Chapter 8: Habla no Mas

October 21,2010
Oh my how long it has been since last I wrote. How will I ever summarize it all? This may last all night guys.
Hmmm... Okay my soup needs to simmer for half of an hour. When it's done then I post the blog- errors and all. good plan?
Today was the last day of the Quarter and it was a good exclamation point to wrap it up. I woke up with no voice- or rather, the voice of a teeny tiny squeaky donkey. It was very amusing for the first part of the day and I enjoyed singing worship songs with my mind instead of just my mouth and I enjoyed the student's sympathetic compliance. After a while though, they got bored with being good and started exploiting the situation. My attempts at teaching became more and more pathetic and my head and throat started throbbing and my eyes gazed with longing at the clock. Come on 2:45! But my smile returned as I walked home with Jesus and he said I didn't have to talk anymore I could just listen and I didn't have to teach anymore I could just be learn from Him. *sigh* It's nice to just be the kid in this relationship.
The quarter has been a whirlwind. Days fly by. I have learned so much about being a teacher and I have learned that so much has yet to be learned. My students are much naughtier than they were at first but I'm really starting to love them I think. Today in Science my student said that a dog that was not a mix is called a Puritan... which is what we're learning about in Social Studies... so I guess he's learning stuff... and that's good...
 So last weekend I went to Amapala with three of my best friends and it was INCREDIBLE. My only desire was to get a sunburn and I got that and sooo much more. I got to ride in a taxi, a school bus, a chicken bus (standing up squished body to body, always packing in more), a boat, a tuktuk (basically the only mode of transportation on the island), a kayak, and on the back of a truck (three hour return trip with random strangers through pounding sun and pouring rain.)
Amapala is a tiny island, south of Honduras. From the beach you can see Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras in all three directions. The center of the island is a volcano and around in are cobblestone streets on which little tuktuks buzz. I think it's 17 miles around the whole island and on one side is a view of the ocean and the other side is the volcano. Amapala is so strange because it's like tropical paradise and yet the people are dirt poor because the island has strangely been left unexploited and obscure. So needless to say, we had the time of our lives and drank up the equatorial sun and black sand and free seashells like only pasty little teachers who live in a cloud can do.

Uh oh it's 6:01 and my soup tells me it is tired of having a meaningless existance. Alas, I must leave.

Praises
My lovely sunburn that keeps me warm on cold days
My lovely rotten students and a good blessed quarter.

Prayer requests:
1. That I am able to revamp my schedule so that both me personally and my students spend time in a way that is more profitable spiritually. Ie: Bible class, personal devos, memorization aren't just part of a checklist.
2. Parent teacher conferences next week! Eeek!
3. This weekend I'm going to a women's retreat with my church and I'm a little nervous because I want to get to know people but I am tired and Spanish is hard and I have no voice.

PS I'm praying that God will hugely bless those who are praying for me so- Double your efforts folks!!! ;)

I love and miss you all to smithereens.