for light.  But it didn't seem like a great option.  So I kept going.

As I turned onto my dirt road I noticed the streetlights were on!  As I continued down the road I saw few houses with lights on too.  But I couldn't allow myself to get excited.  I opened the gate, pulled up the driveway and saw lights in my landlords' house.  Still, didn't get my hopes up.  And then I reached the moment of truth.  When I turned on the porch light to put the keys in the lock I held my breath.  There was light!

Who could have guessed?  Last night the weather was perfect and we had no electricity.  Sometimes it seems like we are the first people in the country to lose power.  I have never been so happy to cook pasta.  I made extra in case there is no power tomorrow.  I can eat it cold.

Classes are going great.  The kids can identify 27 body parts on the head and arm.  They are starting some conversational things too.  I am looking forward to the team from my church being able to talk to the kids in English when they come to visit.  That will be so cool!

Last day of adult swimming

Today Clara told me that Marlin is much better.  She went and saw for herself.  Clara said that Marlin was very sick.  But now she is feeling better physically.  Clara said Marlin is very depressed.  She hasn't had symptoms of Lupus for about a year and 1/2 I am guessing.  Maybe more.  So this has to be quite a blow to be sick again.

Today was the last day of swimming for the adults.  Yesterday was the end for the kids.  I think I would probably be a little depressed myself today if it weren't for two things.

#1 - I am feeling so good about working with the jovenes at the Breakfast Program that it would be okay if I didn't get to share my passion for swimming with anyone anymore but #2 - the head coach asked me if I would like to work with 70 kids he has lined up to start next Saturday!!!!!!!!

I am really excited that I will still be at the pool every week.  It is one of my favorite times.  It won't be as special because I won't be sharing my passion for swimming people who are already special to me.  But it will still be fun.  I am going to teach Saturday mornings from 8-10 am and Friday afternoons from 3-5 pm.

He said the group of 70 on Saturdays is from a church.  He also asked if I want little kids or big kids.  I told him I am more technique oriented and I would prefer the bigger kids.  He said he will give me 10 years old and above.  So now I have another fun thing to look forward to!

Today I mostly played with the group.  Coach Joel took pictures for us.

The adults' last day of class

With coach Joel

Me teaching Veronica to float on her back

Under the water is Dr. Shelly doing a beautiful breast stroke.

Karla diving

Me showing them a fancy dive

I taught Caleb cartwheels into the pool

It was a fun day!

Brutal truths

I thought they were joking at first.  Then I thought they were talking about something temporary.  But they weren't.  Today someone asked me if I would consider taking care of my friend's kids.  They said she is really sick.

I said, "You mean like for a while until she gets better?"

"No," they said.  "Forever.  If she dies."

I didn't even know my friend was sick!  I thought she was busy working at a new job.  When I heard she was sick I figured it was the cold bug that has been going around.

She is very sick.  She is not hospitalized, but she is so sick that she can't take care of herself and had to go stay with her mother.  This morning she told a mutual friend that she is as sick as she was when the doctors told her she was going to die.

My friend has Lupus.  She was very, very near death about 4 years ago.  But then she got better.  Almost all better.  She even had a baby.  She and the baby were both healthy through the pregnancy.  The baby was born a perfect specimen of health.

I don't know how my friend got so sick so quickly.  But members of the church are thinking about who could take care of her three kids if my friend were to pass away.

From the outside I would be an obvious choice.  I am almost 44 years old.  Since I was a teenager I always thought I would be a wife and mother.  I assumed it and I wanted it.  If I am brutally honest I have to admit that being a wife and mother was my life's dream.  Even this morning, before this conversation, I was thinking about the fact that it hurts me a lot to feel so incomplete in that part of my life.  All I can say is that so far being a wife and mother has not been God's plan for me.  That doesn't make it hurt less.

Everyone knows I love kids.  I have been working with kids all of my life.  But in this specific case, when asked if I would permanently take care of my friend's kids, I did not feel any sort of tug in my heart.  Nothing.  I love her and I love her kids.  God has called me to do a lot of crazy things but this does not seem to be one of them.  IF anything were to happen to my friend.

