Journey Through The Jungle

A few weekends ago we went to a national park about 2 hours north of Comayagua. We needed to get away from this city so badly and we were all so happy to have a break. We loaded up to go right after school and headed to the bus station. The area where the station was seemed pretty sketch and I think all of us were a little unsure about ourselves and exactly what we were doing. To add to that, we had forgotten the Lonely Planet book we used to find the park, so we were basically going into this blindly. When we finally got on the bus, I of all people, sat alone. Great, I thought, I probably care the most about sitting alone. Despite that I was excited to leave but at the same time unsure of it all. The bus made a few stops right in the city and people would sell food in little bags on poles with spikes on them to hold them up to the windows of the bus. The food looked like someone had picked up poo on the side of the road, sprinkled sugar on it, and threw it in a bag. Not appealing. At one of the stops, my worst thoughts came true.


A man sat right next to me. Of course! I was really near the front though so I wasn't too surprised. The man had a machete too... hah! But of course it was for cutting grass... ;) Still, anyone carrying a large knife makes me tad bit scared. Well he didn't say anything to me the whole time and boy was I glad. He got off shortly after and I was quickly relieved for a short moment until another man sat next to me not long after. The whole time, I was holding my bags with all my life.



The music on the bus was quite unique I must say. While I was thinking about how awfully smelly the guy next to me was, a meringue mix of a Micheal Jackson song accompanied my thoughts. Talk about weird. Anyway, we finally got to our stop and they let us off on the side of the road. By this time it was dark and raining. Before we came, we had called the national park ahead of time to tell them that we were coming so they could pick us up. Conveniently, the number was disconnected.



So we stood there for a few minutes with our backpacks and fresh scared faces thinking and hesitating on what to do. There happened to be a van sitting there on the side of the road as if it were ready to take us up the mountain. (I'm pretty sure it was God sent.) We asked for a ride and they more than gladly took us. We rode the rough road in the dark and pouring rain up the mountain. It was like a Jurassic Park ride. When we got the park, we stayed in a huge cabin with 20 bunk beds and we all felt like little kids on our first day of camp.



We settled down on our bunks and ate junk food, grapefruits (of course) and had worship. Since we were in the middle of the jungle, of course it rained all night long. The following morning we had planned to have breakfast made for us in the restaurant they had there at 7 a.m sharp. Well, naive as we were, (we should have known by now) we were there at 7, and we waited for about
45 minutes before they let us in, then we waited about a half an hour more, AND THEN they were ready to serve us breakfast. Hah, of course we weren't surprised the slightest bit. When we finally did eat, we ate with a crazy beautiful view of the lake and jungle. After breakfast we hit the trail up the mountain at 8 with our personal guide Renee.
On my back was packed a change of clothes, food, food, and toilet paper. The essentials of course. We hiked for no more than 10 minutes and arrived at our first waterfall. We kept hiking and hiking. It was a hard hike though. There were some built in wooden steps along the way and they were like stepping up onto a chair. Add 100% humidity and I was a human humidifier. I hadn't even gone swimming yet and I was dripping wet. Despite exhaustion, it was a blast. We had to rest every 5 min because half of us felt like dying.



Did I mention I started the hike with a sweater? That didn't last long! We crossed 2 really wobbly bridges to reach the second waterfall and this time we got in. There was a little cave behind it and the pool beneath was just deep enough to jump in from the rocks. After that, we kept hiking and our guide would occasionally stop because he would hear something in the jungle. We would all stop and be quiet in hopes to see something out of the ordinary. Me, wanting to capture everything, busted out my camera and started filming aimlessly and excitedly searched for the creature. The guide seemed to have given up and we asked him what he had seen. He said he thought he saw a wild chicken in the trees..... a chicken?! Give me a break. I didn't come to the rain forest to see a chicken! My camera remained off for quite a while.



Finally we arrived at our last and biggest waterfall. It was huge and standing under it took willingness to pain. It was a good beating. We climbed our way through it up onto the rocks behind it. What a view! After that we hiked even more. We reached the cloud forest where we could see the whole valley and the lake in the distance and decided to stop and eat. The whole hike was so awesome. There were vines hanging from the highest of trees just like in Tarzan falling down to the jungle floor. There were leaves bigger than basketballs, marching leaf cutter ants hard at work crossing the trail, plants beyond out of the ordinary, and so much greenery you didn't know were to look anymore. On the hike down I could hardly believe I had hiked so far! I was hurting coming down the mountain it was so steep. Shin splints anyone? It didn't matter though. I was just soaking up everything around me (when I wasn't thinking about how badly I needed to go to the bathroom) hah!



We reached our cabin 5 hours and 3 waterfalls later. The locals drove us down the mountain and on the way we took a little detour to a lake. It just might have been one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. The whole trip was so fulfilling and better than I could have ever expected it to be! I was happily reminded of the forest when I got home finding many red, itchy bites all over my legs. Oh I love the jungle!

Parade of Gringas!

This is an overdue update! A lot has happened since the last time I wrote! I have been so overloaded with planning, grading, cooking, and more cooking, that I have had zero time for myself! I will just tell you a little bit for now and finish updating when I have the time.

(Here is picture of me and some of my favorite boys! Krystian, Bryan, and Nelson. Just to let you know, I look pretty tired in every picture, because I AM....)

