More pictures, more stories:)

 Hello everyone:) I hope you are doing well! I am very excited to introduce you to more people and places that are a part of my life here in Honduras:) The first picture is of the part of the high school that I work in. The school's name is Bethel. Like many schools in Latin America (from what I've heard), the students stay in the same classroom the whole day, and the teachers more from classroom to classroom which is opposite of my high school where students moved from class to class and teachers stayed in one room. I work on the second and third floor of this section with girls who are in a grade equivalent to 10th grade. I get good exercise every day walking up and down the stairs:) 

 This is alejandra:) She is one of the students studying to be a bilingual secretary. She is in 11th grade so I don't normally teach her, but I helped her with her pronunciation for one of her English assignments. She is a sweet girl. In this picture she is enjoying a chicken taco that she bought at school during one of her breaks. I got to hang out with Alejandra and some of her friends during a time that they didn't have class and they made an awesome video for me to show you all, but it is not uploading well on my blog:( I am planning to try to upload all my videos in May because I have to come back to the USA for a short period of time to renew my visa. Then I'll be going back to Honduras after that. Alejandra is wearing the uniform that every student wears at school. 

Now I am going to introduce you to Vicky:) She is also a 11th grader at the high school studying to be a bilingual secretary. I have gotten to help her with her English outside of class also. She is holding up part of the bulletin board that said "welcome" that fell down. I told her to hold it up for a silly picture:) Vicky invited me to go to a special service that her church had for youth two weeks ago. I really enjoyed it! :) They had a very good band that led the songs we sang as a part of our worship that played a lot songs that I really like. Another one of Vicky's friends came also and I learned that she moved to Honduras after her home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. She came to Honduras because she has family here. I have met many many people here who have family members living in the United States. Both of the parents and the brother of one of my students have been living in the United States for over 8 years. This same student has to get up at 5 in the morning to drive an hour to get to school on time. One of the teachers at the high school has not seen her mother for 20 years because her mother lives in the USA. Regardless of one's opinions on immigration into the USA I think everyone can agree that it is sad that there are many children and parents, and other family members who live so far away and have little chance of going to visit each other because of the cost and difficulty in getting visas to visit. I hope that while I am here I can give extra support to the youth and children who are far away from their family. 

The Liristas! If I haven't already explained it, liristas are the girls who I am helping to play the xylophone in addition to the lira, which is similar to a xylophone:) This is one of my favorite photos:) These are the girls that I am working with in the band! There were some others that I was working with also but they had to stop coming for various reasons. The girl poking her head from the back is Daira. Gabby is on the far left, then Astrid, Jesse, Pamela, myself, and Dorcas. Jesse, Dorcas and Pamela are already in the band, and Gabby and Astrid are practicing to pass a music exam so that they can join the band. I hope they pass!:) These girls are a lot of fun, but many of them face very real problems. I have been able to continue to build good relationships with the girls which has been good! One of them has already come to me to talk about her struggle with depression, one of her parents passed away recently and since then she has been battling depression on and off. Another girl is being abused by her parents. One of the horrible things here in Honduras is that if a police officer asks a parent if they are abusing their children and the parents say that they aren't the police take their word for it. I was advised to try to have a meeting with the girls parents and the pastor at the school who also knows about the situation. I am thankful for the many wise adults who care about youth who can give me wisdom about how to best help this young girl. 

The band! This is a picture of the band of the back of the band while they were practicing one saturday afternoon:) They are practicing in the middle of the high school. In front of them and to their right are two story-columns of classrooms. 

Here is a closer picture of the saxophones! The clarinets are behind them. 

Now you can see the trumpets and part of a tuba is on the far right. The trumpet player that is in between the two saxophone players also goes to the church I am working at. His name is Mauricio. He was one of the narrators in the drama that I directed that the youth did for fathers day. Mauricio did a great job and was a super leader during the practices. He plays trumpet and the drum set for church also. The drama went very well and many people commented on how meaningful it was for them. I have a video of part of the drama so I will wait to say more about the drama until I put the video up. 

Welcome to Bethel church! This is a picture of the inside sanctuary of the church that I am working at:) 

Meet Maria! Maria is one of the youth that goes to Bethel Church. She is studying at a bilingual school so she likes to talk english with me. I taught her the phrase "Just chillin" which she likes:) She is interested in going to college in the United States to learn more English. If someone knows English here they have many many more job opportunities than those who don't know English. She still has a couple more years until she goes to college, but I am excited to do what I can to help her in that process. 

Another Birthday party!!!!!This is riek (I don't think I spelled his name right). Riek is the younger brother of Alondra, and Alondra is the girlfriend of my Honduran brother, Eduardo. Riek in this picture is opening a present at his birthday party:) 

Here is a picture of the pinata at Riek's birthday party. 

Get the candy!!! All the kids going crazy over the candy. 

This is another picture of Bethel church. This is on the side of the pews. They have the names and maps of countries on the wall of places where there are Honduran missionaries working, which I think is super cool! However the maps of the countries keep falling down which is no good. 

"Hi my name is Justin, and I am the cutest little boy ever!" Well, Justin didn't actually say that, but I would if I were him! Justin is the son of my other Honduran sister, Nancy. Justin was in one of the pictures of Cenia's birthday party in my last post. I love it when Justin says "Buenas Noches Haley!" (good night haley). It is too cute! He also has told me good night in the afternoon, and then we had to tell him to say "Buenas tardes" (good afternoon) instead:) 

I went to an Island! Last week was our spring break and one of my friends from college, Raquel, who is from Honduras invited me to go with her and her friends to and Island for two days. Roberto (the guy in the picture) is Raquel's good friend works at the Island so he showed us around. He is pointing to the place that we stayed on the island. 

On the ocean:) This is a picture of stacy (one of raquel's friends) and I when we were on a boat. 

Beautiful horizon on the ocean:) This is the front of the boat that we were on. My favorite part of the ocean is the horizon. It reminds me of how big the world is, and how beautiful it is! I also like looking across the ocean and thinking of family and friends who are on the other side of the ocean. :)

Hello fish and coral!!! I got to go snorkeling;) It was super fun! The Island that we were on has the second larges coral reefs in the world! A couple times when I was snorkeling I noticed that there was a school of fish swimming with me! That was fun! At first it was hard for me to breath, but then my friend reminded me to breath out of my mouth and not my nose....after that it was fine:) Haha...

 Si hombre! (one of my favorite new spanish phrases which means "ya man!" This picture is of Raquel and I on the ferry going to the Island! Raquel is currently teaching at a bilingual school in Honduras. Raquel has a passion for making a difference in the lives of the students she is working with and it was so encouraging to talk with her! She said the best advice she got about teaching was to not let the lesson planning and grading burden her, but to instead seek to focus on her relationships with her students. This encouraged me a lot. Being prepared for class and working hard is important, but if I get too distracted by my work and forget to ask my students how they are doing, and if I forget to support them when they're going through hard times, then I am probably focusing too much on the legistics of teaching. 

Swings+ocean=amazing! Swings are one of my favorite things, the ocean is another one of my favorite things... so the two combined is amazing! I was so excited when I found out that the place we were staying at had swings on the doc to the ocean!

Swings+Ocean+Haley=a very happy haley! Here I am on one of the swings! I spent a lot of time relaxing, reflecting, and enjoying the beauty of the ocean from that swing:) I am learning more about the importance of getting enough rest. I usually tend to overwork myself, which is not good. The trip to the Island was another good step in the direction to choosing to get enough rest-physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. 

Thanks once again for your interesting in seeing what's going on with me in Honduras! As always let me know if you have any additional questions or want to hear about anything else!:) Have a wonderful day!