They told me to pray about it.  I will.  Of course we are praying foremost that my friend will be healthy again and able to care for her children.

Basking

Still basking in the joy of working with kids who are eager to learn and enjoy their time in class.  The afternoon group are exhausted after coming from school.  They are sweaty from walking long distances to the church in the heat.  But they are still so much fun!

It's not perfect.  They are teenagers.  Everyday I say "It's time to start class!"  And every day their response is groan, sit and stare blankly, ignore, walk farther away (like they will become invisible or something!), huff and groan some more.  I used to wait and beg.  Now I just walk up to the classroom and soon they all follow.

The ones who groan and huff the loudest are the same ones who want to stay and learn more when class is over.  So I guess all of the huffing and groaning is more for show and I don't take it personally.

Yesterday I was telling someone whose opinion I respect about the class.  After she heard what we are doing she told me that I am doing a good job.  That compliment from that specific person felt awesome!  I did not take it lightly.  I told her thank you in a very sincere way.  She smiled and said you're welcome.

This week we have started each class with a devotional.  I tried working with some devotionals that are common in Honduras, but they were about adult topics like marriage or else really long, so I went back to my old faithful - "Jesus Calling".  The only downfall is that it is downloaded onto my Kindle, which means I have to bring the Kindle to church with me every day.  Not the best idea to have the Kindle at the church (where things have a tendency to, as we say, walk away.  Traveling back and forth to the church with the Kindle is not wise either.  I can't stop anywhere with it in my car.  I am hoping to find a copy of the book in Spanish.

On June 29th our devotional was about worship, which is Buen Provecho's theme for the month of June, so that was perfect.  Today was about taking quiet time and slowing down so you can hear from God.  Every day it lists at least 2 bible verses that correspond, so I hand out bibles at the start of each class and have a kid look up each verse ahead of time.  The kids are reading aloud better than I expected.  Most of them are participating in the discussion.  Some of the kids who go to night school come to both the morning and the afternoon class!  All of them are learning really quickly.

They are also bringing me more and more English homework and asking for help.  For most of them, the homework is completely beyond their comprehension.  It is really frustrating for them because - for example today, a boy had to fill in the blank with "Do" "Don't" "Does" or "Doesn't".  But he had no idea what any of the words in the whole sentence mean.  Therefore he had absolutely no clue how to use any form of do or don't.  He doesn't even know "The" or "In" or "There are".  He does know colors and numbers in English.  That's about it.

We spent 3 hours filling in 3 pages of homework.  At least he is willing to sit and learn.  He will be a step ahead of his classmates who are blindly filling in the blanks.  Like he used to, until today.

He doesn't know basic sentence structure.  He didn't capitalize the first letter of his sentences or use any punctuation unless I reminded him.  I am torn.  I don't have time to teach him all he needs to know in order to do the homework.  So I try the best I can.  I make him look things up in the dictionary.  I write down the rules of whatever we are doing in his notebook, so he can look back at it later.  But I do give stronger clues than I should and point out correct answers more than I would like to.  Otherwise we would never finish.  In the end he did his homework.  I think he understood 50% of it, but I asked him to review it and he has the rules of the grammar in his notebook.  So if he wants to learn, he can.  At least he is a step ahead of his classmates who

This weekend is our last weekend of swimming until the new class starts in November.  I have mixed feelings.  Yay!  I don't have to get up at 5 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday.  And I won't be at the church 7 days per week anymore.  But BOO!  I will miss watching the kids and the adults push themselves to do things they never imagined they could.  I love sharing swimming with them!

Cutting cake with a machete

Yesterday day was fun.  Only one more week of weekend swimming class.  Then I get to sleep until a reasonable hour for a few months.  Our next classes will start in November when the kids go on summer vacation for 3 months.  We will swim 3 days/week then.  I am looking forward to that already because they are able to learn so much when they go in consecutive days.