Yesterday was parent teacher conferences. I went into them confidently and did pretty well! I spoke broken Spanish for 2 hours straight with rarely a break. I talked to about 12 parents and only 3 of them knew any English. Believe me, when I asked them if they knew English, and they said yes, I felt as if a ton of beans were lifted from my shoulders. (We eat a lot of beans...) Anyway, I spoke just about every word of Spanish I knew and struggled to get my point across, but thankfully they understood me. Not to mention I sweating most of the time, well more than usual ;) Hah. It was nerve wracking, but it was awesome! I actually, for the first time, had a real conversation in Spanish. I was proud of myself :)

Here is a little about the Independence Day parade we were in a few weeks ago.

The morning of the parade we were told to be at the school bright and early at 6:00 am. But we have slightly become accustomed to central American time and we left the house at 6:00 because no one is on time here. EVER. Which means when I get back to the states I'm going to be later than I usually am ;) ha ha. When we got there, there were a few people but of course the majority didn't trickle in until 6:45, 7:00ish. The missionaries held up the back of the school in the parade and thankfully our group was 3rd in the parade which meant we started early and ended early. Our school had a big band and little cheerleaders in pink and white outfits.


As we all walked down the boulevard, random camera men would film us or take pictures. I'm not going to lie, I felt like a celebrity...hah I think I have been on TV 3 times so far, two commercials for the school and the parade. Anyway, we marched VERY SLOWLY in extreme heat for hours. HOURS. They drink water in mini bags here called Aguazul and they passed those out to everyone who was dying of heat. It was a bit odd seeing white Americans marching for Honduran Independence Day. There were alot of girls in tiny (I mean tiny) uniforms twirling batons around. One of the Catholic schools had these girls with the tiniest uniforms of them all (butt cheeks hanging out) dancing next to fully clothed head to toe nuns. Oh the irony! We were laughing pretty hard. Well, the parade wasn't the most eventful, but I can now say that I've been in one!

A great start to a nice long weekend

We have had so much fun these past few days. We finally have a long 5 day weekend and we all need it so badly! I have had the time to actually sit and read a book! I read Message In A Bottle in only 2 days, I think it's a record for me! Ha ha. I even laid out on the beach! Ok not really, but I got in my swimming suit and laid on our tiny patio and read. Man, it was awesome. It was a quiet break I had been needing.

Today we went to a mall! Yeah, when I heard there was a mall, I was in shock. We walked pretty far to get there and right when we walked in, I thought I was back in the US. It was by far the smallest mall I had ever seen though, despite the fact it had 2 stories. Anyway, we all felt so odd being there. Just a few minutes earlier we had been surrounded by poverty in a third world country, and then we were in an American like mall. We felt so weird! Ha ha. After that, we went to another mall. There was some kind of play going on there in the middle of the walk way. The skits were cute, but then all of a sudden a guy in a gorilla mask wearing a white gown ran into the middle of it and started jumping on random people in the audience. Then, his gown flew open and it reveled what looked like some crazy form of lingerie with fake nipples...it was REALLY weird. Definitely different. After that experience, we went to wendys and got frosties. It was our "American" day. We really enjoyed ourselves!

The other night the power went out(it happens often) and none of us were the least bit tired. So we decided to eat grapefruit (it is a staple food here for us, all 7 of us are obsessed with it, so say the least) and granola cereal. After that we played frisbee in the living room with a plastic neon plate. Then I killed 2 cockroaches. Doing all of this in the dark is by far more fun than in light. Ha ha.

On Saturday we went to the Catholic cathedral here in Comayagua. It is in the town square and it really is a sight. We went inside and found a large room that was unoccupied. It really was beautiful and we all decided to sing acapela together. The acoustics were great and all of us really felt God's presence. We decided that we are going to make it a tradition to visit the cathedral every Saturday to sing.

We have to wake up bright and early tom orrow because we are going to be in a parade! It is Independence Day here in Honduras and pretty much the entire city will be a t the parade celebrati ng.

I question my time here

I never thought I would feel this way here. I am lonely. I guess I am just so used to having close friends and family around that make me feel loved. There isn't really anyone I feel comfortable going to with my feelings and problems. So this has made me turn to God for comfort. Then I started thinking, this is awful. When I have nothing else, I turn to God. Like He is my last resort when He should be my first. I think a lot of us can relate. Going directly to God is what we should do. Of course, I am learning this the hard way. Although I do have God on my side, I still feel lonely at times.

We have a 5 day weekend this week. For the past 2 weeks we have been planning on going to a national park not too far from Comayagua. We were going to stay in cabins, go hiking, and swim in a waterfall. I had been counting on this weekend for a while and was so anxious to go. At the last minute, our plans fell through. I have been needing a break so badly. I need a break from everything. There is no where to get away. It's too dangerous to just find a quiet place outside and our house feels like a jail surrounded by a tall concrete barbed wire fence. At times, I feel pointless here. When I thought about being a missionary, I thought I was going to be in remote villages with a translator telling the good news to people who had never heard about Jesus. It was my dream as a missionary! But, sadly, I have not told a soul. So I question, what is the point of me being here? I know it may not seem relevant now, but I know God has a reason. I may not be directly speaking the words of God, but over time I hope I impact someone somehow. At the moment, I just don't see it. I spend most of my days yelling at my students to listen and behave. It is emotionally draining at times. I never thought I was going to be yelling at kids and sitting in detention with bad students everyday as a missionary. I begin to wonder how I am showing God by doing this. My patience has been tested to great levels. I try to find the positive aspects of this place, but most of the time I find it very hard to do. Prayer is what I hold onto for comfort. God is the only one by my side through my struggles here.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6,7