El Verano/The Fall

This fall has flown by. Everything at the school is going well, I´m convinced my 2nd grade class is filled with geniuses! We´re still living outside of Sigua which has been difficult at times but I have enjoyed seeing the whole Destino del Reino ministry at work. In my last post I talked/ asked for prayer because of the crazy weather. During this time lightning struck the internet tower at Destino and we´ve only had access to internet on the weekends. Hopefully a new tower is installed soon. I´ll be heading to the states for a Christmas visit on December 19th and of course, I can´t wait! Currently I´m working on contacting my supporters and scheduling dates to speak about Destino and the work I´m doing there.

Teaching Preparatoria(kindergarten).


Cristobal, Dominic and Ana. 2nd graders.


With Alexander and Abi from the children´s home.


Kenny, the son of our principal and a Destino student.




With Maritza, 2nd grader at sunday school.

Hello to all my fabulous supporters. Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Internet has been sporadic at my current residence so I had to find another way to upload this post. Right now, I'm sitting at the Sigua Texaco enjoying the free Wi-Fi, and a Honduran breakfast burrito. Hope you enjoy the update on my past month in Honduras!

My first two weeks in Honduras were spent in meetings and preparing my classrooms. I'm teaching the preparatoria(kindergarten), primero(1st grade) and segundo(2nd grade) classes this year. My students are the same children I taught last year, I just moved up a grade with them! It made the first day of school much smoother since I didn't have to learn 80 new names like I did last year. I've also been pleasantly surprised by how much English my students remember!

Dia del Nino- One of the things I love about Honduran culture is how these people love to celebrate! There seems to be a holiday for everything. They celebrate mother's day and father's day but they also have Day of the Woman, Teacher's Day, and Day of the Pine Tree. There's a festival to celebrate corn and another to celebrate bread. Unfortunately, we don't get off school for each celebration(or we would never have class), but we observe several of these holidays at school. This past Friday was day of the Child(Dia del nino). Each class got to have a party including a pinata! Pictures will be added later.

Need for More Sponsors- I've written about the need for sponsors and how important they are to the functioning of the school before but I'll remind everyone. Each Destino student has a sponsor that donates per month. This money is used to purchase food, uniforms, vitamins, pay for fuel to run the bus, etc. In addition, the sponsors/padrinos are asked to pray for their student by name. Each year 30 new sponsors are needed for the incoming kinder(preschool) class. Right now approximately 25 new sponsors are needed and the new school year has already begun. Pray that God will lead the right people to become sponsors and help support our students.

Crazy Weather- Honduras's weather has been very temperamental lately. There are two main season here, the dry season and the rainy season. Normally, the dry season would be ending now and the rainy season would begin in a few weeks. I've been here for about a month and when I arrived, the rainy season had already begun. All the excess rain has been making life difficult for everyone. For us at Destino, the weather is simply unpleasant and our internet is unreliable. However, last week a small mudslide caused an accident on the highway about a mile from here. In other, more rural areas of the country, people's homes are being buried and in the capital flooding is a constant threat. Please pray for all the families affected by the excess rain and that it would stop.

The Home Stretch..

Well....I only have 5 more weeks left of this school year(hence The Home Stretch).




Primero-They are reading..and even better, I think they enjoy it! We've been working on this for a few months now and the students are catching on more quickly than I thought they would.

Myself, Andrea and Christofer after tutoring. Andrea(Primero) Grado




Prepa- They just began reading this past Monday. Week 1 has been tough but I think the kids are progressing(and I hope they don't forget everything they know over the weekend). A few have caught on right away, the majority are coming along fine and I have a few that are struggling.



Coloring Book Project Update- The 2nd grade received theirs this past Friday and were so excited! Some of the kids from the upper grades are beginning to ask me "Profe Amanda Maria, when are we getting ours?" Today I went to the Honduran version of the dollar store and bought hundreds of markers for the upper grades. When I was checking out, the couple that owns the store told me to come by sometime when the store's not busy because they have some stuff they want to give me for the kids. I'm going back tomorrow so we'll see what I get.

Soccer Tournaments!


Apparently, our kids from the campo(country) are amazing soccer players. This past week's school schedule has been crazy because of the soccer tournament for all the private schools in Siguatepeque. The tournament is for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders so I haven't gotten to go watch the games .....yet.


Missions Day- A sucess. After a few months of planning we pulled it off.


Bruin with one of her massive sheets of peanut brittle. Her country was India.



Marie Esther, my partner, during our Ethiopia Third Graders
presentation.


Karla, Profe Elsy(computer teacher, secretary, jack of all trades), Kelvin and Alexis. Profe is dressed in traditinal Pakistani clothing.


Prayer Requests

1. Some of my Prepa students aren't doing as well in my class as I would like them to. Pray that they can focus and their grades will improve because I really don't want anyone to fail Kindergarten(Preparatoria).


2. Patience.

It's going to be impossible for me to focus this blog on one topic or recent event so I'm just going to list several things that have been happening in Honduras lately and explain each one briefly.