Yesterday the adults learned the basics of life saving.  They learned how to carry someone and they tried to learn to jump in the water but keep their head out.  They did pretty well with the carry.

One of the instructors had 2 bathing suits that a lady had given him because she lost over 100 pounds and they no longer fit her.  So Clara and my friend from Usami now have their very own bathing suits for the first time.

And I taught Clara how to dive:

Clara's new bathing suit

Diving!

Yesterday was also Ana's birthday.  I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday.  I told her it needed to be something special.  She said it needed to be something the kids would like.  So she decided we should go to Popeye's for chicken and the kids could play at the playland.  Geovani (we are still calling him Ana's "friend" at this stage) came too.  He's really shy but I got a chance to talk to him for the first time and he is as nice as she said he is.  He also has a lot of cool life experience.  He lived in the US for four years.  He is an electrician.  Seems like a good guy.

I brought a cake but nothing to cut it with.  I was thinking oh no, we are going to have to cut the cake with a spork!  But a lady behind the counter said she would find me something.  She came back cleaning a machete.  I asked Ana's son David to take a picture of us cutting the cake with a machete.  But the picture doesn't do it justice.  The cake was big and the machete was huge.  All of the people in the restaurant got a kick out of watching me walk around with a huge machete.  (I think mostly because I am sure I had a look of shock and awe on my face.)

The birthday was nice and Ana was grateful.  Ana is one of my closest Honduran friends.  I really love her and her kids.  She said it was her favorite birthday ever.  I hope it was her favorite so far.

Ana and Geovani

Jired, Ana's oldest son

David and Samuel

Ana's gift

Isabela, Mami and David

Look how high they took Isa!

David is a good big brother

I told them they were monkeys

Cutting the cake with a machete

More English Please

I had the strangest start to my day!  Right as I was ready to leave the house I looked at the cable box and it said it was an hour later than my alarm clock read.  The cable is often screwy so I dismissed it.  When I got out to the car and saw the time on the clock there I was shocked!  How could I be an hour late and not even notice?  I must have slept a whole extra hour!

I was a little late for class, but they were making homemade tortillas in the kitchen so the food was running late.  The class is supposed to be a half hour, but we got in a full hour as usual.  Then the kids ate.

I had my first real power struggle today with one of the kids.  I have worked with teens long enough to recognize a power struggle a mile away.  Normally I make an effort not to engage, but this time I really felt I had to.  Ugh.  This week the kids all picked their favorite bible verse to share with the class.  We talked about each verse afterward.  I told each student when they were going to present their verse since we could not do them all in one day because there are about 25 kids each day!!!

One boy said he was not ready and would do it tomorrow.  I reminded him there is not class tomorrow because it is their free day.  So he insisted he was going to present his verse next week.  I told him no, he is going to do it today, just like everyone else.

The other kids all presented their verses.  Some were not quite ready.  But when they realized we were going to wait until they found a verse, they searched and found one.  This boy sat with the bible closed on his lap.  He refused to even open it!

Finally we moved into the English part of the class.  I told him he could participate in English or search for his verse.  I said I was free all day and all night I could wait until he found a verse.  I asked if it was because he didn't have one in mind, or because he couldn't find the one he had in mind.  He didn't really answer.

He fully participated in English.  I complimented him when he did well.  We prayed before lunch and he stayed put in his chair when everyone else left.  I was surprised he didn't try to leave.  I couldn't have made him stay.

We ended up having a really nice talk.  About the bible.  About his faith.  About why I felt like I had to be strict with him and not let him slide by without doing the homework.  He found a verse and we talked about it.  Then I felt really strongly that I was supposed to share Psalm 139 with him.  We took turns reading it verse by verse and then discussed it together.  He seemed to appreciate it.

He said he does believe in Christ as his savior.  He does believe the bible is the word of God.  I felt like he was being honest.  (Many of the kids of Buen Provecho come for the physcial nutrition, but are not Christ followers.)   He said that he doesn't read the bible because he finds it intimidating and unapproachable.  That was when I came up with the idea of getting him a daily devotional that has a bible verse for each day.  He said that he would indeed study those verses and it would make the bible more approachable for him.  Then I thanked him because it was also a great idea to use a devotional in the classroom too - a devotion each morning after our prayer would be really cool.  I am still going to get him his own devotional for home.

