hurricane party

Well, Hurricane Paula was coming to party on Roatan but she decided to skip up to the Yucatan Peninsula instead. Hooray! School was cancelled today because of the warnings and it was such a blessing because we all had LOTS of work to get done for our quarter tests coming up. Exciting times in Sandy Bay. It would also be exciting if I had some sort of word processing suite on my mac to make decent study guides. Note to self: buy Microsoft word ASAP.

Some lyrics to a song by http://www.tenthavenuenorth.com/ have hit me pretty hard as of late, thought I would share:

Why are you striving, these days?

Why are you trying, to earn grace?

Why are you looking, for love?

Why are you still searching, as if I'm not enough?

Please don't fight

These hands that are holding you

I am finding that I seem to always be on a constant quest and search for something new, something exciting, something worthy of my attention. I am usually seeking adventures, seeking experiences and I am usually not satisfied. I am a happy and joyful human being, but I never seem to be content. I find this to be somewhat of a selfish quality. Yes, seeking new thrills and finding hidden treasures is lovely and wonderful. I believe that the Lord gave us these tiny and beautiful minds for a reason, so we could not simply wrap them around the unfathomable awesomeness of His creation and be content. He gave us curiosity, a thirst for truth and goodness, inquisitive minds that are always asking "WHY?" or maybe more like "WHAT THE JUNK??" At least he did me.

Paul explains to us in Philippians 4:12 that: He knows what it is to be in need, and he knows what it is to have plenty. He has learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Jeremiah 29:13 says: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart."

Amos 5:4 says: "Seek me, and LIVE."

Psalm 27:8 says: "My heart says of you, "Seek His face!" Your face, Lord, I shall seek."

1 Chronicles 16:11 says: "Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always..."

Isaiah 1:17 says: "Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

The word "seek" is used approximately 244 times in the Bible.

No wonder we are constantly seeking. Although, my seeking is not always Godly. It is too often for earthly and material possessions, here and now moments, the Thai peanut bowl at the Noodle Shack, attention from boys and the approval of human beings.

Time to sneak a peek seek inside my heart and dump the trash.

Thank you Lord that your steadfast love is never ending and your mercies are new every morning. [Lamentations 3:22]

Our morning sunrise.

I believe in miracles

THE JAM.

motivate me

I love quotes. I have a running document of about 104 pages of quotes I have collected since high school. I keep this document on my desktop and I look at it frequently. Sharing! (a few) Happy hump day.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..." -jack kerouac

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and the unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. -Bertrand Russell

It's not about perfection; it's about our intimacy with God, or our connection, our relationship with God. Once we get through that, once we realize that we can be imperfect, flawed, broken; those kinds of things are the ingredients of spirituality. 
- Mike Yaconelli

Do the common things in life in an uncommon way. -Washington Carver

Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you; their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day, make your lives extraordinary. -Dead Poet's Society

Daniel Webster, the great American statesman who was considered by many to be the brightest man of his generation, was once asked, “what is the greatest thought you have ever contemplated? he replied, “the greatest thought I have ever had and the most important thing I have ever learned is that I am personally accountable to the God of all Creation. Imagine that! You and I (and every other person) will one day face the One who spoke the universe into existence, the One to whom we owe life itself. What an awesome thought, and what a motivation to live the right life, think the right thoughts, and speak the right words and do the right things.

somebody to love

I can't believe it's already October. Fall is in the air and the rainy season has officially begun which leaves the temperature a delightful 75 degrees during the day. I'm ready for some pumpkin bread. School is in full swing after all of our parades and days off and hurricane scares. I hope my students are having as much fun as I've been having. Casey, one of my 7th graders, gave me a big hug yesterday when he received his test on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He got a 92. I am currently working with my classes on public speaking and oral presentations; they are going to be pros once I am done with them. I love the freedom the school gives us. If I want to spend a week on Edgar Allen Poe or Taebo, I can do so.

