April 26, 2009
I just got finished watching Slumdog Millionaire. I thought it was quite excellent and for any of you who are looking for a good movie recommendation I would recommend Slumdog Millionaire. It is almost already May and we are preparing for Mother’s Day at the school. I wish I was more creative and had all sorts of ideas but slowly but surely we are making progress. Our seventh graders got back today from SAG so we had a welcome home party with cake and juice for them with all the parents so it was fun to hear about their experience. After reading some of Micah’s blogs I like how he talks about particular issues of the culture.
One issue that is big here that effects me is the issue of being a macho guy. Now in the states this is an issue as well but it seems to be a bigger thing here then there for some reason. In Honduras there is this feeling that all guys are the same and might act nice to a girl but all they want is sex. Having a ring on a finger doesn’t always seem like it means very much. I was sitting and talking to some guys and they heard I was in Belize and their first question was how many girls I had sex with there. I proceeded to tell them I was only there for one day. They looked at me like “so what?” I then had to tell them zero. They then proceeded to harass me a bit about it. This is something quite common with guys. When you look at all of the young single moms around town you see the effects of it as well. These things come with me into class as well. My kids are quite young but once and a while they will let a derogative word about girls slip. Also if there is ever a fight between a boy and girl I tend to side with the girl and tell the boy to treat the girl well. (Normally it is the boys fault anyhow) In this community there is a real lack of good role models for the young boys. Many just have a mom and the dad is gone so the way they grow up is quite difficult.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Night
April 22, 2009
The clouds finally came in today so today has a very refreshing feel. I am currently outside wearing pajama pants and sweater from Guatemala and it is perfect. The crickets are singing and I am sitting on a cowhide chair just enjoying the night in this dusty town. My Cuban neighbor just brought out internet so I can use it in my room so I am quite happy about that. It’s pretty nice to sit outside in the middle of a no name town in Honduras and sit online. It’s pretty incredible.
My Semana Santa out in Guatemala and Belize was quite awesome. We stayed in Antigua, Tikal and a little Garifuna village called Hopkins in Belize. I really wish I could put pictures up because they are quite fun but the internet here in La Union is a little lacking on the speed so it may take me about a year. So I have to either wait till I get to a faster connection or wait till the summer. One quick story about the trip besides the crazy amount of time in the bus. On our way from Puerto Cortez to San Pedro the police pulled our bus over for a normal check of people making sure there are no drugs, weapons etc. Well after they checked all the other guys besides me because I am white there was a mad rush to the door. Well the police seeing that I was white said that I was a tourist and made all the people get off the bus. Well some people started saying that the police man was discriminating and they were getting angry at him at me. All this time I just wanted peace and not to get beat up. Well to make the story short the police ushered me on the bus then I apologized and pulled my hat over my eyes as to not make eye contact with anyone. I made it to my destination after the person taking the money tried to rip me off and had no other problems. It was an experience.
Tomorrow some Capture the Flag. 5th Grade will conquer the 4th Grade!
The clouds finally came in today so today has a very refreshing feel. I am currently outside wearing pajama pants and sweater from Guatemala and it is perfect. The crickets are singing and I am sitting on a cowhide chair just enjoying the night in this dusty town. My Cuban neighbor just brought out internet so I can use it in my room so I am quite happy about that. It’s pretty nice to sit outside in the middle of a no name town in Honduras and sit online. It’s pretty incredible.
My Semana Santa out in Guatemala and Belize was quite awesome. We stayed in Antigua, Tikal and a little Garifuna village called Hopkins in Belize. I really wish I could put pictures up because they are quite fun but the internet here in La Union is a little lacking on the speed so it may take me about a year. So I have to either wait till I get to a faster connection or wait till the summer. One quick story about the trip besides the crazy amount of time in the bus. On our way from Puerto Cortez to San Pedro the police pulled our bus over for a normal check of people making sure there are no drugs, weapons etc. Well after they checked all the other guys besides me because I am white there was a mad rush to the door. Well the police seeing that I was white said that I was a tourist and made all the people get off the bus. Well some people started saying that the police man was discriminating and they were getting angry at him at me. All this time I just wanted peace and not to get beat up. Well to make the story short the police ushered me on the bus then I apologized and pulled my hat over my eyes as to not make eye contact with anyone. I made it to my destination after the person taking the money tried to rip me off and had no other problems. It was an experience.
Tomorrow some Capture the Flag. 5th Grade will conquer the 4th Grade!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
SAG
Today we sent out students from 7th grade to SAG. SAG stands for Student Annual Gathering. It takes place in the capital city of Honduras. Our students were all so excited they were waiting around at like 6:30 this morning even though they didn't have to leave until like 7:30. For many of our students this might be their first time getting out of the town of La Union where I live and then they get to see the capital city which has large buildings cars and a whole bunch of new sights. Did I mention they were excited. During the weekend they kept coming and asking for luggage, ties and what not. It is a big deal for them so it was really fun to be a part of it all. For many of the girls they went to all of the girl teachers and asked for things to borrow even clothes because our school is known as the poor school and the students don't want to be seen as poor. So they try to borrow as many clothes as they can. Hopefully they do well and come back just as happy as they left. That is all for now. Life is good and God continues to show himself in everything. From my last post the pastor just returned along with his family and things seem to be settling back down to normal again. God is more powerful then what man can do against him. God Bless
Monday, April 20, 2009
Danger
April 14, 2009
Today was kind of one of those gut check type days I guess you would say. I most often have very few complaints of where I live and what life is like but here is one of the stories that make you check your motives.
I go to Abundant Life Church here in La Union typically. The pastor of the church is named Pastor Raul. He has two daughters that go to my school and one is in my class. She is a real sweetheart and a good student. Pastor Raul was driving into town which is about a 2 hour drive through some crazy roads. On their way into town from what it sounds like two guys came out and held up the car and stole it. Now in Tegucigalpa this wouldn’t be an extremely rare occurrence. However, here in La Union this is a huge deal. Things like this don’t happen. Some of the prominent families then decided to take off for a while especially the family who was kidnapped last year for ransom. The people who stole the car also said that if the pastor returned to La Union they would kill his wife and do some other things to horrible to write. This event also appeared to be quite planned so there is some general distrust around. So the pastor fled and is now in what they call hiding. According to most people it is very unlikely that they will be back to this community. This is a safe place overall but the reality of living in a place of poverty is that bad things happen. That is when you have to check your motives.
Please keep this community in your prayers. Regressing back to the way it was a few years ago would make it extremely hard and dangerous to live in.
Today was kind of one of those gut check type days I guess you would say. I most often have very few complaints of where I live and what life is like but here is one of the stories that make you check your motives.
I go to Abundant Life Church here in La Union typically. The pastor of the church is named Pastor Raul. He has two daughters that go to my school and one is in my class. She is a real sweetheart and a good student. Pastor Raul was driving into town which is about a 2 hour drive through some crazy roads. On their way into town from what it sounds like two guys came out and held up the car and stole it. Now in Tegucigalpa this wouldn’t be an extremely rare occurrence. However, here in La Union this is a huge deal. Things like this don’t happen. Some of the prominent families then decided to take off for a while especially the family who was kidnapped last year for ransom. The people who stole the car also said that if the pastor returned to La Union they would kill his wife and do some other things to horrible to write. This event also appeared to be quite planned so there is some general distrust around. So the pastor fled and is now in what they call hiding. According to most people it is very unlikely that they will be back to this community. This is a safe place overall but the reality of living in a place of poverty is that bad things happen. That is when you have to check your motives.
Please keep this community in your prayers. Regressing back to the way it was a few years ago would make it extremely hard and dangerous to live in.
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