We ended up closer than we ever were before.  He is a tough kid.  He got kicked out of school and has a history of drugs, according to Belinda.  But today when it was just him and me he was soft and kind.

When we left the classroom everyone was looking at us.  I could see they were all wondering what happened.  They could see that both of us were calm and happy and talking.  One kid asked if he had read his verse and I told them yes, he had.  I think things will be easier for the two of us now.  I believe so.

The afternoon class was big again.  There are about 25 kids every day!  That is a huge deal to me.  The afternoon class went smoothly.  We started early so I told them they could leave a half hour later.  But they said no!  It's not 1:30 yet!  I explained we started early so they could leave early.  They said, "No!  Teach us more English!"  How could I say no?  They stayed and we worked until 1:30 which is the time they are supposed to normally leave.  I was surprised that they wanted to do more work.   And really happy!  Apparently they like our class as much as I do.

I stopped by the vet and as I got out of the car, the shoulder strap to my dress snapped and broke.  I was headed to the Christian bookstore to buy the devotionals.  I couldn't go there with my dress hanging off.  So that will be an errand for tomorrow.

At the veterinarians office I needed advice about what food I should be giving my cat.  Thank God the girl at the front desk of the vet's office checked with a Dr for advice.  I learned that I am giving my cat medicine 2x/day and she is supposed to get it 2x/week!  No wonder she is not well.

Yesterday I was invited to lunch with a lady from the church.  I enjoy her company.  She has lived in the US and understands me better than many people in Honduras can.  We tend to see things in similar ways.  It was nice to have a lady's afternoon together.  We talked and ate and then looked at expensive shoes.  It was fun pretending which we would buy.

Tomorrow is Friday.  It is free day at Buen Provecho, but guess what?  The kids asked me for more English classes on their free day!  That is so awesome!!  Of course I told them yes.  I am so blessed that God gave them such a strong desire to learn.  I pray I will be a good teacher to them.

I ♥ Teens

I love preschoolers.  I really, really do.  However, as I have been saying for over 2 years, teaching preschool is not my thing.  I am not crafty.  I can only crawl around on the floor or pretend to drink coffee from a tiny pink plastic cup for so long.  I love the hugs and the hilarious things that come out of a four year old's mouth.  Watching the kids learn and grow is an invaluable gift.  But teaching preschool was not for me.

All my adult life I have been working with teens.  It is my gift.  Until this week I have not been able to exercise my gift in Honduras.  In fact, I had almost forgotten I had a gift.  In the past two years I started to doubt myself and my abilities.

Well, I'm BAAAAaaack!!  Working with the teenagers is awesome!  I absolutely love it.  I am shocked by how attentive they are and how quickly they learn.  It is so much fun, both for me and for them.  I find myself constantly smiling and laughing.  The best part is that they are laughing and smiling too!  Teaching the teens is better than I ever expected or even hoped.

Granted, today is only the second day.  But we have big plans and great ideas.  The kids are almost as enthusiastic as I am.  Except for one.  He is older and comes to Buen Provecho every day.  But he has grown accustomed to doing his own thing.  He isolates himself and is never really part of the group.  I wrote about him yesterday when I asked him to pray and everyone gasped because he had never prayed before.

Today when class started Kike tried to hide in the kitchen.  When he was told he had to attend class he left the church.  I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed.  He did well in class yesterday.  I hope he comes back tomorrow.  He has never been expected to follow the rules that the rest of the kids have to follow.  He isolates and does what he wants to do.  Kike could benefit as much from the social aspects of being in the class as he will from what he learns there.

Today one of the girls who tends to be the most disagreeable outside of the classroom and who struggles hardest to learn in the classroom told me that she really enjoys the class!  That was awesome to hear.