Recently, the other teachers and I have been blessed with a plethora of opportunities to serve in and around our community. We don't want to run ourselves ragged so we've trying to decide where we want to spend our time. There is an ESL school for adults down the road and a few of us have taught there in the evening time after school, which has been humbling. My roommate Amber and I have decided to help lead worship at Rchurch in West Bay, WE ARE SO EXCITED!! She will be singing and I will be playing the guitar. What an amazing opportunity to use our gifts for the Lord. We met a man named Joseph last week who has an incredible story. His non-profit organization, www.heartventures.org helps those who have been rescued from the underground drug and sex trafficking businesses here on the island. He has built some phenomenal relationships here that have allowed him to work very closely with the community and we are hoping to plug into the vocational training his ministry supplies to the rescued individuals. His heart is HUGE and I can't wait to start helping.

A monkey who takes care of kittens in Brick Bay.


Kelly and I went exploring in Coxenhole last Saturday and met a homeless man while we were sitting by the water. We offered to buy him some food but his plea ended in frustration and anger, leaving a chair knocked over and Kelly and I in a taxi on our way back home. I've never felt any imminent threats here, I feel very safe in Sandy Bay where we live. I am now starting to realize some of the dangers here and the drug problems and poverty are more noticeable.


Food for thought: If we want to enjoy the people in our lives, we need to be patient with their progress. We must allow for their growth and development. And there's no such thing as a perfect adult. If you demand perfection of the people in your life in order to enjoy them, you're going to be miserable for the rest of your life. Nobody's perfect.

Jams of the week:
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (anything from this album)
Kings of Leon - Radioactive
Cloud Cult - No one said it would be easy
Temper Trap - Sweet disposition

VIAVIA

Probably one of the best international weekends I've had thus far on my journey. Honduran Independence Day was last Wednesday and the kids at school have been practicing for the parade for weeks. We marched around French Harbour with the band, baton twirlers, flag holders and Miss Honduras. We left on the ferry to La Ceiba later in the afternoon and arrived at Michael and Sarah's house to stay the night. We had an amazing spaghetti dinner with fresh avocados, cucumbers, bean soup, chocolate cake and horchata. We decided to hit the town and ended up at a karaoke bar filled with discoballs and a sweet dance floor. Harry sang some Enrique Inglesias, the girlies sang Beyonce and Zach sang Coolio. Very typical. Slept on some yoga mats until our alarms rang at 4am.



We walked through some sketchy woods to the highway and then to the bus station. Boarded our bus to Copan. Layover in San Pedro Sula. Decided to check out the city. Language barriers and misunderstanding lead our taxi driver to believe that we wanted to go to the "supermercado" instead of the market downtown. We ended up grocery shopping and drinking coffee and eating smoothies during our time in San Pedro. I couldn't stop laughing. Arrived to Copan around 5 and checked into our hostel, Carrillo, located about 2 blocks from central park. For $5 a day, it was very nice with HOT SHOWERS. WHATTTT!!! We ordered 4 pizzas at a place called Milo's between the 7 of us and finished every last piece. We found a nice coffee shop/book exchange and then meandered over to a wine bar down the street. We met some travelers, played hacky sack, and invited them along for the ride. We ended up dancing the night away and learning how to "punta" from some of the local Hondurans. We chatted on the roof of our hostel with candles since the power was out.



Woke up on Friday morning and headed over to the Mayan Ruins where we hiked around for a few hours and of course, played hacky sack in the casa court. The ruins were phenomenal, some dating back to 300 BC. John decided to feed the parrots out of his mouth; he provided most of the entertainment for our trip. We were starving and found a cheap local place called Tipicos where we ordered like kings for about $1 each. Nachos, HUGE burritos, quesadillas, fried plantains with beans and queso, and strawberry juice. We immediately decided to take a 3 hour horse riding tour of Copan which, was not the best idea after indulging in copious amounts of comida. Trekked up the mountain to a mud hut village where we were swarmed by children selling corn husk flower bouquets and dolls.



