Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties!

With the good must come the bad which means with Christmas(or just cold October weather) must come Christmas sweaters! Enjoy some really cute kids sporting some crazy attire!


Yessi(Primero) One of the best English students in her grade. She will go far.




Kenia(Kinder) Bright but has at times has an attitude problem. However, she's come a long way since the first week of school.


Isis(Prepa) Energetic, spunky, smart, and eager to make sure Amanda and I don't forget it. Very adventurous with her English/Spanglish. For example she says things like "Thank you para el water!"

Juana(Kinder) Very smart but it took a while for me to realize just how smart because she's so quiet. However, with quiet comes calm, a rare quality in my Kinder students.

Padrinos

I'm sure many of you know that the funding for Destino comes completely from donations. This funding comes from various sources including churches, individuals, other organizations. However, the Padrinos of Destino del Reino are one of the most important sources of prayer and financial support for this ministry. Basically, a padrino is a Destino student's sponser. Their $60 monthly donation goes towards 2 school uniforms, a pair of shoes, a hot lunch, vitamins, teachers salaries, school supplies, the gas for the school buses...I could go on forever about all the things the Padrinos donation pays for but it's not really necessary to make my point. Plus, being a Padrino isn't just about giving $. It's also about providing spiritual support for their student and the ministry. Rhonda Jackson, the founder and director of the ministry is a firm believer that each student needs to be prayed for by his or her name.

There are 184 students at Destino and 20 of them don't have a sponsor. If you haven't figured it out already, I think it would be grand if you decided to sponsor one of these students. If you don't have the money to donate $60 a month that's ok. You can be a partial sponsor and give whatever you can. And if you can't do that, you can still help. I've posted a picture of the unsponsered students in my classes and included some information about each. Just pick one and pray for them.

Andrea (First Grade)- Smart and sweet. She is so respectful towards her teachers and her fellow students. I think she might be a bit of a perfectionist. Whenever she wants to ask me a question in English she has to practice with a friend before asking me! Also, she loves to sing!

David (First Grade)-At the beginning of the school year we were told that David might struggle in our classes and would probably need tutoring based on his performance in kindergarten. He has really matured during the past few months and is actually one of our best students. He's also well behaved(just look at his student of the week pic!) I'm pretty sure that if he lived in the U.S. he would be a basketball player, he's so tall!

Ingrid (Kindergarten)- This is Ingrid's first year at Destino. She's six, so they decided to let her skip preschool and start with Kindergarten. Ingrid is very sweet and loving but she is not as mature as the other Kindergarteners. However, she has come a long way since the beginning of the year when she would randomly decide to jump up and run around the classroom or lay in the floor. I know she will catch up to her classmates academically and behaviorally but it will just take some time.

Joel Jafeth (First Grade) One of the top English students in 1st grade. He's very mature and can be quite serious at times. English comes easily to him and he sometimes gets bored in class so I have to make an extra effort to challenge him. His favorite animals are giraffes.

Rosa (First Grade)- Rosa has an amazing personality! I can tell she is so excited to be at school by her smile and positive attitude! She was struggling a bit during the first weeks of school but we had a few tutoring sessions with her and she's doing much better in English. Rosa loves to draw and is very creative.

If you would like to learn more about sponsering a student go to http://destinodelreino.org/ddr/school_sponsor

Thanks to all my friends and family who have already decided to sponsor a student! Again and again I am amazed by how willing the people in my life and the Pendleton County community are to help this ministry any way they can. Although you may not realize it the prayers you have said and the financial support you've sent too this ministry have enabled it to continue doing amazing things for Honduras. Amanda Bruin and I have decided to start a blog to keep the school sponsors updated on happenings at school. You can view it at http://losninosdedestino.blogspot.com/

Exam Week

Javier and Fabiola (Kindergarteners) brushing their teeth.

David-the student of the week in Primero!

Kenssi and Karla eating fried plantains and beans at lunch.


We've been in school for 2.5 months so far and so far so good! Today was the first day of exams. The students have an exam in each subject about 4 times a year and they all take place during the exam weeks. Bruin and I have divided up the Kinder(Preschool) and Prepa(Kindergarten) classes for testing and I'm going to teach Primero this week while Bruin tests them. The primero students are so fun to work with. At times, it can be difficult to communicate with the younger students because they haven't been able to learn much English yet and my Spanish skills are limited. However, the Primero students know enough English vocabulary to usually express what they want, even if its not grammatically correct. Bruin has set up a penpal exchange with a preschool in Falmouth so we're going to practice writing English phrases and make cards for their American pen pals. I think it's going to be a great week!

Scarleth-preschool One of the top English students in preschool! My friends Robert and Betsy Powell are sponsering her!

Kinder girls at lunch. From the left-Scarleth, Eyeleyn Mileydey, Michelle, Kenia(eating her arm), Astrid, and Carmen.

Primero learning the days of the week! Marvin, Eunice, Glenda, German, David, Karina Nazareth and Karina.