I think that after more than 2 years of struggling to teach preschool I had forgotten how it feels to be naturally good at something.  Let me tell you - it feels great!  I am excited to see where God will lead us in this class.  I think He has lots of good things in store for us.  The kids are excited too, which makes me even more motivated and happy.

I called my Mom to tell her about this new phase and how happy I am. Then I remembered what happened this morning.  "Yes Mom!  It was one of my greatest days ever!  But I almost died."

You can imagine my Mom's response.  She was able to laugh since I was obviously still alive and talking with her on the phone.  I told her about how I was taking my vitamins in Eunice's office this morning when one of the pills got stuck in my throat.  I literally choked.  I could not breathe.  I motioned to Eunice and another boy who was there.  Eunice jumped up from behind her desk, said, "Get your hands up!"  and started whacking me repeatedly on the back.  I kept trying to punch myself in the solar plexus and motioning for them to do the Heimlich maneuver.  But they just kept lifting up my arms.

Finally, after more than 30 seconds the vitamin flew out of my throat and across the parking lot.  It was like a jet propelled vitamin.  I caught my breath, but I was sweating all over and trembling so much I could barely stand.  Eunice brought me a glass of water and I sat down for a few minutes to recover.

So, I am still alive and I am really happy.  Everything seems to be falling into place with my role at the church and my living situation.  I can't wait to see what tomorrow, next week, next month and the next year will bring.  I have a huge sense of peace coupled with hopeful excitement.  Yay!

First day of class

I was nervous to start teaching the teens class at Buen Provecho today.  Last week the kids were on vacation so we had a ton of kids  - 29 teens were in the class last week.  But this week has started off much differently.

Today Eunice was the only person at the church when I arrived.  My friend Ana arrived a few minutes later to start cooking the meal so her kids were running around.  But otherwise the church was still empty.

Ethel, the president of the church, came to drop off her son.  He is helping me teach English today and Friday.  No other teacher came.  Belinda had another commitment and Delia was sick.  We decided to have Clara play with the little ones and Jackie was supposed to be with the 7-11 year olds.

We had a nice class.  There were only 6 kids.  It was kids I know well.  I was a little nervous to have the president's son with me on my very first day, but I think everything went well.  We worked on English, we translated the words of one of their favorite songs from English to Spanish so they can know what they are singing about.  I told them that the class is for them and we will work on things that they want to learn.  I said I hope it will be fun for them, not just an obligation.  They seemed content.

At the end I asked a boy who is at least 18 to pray before we eat.  Everyone gasped and he said, "Me???"
I said, "Yes, you.  Why do you guys act so surprised when I ask you to pray?"
Someone said, "Kike can't pray."
I said, "Yes he can.  We are just blessing the food.  Kike can pray."
Kike said in rushed words, "God bless the food."

We had a nice conversation about prayer, what it is, how to pray, and why we pray.  Afterward Kike said a really nice prayer.  I can't believe he spends every single day at the church and has never, ever, been asked to pray before.  But I am really happy that he was open to learn today.

I think I will really like this class.  It is the age I am used to working with.  The small class was very manageable.  In the afternoon we had 8 more kids.  That will be a nice size too.  I didn't realize I was going to look forward to teaching them.  I feel excited to see the changes in the kids.

At least for today, Kike learned to pray.

Another journalist was kidnapped today.  This afternoon they found his car and there was blood there.  Now they have found him dead.  It is not clear if he was killed for something he said as a journalist, or for another reason.  It is sad that journalists have to live in fear for their lives in Honduras.

It is official that I will be moving to the city.  I love living in the mountains for many reasons.  It is safe, it is beautiful, and my landlords are great.  But I simply cannot afford to be here anymore.  If I live in the city I will save money in rent and a ton in gas too.  I will drive 40 kilometers less every day.

Even though it makes sense for me to move to the city, I was looking for God to show me that it is what He wants for me.  Guess what we are talking about this month at church?  Stewardship and how to be a good steward of  our resources.  That was the answer I needed.  It is not good stewardship to live in a more expensive place and use more gas than is necessary.

