Buenas:)

Buenas!:) Buenas is a common greeting that people say here in Honduras. I have now been in Honduras for over three weeks!

The band-the joy of teaching
I have really enjoyed teaching band members to play the marimba. I have about 9 girls that I am teaching to play the marimba. I like being able to teach a smaller number of people (I have about 25 in my english classes). I get to see the same girls every day. Another reason I like it so much is because I can use what I already know to give the youth a positive activity to care about. The band has a lot less resources than my band had in the USA, but nonetheless they love being in the band! And they are good! The students who have been in the band for awhile help the new students learn, and they do a great job. I can already depend on the girls that I have been teaching for longer to help the new students. I greatly enjoy encouraging the girls, helping them get better, celebrating with them in their success, giving them the gift of the knowledge to play the marimba that I was given! They are really enjoying learning how to play! I have had a couple very small discipline problems. However, the problems have been very minimum because I have been able to build good relationships with the girls and because they really want to learn:)

Honduras- "It's more like a party..."
The band is a marching band, but it is a little different than most marching bands in the USA. When I asked the director who is also one of my brothers here in the Honduras (I live with his family) what he thought the differences were between my high school band and his band, he said "It's more like a party." Which is so true! The band uses more dance moves, has less formal marching, and usually plays louder than bands in the USA.  Life in Honduras in general is more like a party also. Everything is a little more laid back, and when their something to celebrate, they celebrate and they do a good job of it! We took two whole class periods to celebrate the birthdays of some professors in my area of the high school. The girls planned it all. There were three cakes, three different people sang songs, other girls presented gifts to the professors, we played games and had a pinata! It was a blast!

Teaching English- Aplausa de bomba! :)
 Teaching english has been going very well. I try to make my lessons as fun and interesting as possible. One thing that I saw some of the girls doing at the party for the other teachers was "aplausa de bomba" which means bomb applause. It's a different way to clap. We do that and other different things like it when they do something well which is fun and they love it! I'm hoping to video tape the girls doing the different ways we applause to put on the blog sometime:) I have had some difficulty managing my classes (keeping the girls focused instead of talking to each other) when the teacher I'm teaching with hasn't been able to come to class (which has only been a couple times). However I have been learning about how to manage a classroom and think I have been growing in this area! Classroom management and discipline are definitely my weaknesses in working with youth and teaching and they are areas that I want to grow in while I am in Honduras. At times I feel very discouraged about not managing a class well. Last week when I was feeling discouraged about being able to manage a class I went to a service at church and we talked about using the gifts that we have been given. I do believe that I have a gift for teaching even though I still have things to learn. That message was a great encouragement to me! We all have different gifts and we have to develop those gifts as best as we can:)

Sharing story with students-A meeting with the wrong person turned right...
The week after I got here the pastor at the church I'm working with (Bethel Church) asked to meet with me to talk about my internship. So later in the week I asked one of my honduran brothers to help me call him because I didn't have his number. After I finished setting up a meeting with him, my brother asked me, "Haley, did you want to meet with the pastor from the church or the school?" He then proceeded to tell me that I got the names of the pastor's mixed up and I had set up a meeting with the pastor at the school. At first I was at a lost for what I should do. Should I call the pastor back and say "Sorry I really don't want to have a meeting with you,"? I decided to keep the meeting with my pastor and ask him if I could help with chapel (which is kind of like a church service that the students go to once a week). Our meeting turned out wonderful because I ended up being able to share with the students about how I meet God in the chapel last week! It went super well! I want to thank everyone who prayed for the chapel service:)!I also sang a song that my students taught me that I love that is called "Perfume a tus Pies," which means "perfume to your feet" and is about being amazed because of who God is and wanting to know him more. The most feedback that I got from the students was that they liked my singing a lot, which was a surprise to me! One of them even asked me when I am going to sing in chapel next! Others also told me that they really liked my story which I first told as a parable. Two girls told me that it made them cry and one told me that her story of how she grew to know God was almost the same as mine! There were three different chapel services for different students and after the one with the younger students a lot of the girls came up to me to talk which was so cool:)! I was glad to hear that I was able to be a blessing to the students:) One of my friends who also teaches at the school video taped the whole service and I will put that and a copy of what I said in English and in Spanish on my blog once I get the video from her:)

Now, the youth at the church and I are preparing a Drama that we are doing for father's day! I presented the drama to them and they are excited about it:) I will write more about that later!

Extra:) Living with Beethoven, puchicamano!, and Wonderful Water!
I am living with Beethoven:) He is the families' dog! I have never lived with a dog and it is so cool! He is a great dog:) I get to pet him for a little bit every time I come back home!:) Last week I touched the ocean!:) I have always lived roughly close to the center of the United States and now the ocean is about four blocks away from where I live! Right now I'm going to have a water balloon fight with my younger Honduran siblings and their friends! Playing water games is very refreshing since the weather here can get pretty hot! Puchicamano is my new favorite Honduran word. It means "oh my gosh!" or "oh my!" It is so fun to say:)

I'll put some photos on my blog when I put up the video tape of me during chapel also:)

Sorry if my post is really long for you! If it would be better for me to write shorter posts more frequently please let me know! Also, let me know if you have any specific questions:)

Have a wonderful week:)!! And thanks again for your interest in knowing what's going on with me in Honduras:)