Ir de Compras y La Puerta Cerrada

Marta y yo - finally!!! Mom and Nana have sponsored her for years.


This is Heidi ... at least that's what her name sounds like!!

Still raining ... well, hay muchas lloviznas (drizzle). Not really the warm tropical weather I was hoping for! Classes were good today as well. We went over indefinite articles and things like that. Argh, it's so detailed when you really start to study. Que frustrante. Hondurans seem to talk much faster than I remember Costa Ricans doing ... oh well!


After classes, Ashley and Valerie, volunteers at the Home, took me to the mall to get a cell phone and to the grocery store (food!!!). We had to take a taxi there and back. I forgot how frustrating it is to feel trapped by being an American (it's unsafe to travel alone). Really funny: Ashley went to college with and is friends with John Nunn, a guy I kinda grew up with. Small world....

Tonight the group from Alabama made spaghetti and garlic bread. I think I'm eating more American food than Honduran! I have had my share of refried beans, tortillas, and mantequilla (kind of like sour cream).

The girls are so wonderful. Three more came to the Home today and they are expecting two more soon. Wow. I wish you could all come and just be with them. I'll have to post some pictures. :)

OH ... I locked my keys in my room today, too. Wonderful. I think it took eight people, Honduran & American, to open it!

Word of the day: hipo - hiccup


Marta y Heidi on the soccer field/gym



Marta and her sister, whose name I've forgotten...


And I am having an awful time trying to arrange the pictures on here! I don't remember how I did it! From L-R: Fanny, me, Marta, y Sondra.








Sondra, Marta, Fanny, y Melissa ! I am learning names slowly ... when there are sixty girls it takes some time!!

Vanessa!

Little Girls and Language School

Day 2 of Honduras! I arrived yesterday completely exhausted but without problems. Kevin Perez, director of the language school, picked me up at the airport and took me to meet Julia Ortiz, one of our sponsored girls, at her house. She's 23 and done college, so she's working as an accountant of sorts. It was so wonderful to meet her after almost ten years of writing letters and seeing pictures. I couldn't believe it! She's beautiful and shorter than even me. I'm looking forward to being friends.

Kevin showed me around the compound, but I'm still lost somewhat. There is a school here and a bilingual school as well (Holy Family Bilingual School - for the Honduran kids). The girls of Our Little Roses (Nuestras Pequeñas Rosas) live downstairs in dorm-type rooms. Tias ("aunts") come and take care of the girls (I'm not sure if they live here or just have specific hours), but they all watch out for each other as well. There are 60 girls here now, from a 1-year-old to the twenty-year-olds in the transition houses down the street. I'm living on the second floor in the building next to the girls' dorms. Next door are houses upon houses (well, tin shacks) of squatters. The difference between those who have enough and those who don't are stark.

The girls are wonderful, loving, and so happy. This is the way it should be. This is what Christians should be doing more often.

A group from Alabama (I think) is here for a week. They come at least once a year, and they just adore the girls. They made us a dinner of hotdogs and chips last night, and we played soccer and a type of dodgeball. Oh! I met Marta as well! She's our other sponsored girl. She's 11 and very friendly. She dragged me around everywhere last night and sat next to me at lunch today and made me read several children's books to work on my Spanish.

I started classes with Kevin today - just the basics to review. It's wonderful! I have four hours a day of classes by myself. I think I'm going to learn a heck of a lot here. I met several volunteers from the US and one from Holland today as well - they're here teaching classes in English at the bilingual school.

I think I'm falling in love already ... though I'm frustrated that none of my friends or family is here to share it with me. I'm sure I'll be back.

Ok, I'm off to unpack and go tutor girls in English. Go look at the website of the school: www.ourlittleroses.org.

Palabras del día (I like random):
Estrellar - to crash into
el arpa - the harp
resaltador - highlighter

Chao y Dios les bendiga :)