My friends Ana and Fany have offered to help paint the house.  It is in good shape, but I have permission to choose colors for the walls.  That will be fun!  Once it is pained I will move in gradually. I can take smaller stuff down in my car day by day as I commute to the church.  Right now I have a commitment to take my current landlord's son to swimming classes for 2 more weeks.  I am allowed to use the church's pick up truck and ask some older kids to move my bigger things but they will be busy every Saturday for the next 3 weekends.  So it seems I will probably officially move in 4 weeks.

I will miss the mountains but there are things I am looking forward to about living in the city.

New class, new babies and first hair cuts

It is really nice to be back at Buen Provecho.  I have had an easy week because I am starting new work - teaching the kids ages 12 - 20.  Before I left for the US we decided I would no longer be with the preschool class.  There is a lady who started with them last week who is excellent.  Even though I will miss them, the preschoolers are in good hands.  Her hands are going to be full though.  She has babies up to 6 year olds.  Samuel is not adjusting to the transition very well.  He has been acting out in class.  He says he is acting out because he wants me to be his teacher.  I am doing my best to support his new teacher in the transition.

Belinda is working with the 7-11 year olds.  I have 12-20 year olds.  Every person who is not an adult is in class at 10:30 a.m.  So ALL of the youth now have a class.  Some are still trying to escape into the kitchen - boys who never cooked before were peeling vegetables today after classes started and girls tried to become assistants in the preschool class with the young ones.  But we keep rounding them up and sending them back to class.

Because this was a new plan, I have a week to observe.  Boris Vermont, who is the soccer coach and has always worked with the "tweens", has the whole week off from his job and is spending his days at Buen Provecho.  He is giving the class that I will be in charge of starting next week.  I have this week to come up with ideas and make plans.  It is exciting to work with older kids again.  When I was a social worker in Chicago I was intimidated by the idea of working with teens, but in the end they were my favorite.  I am hoping this will be the same.

The most difficult thing I foresee is the fact that I am not as articulate in Spanish as I am in English.  I hope the older kids will be patient with me.  I am praying that God help us overcome any language difficulties that may occur.

My personal goal is to let each of the kids know that I care about them, teach them about God and why they should want a relationship with Him, help them feel special as individuals, and give them hope that they can have a successful and happy future.

Ericka, a girl who used to be a regular part of the Breakfast Program, got pregnant 9 months ago.  She disappeared for a long time, but came back and was at Buen Provecho for the last two months before she gave birth.  Yesterday she came to the church with her baby girl, Marjorie Stephanie Calix.   (That's how I would spell it, I am not sure how she did.)  The baby is 14 days old today.  Both Erika and the baby are doing really well.  Erika had told me she was going to leave after she gave birth and go live in a different town with the father of the baby.  But yesterday she said she will be staying in Los Pinos.

Erika comes from one of the 2 most unstable home environments I am aware of.  I told her yesterday that I hoped to see her every day at the church.  Erika was noncommittal.  She didn't come today.  Everyone is doing everything they can to make her feel welcome and supported.  I hope she knows she can always come to us.

Carlos showed up yesterday too.  He came with Erika.  He didn't need any hugs, although I did offer.  After our initial greeting embrace he was content to play with the kids.  His eyes still look dull.  I asked him to please come to Buen Provecho more regularly, but he didn't come today.

Junior and Carlos

This will be my class starting next week

Beautiful Kebelin and Yarely

Veronica cut my hair today.
Isabela was next.  She was not happy.

Isa's first haircut

Beans have gotten so expensive here, the ladies who serve at Buen Provecho say they cannot afford to buy them.  I am  concerned.  Families who until now have been surviving on beans and rice can no longer afford beans.  They say prices are going to get higher because of drought.  I am going to buy beans tomorrow for some of the ladies so they will have food over the weekend.

Daphne

So what was the coolest thing that happened on my vacation.  I could list a top 5:

1) Spending time with my nephews and feeling like they really know me for the first time.  That was super cool.

