January and a Wee Bit O' February

This entry is long overdue, I know. And with that being said, I will skip formality and jump right into the past.

1-26-10
Tomorrow brings the presidential inauguration of Honduras. Yesterday, my dear friend Marilyn died, and I'm countries away. I feel helpless, though I know there's precious little I could do about any of it if I were in MT. Life keeps moving on, with or without me. Joy remains deep within me, but I feel isolated in my grieving.
The past couple weeks have passed me by relatively unnoticed. This year will be over before I realize I'm here! I went to the dump again on the 16th, helped lead worship at Fellowship and the missionary church, spent a lovely Sunday afternoon with Norma, and had a dance party with the girls while Louis was gone to Ceiba with Oscar-(Oscar is one of the guys who's worked at the bilingual school for a few years, and is now being trained to do some hospital work.)
Today, I gave my first history lecture on Ptolemy, Pyrrhus, and Cleomenes. At lunch, it was pouring rain, which meant drenching ourselves while we played bate-Honduran form of baseball-in the deluge. The McKenneys left to bring Thailand-bound Nate to the airport, and so Gabe invited us for dinner. We ate the tilapia he caught in their pond.

2-2-10
It's February, and I'm sweating all over! Even though the past week began poorly, it definitely got better toward the end. The kids had their final presentations on Greece. All of them made improvements from the last one, apparently, so that news was good news!
Deibyn took several of us up to a beautiful falls beyond Lucinda. A few of the girls were ill-prepared, so we had to care for a few "wounded," but everyone survived and had fun! The girls came over to watch "Pride and Prejudice" and we had tea and cookies, as Britishness of the film just begged to be steeped in British atmosphere.

2-18-10
Much can happen in the space of a handful of days! I am now leading worship with Amy and Louis every other Thursday, and some Sundays, and I'm loving jamming with them for practice! Louis plays the violin, and Amy guitar, so it's a lovely combo. On the first Saturday of the month, we had quite the trip to Ceiba: we rode in the rain in the back of the Aldens' pickup to the dump, played a chaotic game of Pato, Pato, Ganso, bought and dispersed groceries for/to a few families, shopped frantically for our own groceries, ran after the bus with boexes of groceries on our heads, and as soon as we got back, I ate a rush dinner and headed to the cabildo to set up sound. What a day!
Norma had Joelle and I to lunch on Sunday, and we had a fabulous conversation. It was refreshing to go a bit deeper than customary getting-to-know-you ones. Later in the evening, we went to Renee's for a going away party for Gabe and Hannah, as they will be in the States for about 3 weeks. We began a house Bible study on Monday, which the Lents have kindly offered to lead, since few of us felt as though we'd have time to prepare one ourselves.
Valentine's Day arrived and brought with it good times and fond memories. After church, we made an elegant lunch before the rest of staff housing went to the last soccer game of the season in Balfate. I rode Sydney's horse to the beach-(a wee bit short of my dream of riding an Andalusian on the beach, but closer, anyway)-where a few of the Honduran kids and we played keep away in the waves. The Rumbaughs had movie night, and we watched "The Count of Monte Cristo". Mmmmmh!
We've had winter break all this week, so I've been catching up on sleep, communications, organization, and some planning. Now school begins again tomorrow, whether I'm ready or not. It will be good to see the kids again, regardless.

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