The guides Margarito and Juan Carlos were in extremely good shape; they ran beside the horses with us for the entirety of our trip. We headed back to shower before the power went out again, made our way to central park to eat dessert and tacos for dinner. We found a restaurant and bar called ViaVia, mostly with gringos and a bartender from Oregon. We wandered to another place down the street, listened to some guitar playing, some of us went home, some of us decided to keep exploring the beautiful quaint city of Copan.


The discoteca we found, was not so quaint. It was phenomenal and loud and full of lights and dancing Hondurans. We had a blast in the fog machine, jumping into the pool at the end of the night and walking back to our hostel, making it in time to catch the bus at 4am back to La Ceiba.


We made it to Ceiba around 1pm on Saturday, jumped off some cliffs and took it easy playing spanish catch phrase and meeting fellow travelers who were there to hike waterfalls and white water raft at Jungle River. All 7 of us slept in one room, it was fabulous. I woke up around 6am to find an ant who had crawled into my ear canal. It was the weirdest craziest sound/feeling and I wasn't sure what to do, I didn't want him to lay eggs or something crazy like that. He finally came out around 7am. Started the rafting trip around 9:30, took a midway hike to a gorgeous waterfall and jumped into it's surrounding pool.



We took the ferry back to Roatan and got back on Sunday around 6:30, utterly exhausted yet feeling so accomplished and cultured after the fun filled and adventurous weekend. Can't wait to go back.

fresh feeling

This past week has been amazing. Crazy hair competitions, moon-walking mullet wearing children, bonfires on the beach and Garifuna festival dancing. We celebrated Amber's birthday on Friday night and caught the poppin' action of the West End of the island. Saturday we took a hike in Los Fuertes and saw the beautiful view of the island from both sides. John snorkeled so far out he saw barracudas and sting rays. Sunday we trekked to Punta Gorda for the Garifuna festival. We ate a delicious traditional fish stew with mashed plantains and coconut bread.

We came back to our apartment to find Harrison and his Los Fuertes boys cooking their fish they caught from the backyard. It is beautiful to see the relationships that he has built with these boys. They have agreed that if they can go fishing once a week, Harrison can work with them on English and some tutoring opportunities.

Pablo eating his fried catch of the day.

be bold

T.G.I.F. This week has been absolutely wonderful and absolutely exhausting. I'm learning more about my students and how they work and I'm pretty sure next week will look completely different, from a teaching perspective.

My 7th graders are HILARIOUS.

Marlon: "Heyyyy Ms. Jessica! Notice anything different about me?"

Me: "Hmm... Did you get taller?"

Marlon: "Nooooo! I got my braces off!" (HUGE SMILE to show me)

Me: "Ohhhh, wonderful!"

Marlon: "I mean, sometimes I just look in the mirror and can't help but to notice how good looking I really am."

(Marlon)

I introduced some icebreakers and team building activities to most of my classes this week, involving debates over controversial issues, creating masks and the human knot. OH THE HUMAN KNOT. What a wonderful idea. I was barreled over in laughter after watching the 13 year olds try to untangle themselves for 5 solid minutes. We talked about the importance of listening, communication and teamwork.

Casey prays for us every morning during our devotional time. It usually goes something like this: "Dear Lord, please help us learn and help us pass our quizzes. Please throw some breeze our way so we don't get so sweaty and let the power stay on today. Thank you for recess and our teachers and our friends and our families. And lunch. Amen."

After school we walked over to Los Fuertes to watch the high school boys play some futbol. Harry took us to his favorite burger joint where I proceeded to accidentally rub my eyes with extremely hot sauce from my papusa (Honduran chicken/queso/cabbage/onion/wrap) FAIL. Thank you Zach for the homemade water flush eye drop from my straw.

We decided to take a late night dip in the mangrove lagoon behind our house when we got home. Hello glory. Heat lightning glowing up the sky, bioluminescent dinoflagellates shimmering in the warm water, stars so bright they twinkled and singing songs with the gang. In love with this place.

You know you are in Honduras when:

1. You see signs like this:

2. Your communion bread at church is a tortilla

3. You can catch a lobster in your backyard and eat it for dinner