2) Spending time with my Mom doing fun things like the Chihuly exhibit, eating Ethiopian food three times, and babysitting my nephews.  We had a blast.

3)  Seeing friends in SLC and friends from SLC who now live in Denver and my violin teacher who is 88 years old and not doing so well...  That was good.

4) Driving with windows down and doors unlocked, using 2 ply toilet paper, drinking beer in public, camping and hearing good music in Telluride, seeing snow in the mountains, leaving things in the car without worrying the windows would be smashed and everything stolen, flushing two ply toilet paper, brushing my teeth with and drinking tap water, pizza...

5)  Feeling acknowledged by my North American church.

But the coolest thing of all happened so quickly I didn't even remember it happening until the next day.

After I spoke at church I was leaving the last service to go meet with anyone who wanted to learn more about Honduras.  I was headed for the lobby in a rush when someone called my name.  My first reaction was a little bit of frustration.  I knew if I didn't get out to the lobby I might miss the opportunity to meet with people who were leaving.

The voice behind me said, "Mary Lynn, you probably don't remember me but we used to work together.  My name is Daphne."  I certainly did remember Daphne.  We worked with 18-21 year old sex offenders.  They rested every afternoon from 2-4:30 so Daphne and I had plenty of time to talk.

At that time in my life I had already been called to serve in Honduras and was waiting for things to fall into place so I could move here.  I'm sure I talked about that a lot.

Daphne was a mother, working 16 hour days every Saturday and Sunday.  I remember sometimes it was hard for her to find a sitter.  I also remember she described herself as Wiccan.  That never bothered me.  I don't think religion ever caused any tension between us.  We were just two women doing the best we could and working at a really tough job.

So when the voice behind me at K2 was Daphne I was shocked!  Our whole conversation lasted only about 2 minutes.  I really regretted that later.  I tried to get her contact information from former co-workers but nobody had it.

Daphne explained as we walked together to the lobby that 7 months ago she decided her family needed a church.  She remembered me talking about K2 and decided to check it out.  She said, "So now we have been here for 7 months."  She said sometimes she wonders how I am doing in Honduras.  I am sure she was shocked to see me speaking up on stage!  Then she said she had to go pick up her kids from child care and we went our separate ways.

I collected donations from people.  I explained more about what we are doing at my Honduran church and what life is like in Honduras.  I went to a meeting for people who were interested in coming to Honduras on a mission trip.  We expected 12 people to be interested in the trip.  There were over 30.  All of these things were so overwhelming, I forgot about Daphne until the next day.

Now I can't stop thinking about her.  I talked to some friends about her and even told the story to a K2 pastor.  I was afraid she could get lost in the crowd at a church the size of K2.  It happens sometimes.  People come and like the church but find it hard to make personal connections.  So I had people on the lookout for someone named Daphne.

Then I sent an email to the woman in charge of outreach.  The email was about something else, but I also shared my story about running into Daphne.  Danielle, the woman in charge of outreach, wrote back within minutes and asked if Daphne's last name was .........  and if she had long brown hair.  She said if so, she has been connecting with Daphne.

WOW!!!!!  I was soooooo happy!  Actually happy is not the right word.  I was also amazed.  Amazed that in a large community Daphne had found a connection.  Amazed that of the three people from my church whom I reached out to, it was one of them who had connected with Daphne.  Amazed by our God and how He has everything under control.  Amazing.

Hey it's good to be back home again. Yes it is.

Hooray!  I am back in Honduras!!!!  My time in the US was incredible.  I always feel so rushed, like I can barely catch my breath the whole time I am there.  But having the flight cancelled was a blessing in disguise.  I got to spend three days doing nothing.  In reality I did a few things, but only what I wanted.  I napped and chatted with my Mom and ate.  And ate.  And ate.

Don Juan told me today that I look too skinny and I need to get back to my diet of Honduran food.  I didn't bother to tell him otherwise.  I loved pigging out on my favorite North American food.  I ate chicken wings FOUR times!!!  (Normally I am a healthy eater but something got into me.)  I am happy to get back to Honduran food.  Don Juan brought black beans still in the pod and Ana made a black bean soup with rice, a chunk of fresh cheese and Don Juan's famous chili (hot sauce).  It hit the spot!