There's a Wendy's in Siguatepeque! My roommates, Zoe and Amanda Bruin.


Milton-Kindergarten He is sweet, smart and sometimes mischievous!

Wanderlust

I haven't gotten too travel around Honduras very much but I've had a few adventures. About a month ago two other American teachers from Destino, Amanda Bruin and Mallori, and I spent a 3 day weekend in La Ceiba. Traveling by bus is very inexpensive so we took a bus from Siguatepeque to La Ceiba. Once we were in La Ceiba we headed to the beach, and then up to Jungle River Lodge. Enjoy the pics!

Although this beach is polluted it's still pretty. Just don't go swimming!

The drive up to the lodge.

Ready to go white-water rafting!

Class III Rapids. The water was low so this was about as crazy as it got.

Hiking in Pico Bonita National Forest with Darwin, our guide. One of the neatest parts of the hike was learning about all the different plants. We ate wild bananas, a leave that is used to treat malaria, and termites! They weren't bad at all and tasted like carrots!

Zipline!

I hope to return to Jungle River PRONTO! They offer other white water rafting tours as well as some other hiking tours.

Happenings at Destino

A few of my best students in Prepa(Kindergarten) getting ready to go home.

Destino del Reino has been ging through some changes/challenges/experiences lately. I won't go into great detail but the highlights are...

1. Two new children are going to call Destino home. A 3 year old girl arrived this past weekend and her brother who is only a few months old, will be arriving any day now. They are the half-siblings of two sisters who already live at Destino.

2.Finances are shaky. To improve this situation, a sale is being held this weekend. Basically, the ministry is selling anything they can do without.

3. Rhonda, the founder and co-director of Destino, Carlos pastor and co-director of Destino, and Wendy principal of the Destino school, have been invited to speak at a missions conference in Texas. This will be a great opportuntiy to raise more financial and prayer support for the ministry.

So....what I would like you to do is to stop and pray for these things.

1. That the new kids quickly adjust to their lives at Destino .

2. That the sale goes well and the Lord provides financial security for Destino.

3. Safe travels for Rhonda, Carlos and Wendy when they attend the missions conference.

Thanks so much.

Kinder kids at lunch.

Kids say the funniest things.

When you are learning a new language you will say ridiculous things. This is a fact. The combination of a desire to share my thoughts and a limited understanding of Spanish has caused me to say things to my coworkers that probably sound more like jibberish than English or Spanish. For example, last week I got off the bus in town so I could go to the grocery store. Another teacher was headed to the same place and politely asked me what I was doing and where my roommates were going. I meant to tell her that I needed some food so I was going shopping and my roommates were headed to our house. Just a basic, normal response to a basic normal question. I just don't know how she kept a straight face when I told her that my roommates were headed to her house.




Downtown Siguatepeque- This picture was taken during a festival for all the preschools and kindergartens in the city. My roommates Zoe and Amanda Bruin are in the middle of this pic. The guy with the wheelbarrel on the left was selling oranges with salt! Que rico(Delicious)!

It's probably a good thing that I make these mistakes because it helps me understand how easy it is to mix up simple words and when my students say things like "My name is bathroom," or respond with "fine thank you," when I ask them how old they are it's easy to laugh.

Dominique. The class clown of first grade and an air guitar enthusiast.

Our first graders know quite a bit a English vocabulary so we decided it's time to actually teach them to put these words together into sentences. For their first phrase we started with What is your name? They mastered that within a couple days so we added "How old are you?," and "May I go to the bathroom?" Then things started to get interesting. Class would be progressing normally, the kids would seem to be learning when suddenly, someone would inform us that they have (insert name) years or that their name was 6 years old. As we've continued to work on the phrases these incidents have decreased but sometimes, they still pop up.

The First Graders Introduce Themselves

Jonathan, First Grade(Primero)




Rosa First Grade



Oscar, Josue and Karina First Grade

Dia del Nino-The Day of the Child

The past few weeks of school have been great. Our kinder kids have finally started to calm down. Part of this is due to them becoming more familair and comfortable with school. However, Amanda and I have also begun incorporating things like 'how to push in your chair' and 'how to walk in a line' into our lessons. At first, it felt silly doing this but I guess someone has to teach them! It's been great seeing the changes in our students. Check out Amanda Bruin's blog at http://amandaatdestino.blogspot.com/2009/09/past-few-weeks.html. She has a great post about one of our students, Michelle. Michelle was one of our biggest troublemakers, especially during the first week of school but her behavior has really turned around. Read about her. It will make you smile!

Prepa(kindergarten), and Primero(first grade) are also doing well. The students in Primero know quite a few English vocabulary words and we've begun to teach them short phrases such as "My name is..." and "I am 7 years old." Most of them love English class and are very enthusiastic. On Monday we introduced a new phrase, "May I go to the bathroom?" We have a student, Marvin, who always has an amazing attitude and really wants to please us. When we introduce a new phrase Bruin and I have the entire class repeat the phrase together and then ask if anyone would like to try saying the phrase by themselves. Marvin immediately raised his arm, he was so excited to try out the phrase he was about to jump out of his seat. So we call on him and he proudly exclaimed, "My name is bathroom!" I tried so hard not to laugh, but I failed. Thankfully when I explained to him what he said he thought it was pretty funny too.