Coloring Book distribution-Thanks Knoxville Christian Church! My home church donated the funds to purchase coloring books and crayons for each of the Destino students. The kids have been so excited to receive their gifts since most of them don't have any art supplies at their home

Jonathan(Prepa)

Toy Turtle Distribution-Thanks Oakland Christian Church! My friend Amanda Moore's church has donated stuffed turtles for Bruin and I to give to our students. The Kinder students had to learn all their colors to earn their turtles.

Scarleth with her new toy.

Trips to the beach at Balfonte and Lago Yojoa/Pulhapanzak(waterfalls)-Lately I've been on 2 great trips with fellow teacher friends. Bruin, Nathan, Mallori and myself traveled for 2 days, through a river and a herd of cows to visit a beach called Balfonte. It was definitely the most remote, untouristy place I've visited in Honduras. The next weekend Lacy, Steven, Stephanie, Bruin and I went hiking at Lago Yojoa and Pulhapanzak Falls.

Nathaniel and Mallori(the parents, haha) driving us to the beach. Our pastor and his wife let us borrow their car since buses don't go to this place.

Myself, Stephanie, Bruin and Lacy in a tiny taxi on our way to the Lake.

Pulhapanzak Falls

The Rose Children-A trio of siblings has begun to visit our house frequently trying to sell us roses/take our food. Their habit of ringing our doorbell at 7am on the weekends is beginning to strech our pateince.

Reading in Primero-The primero students have begun to read! We began using the Hooked on Phonics program when we returned from Christmas break.

Self Defense Classes- I attended my first one today and it was great stress relief. Plus, it's a nice feeling knowing that I could beat someone up(supposedly) if they tried to mess with me. Siguatepeque is a safe city but it never hurts to be prepared.

Preparatoria-My pride and joy! Their English has come so far since the beginning of the year.

From the left: Javier Antonio, Claire and Franklin(please pray for him, he has a really short attention span and is struggling in my class).

The Neighborhood Children's paterna cravings-In Honduras there is a fruit called paterna's and the neighborhood kids love it. It just so happens that the only paterna tree is in our yard and they are in season. EVERY DAY the neighborhood kids look through our gate to see if any more paternas have fallen off the tree and demand them. We are working on setting some ground rules.

Regina's return!-Our English supervisor, Regina, has returned from her visit to the states!Hallelujah! I never thought I would be so excited about having my classes observed but it's a relief to finally get some feedback.:)

Please Pray For:

Exam Week- The school year is divided into 4 parcials and the exams for the 3rd parcial will be given in 2 weeks. This means a lot of work for the teachers and students. Fortunately, we have a week off for Semana Santa to relax after exams are completed.

Raising more support- So far raising financial support hasn't been as challenging as I feared it would be thanks to my wonderful church. My parents have also been extremely supportive, planning fundraisers and being good pr people. Hopefully, I will be sending out support letters within the next few weeks.

Visiting the USA during Semana Santa-Pray for safe travels and that this will aid in my attempts to raise more support.

Plans for next year-I have ideas, pray that I choose the right one.

Going Past the Gate

Emily(4yrs)

It finally happened! After months of anticipation, a few schedule conflicts and one last minute time change the day arrived. Yesterday the roommates(Zoe, Bruin, myself) and Lacy(an English teacher from another bilingual school in Sigua) spent the afternoon visiting with Rhonda and her kids at the Destino children' s home!

Las profes de ingles y Rhonda(The English teachers and Rhonda) From left, Amanda Bruin, Rhonda, me, Zoe and Lacy


Baby David(1yr) with Reina, one of the house workers.

Las Hermanas(the sisters) Eidy(9yrs) and Cloydi(7yrs). The children's home cares for a flock of chickens and the eggs are used in the school lunches.

Cesar Perfecto(8yrs) with a destino chicken.

With Josue(6yrs) one of my favorite 1st graders.

Abi(3yrs)

A Group photo in the clinic. Destino has been working on the building for several years and the structure is complete. I think they're waiting on the money to finish the electric in the building.

Eduard, Cesar and Blanca at a pupuseria, the restaurant we went to for dinner.

Eidy took this video of the path from the school to the children's home.

Here we go again....

Well...it's been a while since I've updated. Last semester we had to unexpectedly leave Honduras a week early(visa trouble). When I was back in the States I was so busy catching up with friends and family that I put off updating until it was time to return to Honduras! Christmas break was great. There were a few things I missed about the USA such as reliable warm showers, driving my car, and most importantly..... my people! Honestly, I really think I would be perfectly content in Honduras if I could convince all my family and

friends to move down here and volunteer with me!

What I missed about Honduras-baleadas and sunshine. Not that I didn't miss Bruin, but she was in the US too.

What I really missed about Honduras.




With Kinder at lunch on the last day of the fall semester.


Profe Zoe and Maynor.



Precious Geovany. I missed him so much over break.