The kids were extra happy to see me.  I got lots of special hugs that were extra tight and extra long.  Everyone wanted to know all about my vacation and how is my family (especially my Mom and nephews) and if I went to K2 to see my home church.

I learned I will now be teaching the kids ages 12 and above.  This week a church leader will help me and as of next week I will be on my own.  It will be a challenge.  Some of them are a handful in a far different way from crazy Samuel who refused to eat his vegetables.  Some are tough kids with a tough home life.  I am eager to see what we can do together.  I am a little nervous about my language being a barrier.  It is not normally, but working with teens can be touchy.

If I want to focus on English I am encouraged to, and bible study too of course.  I would like to integrate the two if I can figure out how.  I want to work a lot on self esteem and finding their personal strengths.  I am thinking of talking to them about the immigration problem the US has with kids their age.  The majority of the immigrants are from Honduras.  It would kill me to think of one of them attempting that trip.  So when the time feels right I will discourage them from trying to seek refuge in the US right now, no matter how desperate their home situations are.

After the Breakfast Program I went to the DMV to get my license renewed.  It was about to expire on the 16th so I wanted to get that out of the way.  It felt great to be able to navigate that process by myself.  You have to go from one building to another and wait in line for this and then for that.

I didn't have to get blood drawn this time because it already says my blood type on my license in case I were hurt in a car accident.  But I had to give a medical history, have them check my blood pressure, heart and vision.  Then I had to take a psychological exam.  The only question I missed was the date.  Haha!  That's what happens when you take a test immediately after a vacation.

The psychological exam was basically to assess if you are aggressive or not, and assertive or not.  That's what I got out of it.  It asked if you like to watch Lucha Libre or dancing.  If you like to read a book or do exercise.  It said if two kids were fighting would you stop them and try to fix the situation or would you try to pretend you didn't notice.

All of the pilates ladies are eager to start pilates again.  That was nice to hear.  Sometimes if I take a month off from exercise it is hard to get started again.  But we are starting tomorrow!

Marlin is not working in the kitchen as much anymore.  Ana said some days she has been by herself.  But she is happy to be there, not complaining.  Ana kept saying all day that she was extra happy today because I am back. Her 16 month old daughter did not want to let go of me.  I was a little surprised because I expected that being away more than a month a that age she could have forgotten about me.  Definitely not.

At church yesterday they announced that I am back and everyone cheered.  That felt wonderful.  In the US people are never so interested in how your family is doing and how your vacation went if you go somewhere.  Here even people I am not very close to all wanted to know.

I had the opportunity to go to San Pedro Sula next weekend with friends to visit their family, but I had to say no because I have already missed four weeks of swimming and there are only 3 more.  I want to be there for every minute.  Plus I don't want to give my Mom a heart attack because San Pedro is the city with the highest murder rate in the world.  But actually I hear it is a beautiful place.

Did you know that you cannot wear shorts to the DMV in Honduras?  Neither did I.  But the guy behind me in line today got pulled out of line and was told, "You can't be here like that."  I looked for a pistol in his sock or something until the people around me explained shorts are not appropriate attire for the DMV.

Then at another part where they look up your criminal history I handed over my residency card.  The police man said, "You are not Honduran?!?"  I said no.  He said, "Wow.  I really thought you were Honduran.  How long have you lived here?"  I told him 2 and 1/2 years.  He asked if I like it and where I live.  I told him I love it and I live in the mountains.  At that point he asked if I seen much of the city.  (Some visitors who live in the mountains do not go into the city and do not ever really learn very much about the culture.)  I told him I am a missionary in Los Pinos.  At that point he stopped talking and looked at me in an analyzing sort of way.  I could see him summing me up in his head.  Then looked me in the eye, shook my hand and said very sincerely, "Thank you."  THAT was cool.