Marvin

A couple weeks ago we celebrated the Honduran holiday called Dia del Nino. This is a day for celebrating children which means that during lunch we went to the playground, ate cake, and busted a pinata! It was a great day!

Diana and Josefa, the Honduran Preschool and Kindergarten teachers!

Jasmine enjoying the playground! Prepatoria(Kindergarten)

During Primero(1st grade) we decided to make class fun and teach the kids about American culture, so we taught them to play Simon Says. It's actually a great way to teach the kids verbs. A great time was had by all!

Josue and Ana, Primero(First Grade)

A Honduran Snow Day

It’s a teacher’s(and students) dream. You’re reading over the next day’s lesson plans and realize you have a few materials to prepare. However, you just don’t feel like it! The day thus far has been spent on others and the last thing you want to do now is work some more! As you begin to brainstorm possible ways to procrastinate you receive a phone call. No class tomorrow because of snow!
A similar situation played out last night and today I enjoyed a relaxing Honduran snow day. At about 7:00 I was sitting in my room looking over the next days lesson plans when my roommates and I received a call that classes at Destino del Reino were canceled for Tuesday. Of course, we really don’t have snow days in Honduras, the country is too close to the equator for snow. However, we do have an interesting political situation and this was the cause of the canceled classes.
If you haven’t been following the situation in Honduras here’s a couple articles to fill you in.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/22/honduras.embassy/index.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0922/p90s04-woam.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8268056.stm

We’re fine and so far, this hasn’t dramatically affected our lives here in Siguatepeque. A 6pm- 7am curfew was placed on the country yesterday and was extended to 6pm today. However, you wouldn’t know it in my nieghborhood. People are out and about, all the pulperias(corner stores) are open, and I didn’t see one policeman or military official all day. Of course, it could have been very different at the center of town. There’s a rumor that the electricity might be turned off but so far, we have power. The main impact of the coup(or is it really a coup?) is that I didn’t go to work today and spent it hanging out with my roommates. Time well spent. We just got the call that classes will be canceled tomorrow and that the curfew has been extended. I kind of hope we’d go, I like my students. At least I’ll have plenty of time to update my blog and upload pictures. I've been taking some videos of my students and other things of interest and hope to get some of them up to!
Pray that this time remains peaceful for all of Honduras and that classes resume quickly.

The Teaching Life

I wrote this letter for a Sunday School class that is is supporting me. It provides an overview of what I'm dong so I thought everyone might enjoy it.


Dear Upper Room Sunday School Class of 1st Christian Church,
I want to thank you for supporting my year of service in Honduras. It's hard to believe that I've almost been here a month! Five Americans are serving as teachers at Destino del Reino this year. Zoe Tolson from Augusta, Georgia, Amanda Bruin from Falmouth, KY, Nathaniel and Mallori Diener from Granger, Indiana and myself. Amanda Bruin and I have known each other since middle school and I found out about Destino through her. We are co-teaching English as a Second Language in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Zoe taught at Destino last spring and speaks Spanish so she is a great help and has made the adjustment to living in Honduras much smoother. She teaches ESL in 2nd and 3rd grade. Nathaniel is teaching physical education, and Mallori is teaching music and english in 4th and 5th grade. They also work with another ministry in Siguatepeque that plants churches throughout Honduras.






The Destino English Teachers, Mallori, Zoe, Myself, Amandan Bruin



Our first two weeks in Honduras were spent in training sessions. I'm so glad we had the time to adjust to living in a new environment and culture before classes started! September 1 was the first day of school. Approximately 27 students are in each grade and the Destino school currently has preschool to 5th grade. A new grade is added each year. It's been difficult to learn 85 new names but I am slowly starting to remember. The first week for first grade and kindergarten was spent reviewing the basics such as the english alphabet, counting in English and basic vocabulary. The first week in preschool was quite different. Before we can teach them anything the preschoolers need to learn to sit and listen. Many of Destino's students come from small mountain villages and have been given quite a bit of responsibility at a young age or have grown up with little structure or discipline. When you place these kids in a classroom with two teachers who barely speak any spanish(Bruin and I) things can get hectic. It's probably a good thing that I'm teaching kindergarten and first grade too because it reminds me that eventually....all the preschoolers will master listening and sitting in their chairs. Then we'll be able to teach them some English.




Lunchtime with Preschool







Kindergarteners coloring.




Destino del Reino consists of a children’s home and church in addition to the school. Construction on a medical clinic is currently underway and the ministry also plans VBS and other ministry projects for local villages. Three of my students are Destino kids, Sammy in preschool, and Jonathan and Josue in first grade. You can learn more about Destino by visiting their website. http://www.destinodelreino.org/ddr/home Be sure to read about how Destino was founded.





Sammy, a preschooler, and I.